Thursday night I arrived home fairly late. During my practicum class I made the decision to make pizza. If you know anything about the process behind pizza you understand that it takes quite a while to raise the dough, prepare the toppings and sauce, and cook the pizza. By the time the pie came out of the oven it was 11:15pm and with an 8:00am class scheduled at UBC the following morning I ended up leaving a bit of a mess.

I got around to cleaning up the mess I had by Friday afternoon. For me to complete the mundane task of scraping crusty cheese and tomato sauce off of plates that had been resting on the kitchen island for 18hours, some sort of entertainment is required. I decided to go with a podcast.  I love podcasts because so many of them are filled with fascinating content. One of my favourites “Freakanomics” ended up having an episode about teachers and why they are failing. The discussion was focused on the United States but I think many of the criticisms could be equally applied to how things are done in British Columbia.

If you are interested have a listen: Is America’s Teacher Problem Really Just a Teacher Problem?

I recommend listening to it. It sparked lots of interesting ideas in my head; most notably was the difference between admission requirements for teachers in high academically performing countries and the United States. For example in countries like Finland teachers tend to be in the top 10% of their university class. The same can not be said for the United States and (I would assume) Canada.

While I think that UBC, and other schools in British Columbia, are recruiting fabulous teachers I couldn’t help but think about what was being said. The beginning of the podcast focused on the fact that many teachers themselves are under-performers academically. The podcast then stressed the importance  of having excellent teachers. Using economic analysis it was determined that replacing a mediocre teacher with master teacher is equivalent to putting $250,000 cash in the pockets of the class.  This is because students with a good teacher are far more likely to have higher paying careers as they go forward.

President Obama was even quoted as saying:

We know a good teacher can increase the lifetime income of a classroom by over $250,000.  A great teacher can offer an escape from poverty to the child who dreams beyond his circumstance.  Every person in this chamber can point to a teacher who changed the trajectory of their lives.  

Personally, I think I am well suited to be a teacher. I really enjoy working with youth.  The brilliance and enthusiasm for learning that young people constantly demonstrate makes working in this field rewarding beyond what any financial remuneration can offer. On the other hand I also recognize I was not in the top 10% of my class.  I was a good student in subjects that I cared about and often in subjects that I had no interest in but rarely was I in the very top of my class. When I had a teacher who I enjoyed teaching; who shared a passion for a subject with me then I was a generally a high achieving student. It is when I have teachers who are not super engaged, who don’t demonstrate passion, that I lose interest and I think lots of students are the same way.

I am cognizant of the fact that most people have limited attention spans and that this post has already exceeded the point where most will have long since left for another page that offers some moving pictures or music. Seeing as this is a inquiry about homework I want to share what Freakanomics made me think about regarding my topic. This podcast made clear to me the importance of having good teachers in the classroom. Their is a huge societal benefit to turning out well educated citizens. I don’t think that the Freakanomics podcast had a good handle on what actually makes a good teacher but the point is very clear that teachers are incredibly important.

Okay. Homework. It is late and it is Friday.

I think I will continue later.