LD 参加的人很少，所以是“Open Rank Tournament", 也就是没有按照选手的级别配对辩论(儿子是第一年，属于“新手”级别，在这之上有“中级”-- junior varsity or JV和“高级”-- Varsity两个级别；Novice 选手大都是高一高二学生，JV 和V 则多为三四年级学生，水平上差别非常明显)；也因为LD 参赛人数少了许多，比赛几乎都是在他们本队队友之间进行(如果人数足够，会尽量避免同一学校的选手之间进行对垒)， 最后的个人名次也没有像以往那样分级别授予。他今天四轮比赛，两轮的对手都是自己队里最厉害的Varsity members, 其中一个是队长兼教练 Derek (LD 队因为队员少，教练基本上“权力下放”给队长全权负责)， 另外一个是Varsity team star Lizzy (这小姑娘的厉害我见识过，第一次参加裁判去“参观”的LD 比赛就是在她和外校一个女孩子之间，只听她俩你来我往连珠炮一般，把我听了个云里雾里，呵呵)；这两场他都败了，但还是" fought a good fight!!”。 他还说“Even Lizzy was surprised that I was that good, and I almost defeated Derek - of course, hes not at his best today, because he was defeated by a JV member - that never happened before!" 最后他只胜了两场，在得分上也因为对手是高级选手而吃亏不少。但听到他在电话那头眉飞色舞的“样子”，我却像他胜了一样高兴，因为我知道参加这样的活动，对他的自信心和其他方面素质的好处是难以估量的。以前儿子是个自尊心非常脆弱的孩子，对胜负非常在意。这样的“失败”如果放在以前，他肯定会耿耿于怀的，而现在却能泰然处之，并以很正面的态度去面对每一个学习和提高的机会，这正是孩子成熟的过程啊。
individualized education， 虽然在经费削减，教学负担增加的前提下，要真正做到给予每个学生他或她需要的individual attention是不太现实的，但至少一个好老师不应该是One Size Fits All， 尤其对于比较有个性的孩子，需要保持灵活性，而不是用死板的规矩来扼杀他们的创造性。前面提到的学区的self contained gifted program ， 这两年就遇到了一位这样的老师。话说小儿子进入这个班学习的前一年，因为经费紧缩，有一度大家很担心这个项目将被砍掉； 负责英文和社会科学的Ms. K 决定回到一般班级教书，不再担任这个项目的教学任务。因此学区不得不调整这个项目的师资，协调的结果是将以前在学区主管gifted education program director 的Ms. D“特派”到这个学校接替K 的位置，此外又招了一位年轻的老师H， 担任三年级的教学任务。这位新招的H， 不知是年轻没有经验呢，还是个性如此，很快就在学生和家长中间赢得了“超级刻板”的名声”。她对课堂秩序和规矩的重视，似乎远远超过对孩子们学习内容的关心。这种严格，有时到了不可理喻的地步，尤其对于男孩子，她似乎有着天生的不信任感， 总是要让他们感觉someone is watching you。我家老二三年级第二学期从加州回来，进入这个班级，就领教了她的严格。因为他是中途转学，很多规矩都不太了解，比如每天老师要求家长在作业本上签字，或者 。碰到我有时忘记签字，儿子就会得到一张“blue sheet"， 让家长签字；如果一周内得到的 blue sheets 超过多少张，就会得到一定的惩罚。这种做法当然无可厚非，但问题是H 老师对这些行为方面的要求，达到了吹毛求疵的地步，一点点小错误都不放过，以至于孩子们给她起了个外号，叫做“让人害怕的蓝色纸条老师”！H 老师的名声很快在学生和家长之间传开来，有些被选入这个班级的孩子的家长，甚至宁愿让自己的孩子在普通班级读完三年级，再转入这个班级，只为绕开她。我认识一个家长，两个儿子都是这个班级毕业的。小儿子因为比较调皮，是那种不太conform to the rules 的天才儿童，结果H 老师怎么看他怎么不顺眼，一天到晚找他的家长，害得这孩子常常上课紧张得咬指头，把几个指头旁边的皮都咬掉了！三年级毕业的时候，他高兴的在地上翻跟斗，说这下总算“摆脱”H 老师了(她以前只负责三年级)，想不到因为这个班级扩大了规模，H 老师不仅要负责三年级的数学和英文，还要分担一部分四年级的英文教学。这孩子听到这个消息，马上就蔫儿了。家长们有时候在一起议论，有的说H 老师之所以这么“不近情理”， 大概是因为自己没有孩子。好在今年她终于怀孕了，也许生了孩子以后会有些变化。儿子和他的朋友们非常希望她生的是男孩，因为这样的话，她就不会对男孩们那么“苛刻”了，呵呵。
写下这两点，没忘记问问两个儿子，他们心目中的好老师除了这两点外还要有什么特点，两人不约而同的说：“
Sense of humor! Patience! Fair!” 大儿子又加了一条：“Knows how to make a subject interesting to students, and be friends with the students！” 仔细想想，这几条还真的挺重要，尤其因为是straight from the kids eyes, 似乎更significant. 当然这不是说好老师都得具备喜剧演员的搞笑素质，但有一定的幽默感，绝对是一个added benefit。而知道如何将讲授的知识内容化为能够与实际相结合的东西，从而让学生们感到有兴趣，也是一个非常重要的能力。老大这学期开始AP 宏观经济学，刚开学的时候很担心，因为听不少人说经济学很枯燥。可是上了第一堂课后就感觉两样- -- 因为老师一来就给他们出了很多非常有趣的思考问题，比如“7-11 商店的门一年四季每天24小时从来不上锁，为什么还要有锁孔在上面？”“一辆汽车比一件晚礼服要贵得多，为什么租一天汽车的价钱比租一天晚礼服的价钱要便宜？”等等，然后通过对这些生活中的经济学问题的解答，让学生们对经济学这门学科感到很有意思。老师还经常给他们出一些有挑战性的问题，并且鼓励他们将这些问题的答案递交到相关杂志或者报纸，如果被录用，期末考试自动得A！！ 这些“招数”，把一门本来可能会很乏味的课程变得趣味横生，老师的创造性功不可没。儿子的其他一些老师，在这方面也都“各有千秋”。因为他们对学生们的正面影响，许多学生即使毕业后还和这些老师保持联系。比如儿子参加的国际象棋队和辩论队的教练，就常常邀请以前的队员参加现在的活动，后者的一些“主力”毕业生还经常回来做辩论的义务裁判呢。
