Ken Robison (2015) believes education has “four basic purposes” (p.xxiv). Those purposes are “personal, cultural, social, and economic” (Robinson & Aronica, 2015, p. xxiv). Sir Robison’s (2015) statement that “the aims of education are to enable students to understand the world around them, and the talents within them so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active compassionate citizens” (p. xxiv) serves as a perfect “mission statement” for the “business” of education. Unfortunately, there are very few instances of schools either meeting or surpassing Robinson’s four purposes or his mission statement. On the contrary, Robinson believes education is beholden to the highly lucrative standardized testing industry. In order to understand …show more content…
The second world is the secret world that teachers should long to reach. Each student has their own story, needs, wants, and abilities. “Educators are expected to find a way to reach these students with their very different needs” (Bergmann & Sams, 2012, p. 6). Personalizing education can be a near impossible feat in a traditional setting. Many educators teach in excess of 150 students a day. The sheer logistics of developing over 150 education plans is overwhelming (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). Inevitably many teachers are unable to meet the personal …show more content…
Federal, state and local governments have all instituted well meaning initiatives to recruit qualified teachers. Data suggests, however, initiatives rooted in the widely held belief that shortfalls are primarily the result of increasing student enrollment or teacher retirement will not solve the shortage. On the contrary, most teachers leave the profession for other reasons (Ingersoll, 2003). Poor job quality is the primary reason most teachers leave the profession. When surveyed, teachers listed low salary, student discipline issues, and lack of decision making power over school policies as the top three reasons they leave (Ingersoll, 2003). Ingersoll concludes “that schools are not simply victims of inexorable demographic trends and that there is a significant role for the management and organization of schools in both the genesis of, and the solution to, school staffing problems” (Ingersoll, 2003, p.