Coody: Looks like we are really talking about two different kinds of criteria here. I am focusing on the type of teachers who have lasting impact on a child's life, and you are focusing more on the "immediate" effect they have. Hopefully there's not much conflict between these two. But in most schools here, you don't get to pick a teacher, and the test scores of each class are not public information, at least to my knowledge. So you really can't use that to choose who you will have.
Twocentsworth: Yeah, I think in most families, moms are the ones who pay more attention to children's schooling, which is interesting. I always think dads should play more significant roles in their children's lives, but traditional gender roles probably have to be blamed here:).
One observation: children’s schooling seems to be the woman’s domain. The participants’ in this topic have been almost exclusively women.
Food for thought: Is it the topic? Is it because of the high English-language content here? Or is it because Zhaojun is a female? (Please think hard before answering.)
Note that I used “schooling” instead of “education”, which may have a broader gender appeal.
Ms. Weesner’s class has 15 students getting SAT scores 2000 or above. Ms. Gooch’s Class has only one student getting the SAT score 2000 last year. Ms. Weesner’s class always has more students than the other teachers. You have a choice to pick the teacher for your child this year. Whom will you pick? If your child also receives the SAT score 2000 or above, will you likely rate your child teacher low? A stubborn person likes to dig but will never get the result.
昭君， Your last point is very key. In principle (原则上) a teacher should be an expert in the subject he/she teaches. This is often not the case in Ontario*, where the principal (校长) can assign the teacher to teach any subject. In Ontario, the emphasis is on “process”, not “knowledge”, under the notion that knowledge is ever-changing, and that if you have the right “learning process”, you can acquire the knowledge afterwards. The sad truth is that in the process (pun intended) knowledge is often not gained.
* - I used Ontario because this is where I live, and education is a provincial responsibility. However it would be reasonable to believe the situation extends to the entire Canadian public school system.
Coolboy: Thanks for sharing your experience and perspective. It's true that in the US, there are many people with very good educational backgrounds (master's degrees are very common in high school, and there are increasingly teachers with terminal degrees in the pool) teach at high schools. You can find teachers with very "unusual" qualifications. One of my friends' kid has a Latin language teacher, who is a philosopher and a regular consultant for a highly prestigious think tank in D.C. I know people who have Ph.D. in physics or math that teach at high school too. And for high schools designed for highly gifted kids like IMSA, Ph.D. holding teachers are the majority!
It's lucky for our kids that many Americans don't have a very rigid idea of a "career path" for someone holding high level degrees :)). They benefit from these teachers' knowledge, expertise, and devotion to this profession.
Well, what about math teaching and math teachers in USA? I received good math education when I was at high schools in China for I met two good math teachers. Everybody says that Chinese students’ math is very good or the best. I sat in middle/high school math classes in USA a few times and I found that USA also had excellent and top math teachers in middle schools. Here is one possible reason that makes the big difference: well-known professors or teachers with high degrees in China hardly teach low level classes. On the other hand, a math teacher with a master degree in math and a PhD degree in education in USA enjoys teaching middle school math classes in a normal public school for many years --- nobody finds this strange!
Coody: Do schools here really compare teachers based on their students' test scores? I don't think so. At least in schools that are unionized, you actually cannot do that because the pay is determined by seniority and other factors, not related to test scores. There is a big debate going on related to the "No Child Left Behind" program Bush started, and one of the major argument against it is that it it compare teachers based on "student" performance, not "teacher" performance. Of course comparing has its merit, but I just don't think a teacher's impact on students is only reflected in the test scores in the standard tests, especially.
Mummy: I have heard that - the average quality of schools on the west coast is not as high as the Midwest, and then schools on the east coast are better than the midwest. But there are exceptions - although schools in the LA area are very bad, the ones in the area where we stayed for a few months (not too far from LA land) are quite good.
Yiping: Thanks for your comments. Exactly my point:)).
Sorry our formulas did not get alone with you. To me, they are how I make a living, so picking up college chemistry is some what a piece of cake (吹大牛). Her high school chemistry ~= my college time chemistry.
Really! some high schools here are really bad, much worse than high schools in mid-west, where my son was educated. But in a way, it is not too bad for my daughter. I know her very well, she can only be 鸡头，can't be 风尾.
Comparing has its limits as well as denate; otherwise, you may compare with anyone and in any places. In a school, rating the teacher is just by that way. If you prefer removing the limits by comparing with anyone and in any place, well, enjoy your digging but you will never get the results.
Really? You had to pick up high school chemistry to help your daughter? You see, that would be impossible for me to do because chemistry was my worst subject in high school (I hated to recite those formulas)!!! And even if I was good at chemistry, it would be hard to remember those terms in English - they are so hard!!! I thought the schools in San Diego are pretty good - I saw so many top schools from San Diego on the "best high school" list - are they all private schools?
Coody: Well, that's not always true. A good teacher does not have to deliver the best test scores- there are many other factors that contribute to student testing results that are beyong the teachers' control. If that reasoning is right, then there are not many good teachers in inner city schools because their students test poorly. I think in that case, it's the environment and family factors that are the main source, not the teacher's quality. Of cousre one can argue that the best teachers can make the best out of their students no matter what situations they are in. Actually that's the debate topic in one of the tournaments I judged - it's about teacher merit pay based on student achievements.
I agree a good teacher should not be an easy teacher. The reason a lot of parents of my son's teacher are not happy with her is not because she's strict, it's because she's picky and not focus on small things that really do not have anything to do with the learning itself.
A good teacher is his/her students got higher scores in the standard teats than the other teachers. More students choose his course. Plus, the teacher may not be a weeble that you probably plan to get rid of.
Sorry 昭君... did not have time to read the whole article in greater details, but still want to put in 2c. Bad teachers in bad schools are really bad. "不太好的老师还有好处，培养孩子的自学能力", this only applies to kids like 春阳的丫头. My daughter is the type of "take it easy... be happy". She is in such a bad high school here in San Diego. Her chemistry teacher is so “那啥", and herself does not have so much of self-control, I have to start to pick up my college chemistry again. The only good thing for such a bad high school, bad teachers is that, even she does not work very hard, her GPA is still relatively okay, which, hopefully, will help her college application.
tcw: Our district is good, but not the best in Chicagoland. You are right, it might not be the typical public school in the US, especially if you are talking about urban/inner city schools. There are some top tier private schools in the region too, but most Chinese families would rather spend more money to buy a house in a good district, rather than spending on the private school tuition.
Zhaojun, Without doubt your boys are receiving an excellent education at the particular school(s) they are attending, although I suspect the same cannot be said of all high schools in the U.S. What I can tell you, though, is that in general, the caliber of Canadian high schools (我肯定要挨骂了。。。) does not even come close, which is (as I previously pointed out) why parents who can scrap together two cents (haha) 咬紧牙关 把孩子送进私立学校。 (And this has nothing to do with elitism, I might add.)
