I’ve written before about the idea that paying superstar teachers top salaries and skimping on the frills might be the very best way to get kids learning and teachers grinning.
This article in the New York Times shares the story of a former Teach for America participant who is starting a charter school in NYC for mostly low-income Hispanic kids…and offering to pay teachers $125,000 a year. Cooler still: he, as principal, will be earning $90,000–and there won’t be an assistant principal.
Of course, teachers across the country are sending in their resumes, hoping for a coveted slot in the back-to-basics school that views exemplary teaching in simple settings as a recipe for terrific education that makes everyone happy. The salaries are high, the other expenses low, and the focus is on those passionate teachers and their engaged students.
There’s definitely a groundswell of support for this idea. The concept of the rock star teacher has been proclaimed loudly by my friend, Kareem, over at EduRev.com . He’s working on a project that will blast open the idea of what it means to “teach” and reward those who do it well. Other similar education projects like GlobalScholar.com are getting big bucks to launch by touching on the need to do “school” differently.
We’re reaching a tipping point, my friends. Thank goodness!
Right now, I’m writing the section in my book, The World Is Your Campus, how high school students can dive into higher-level learning and rock the world without following the traditional path to that college diploma. I’m corresponding with a guy who went to Cornell without finishing high school and a girl who went to Wellesley without a high school diploma or GED. (Psst! Got a story of an unusual education path? Contact me at maya at massageyourmind dot com!)
Creative? Oh, yeah. Fun? No doubt! Revolutionary? Yes.
It’s fun to be a rebel, but it’s even better to save thousands of dollars in the process of getting an outrageously relevant and OUTSTANDING global college education.
Stay tuned.
1 Comment
March 24, 2008 at 10:32 pm
It’s time for an education revolution. Our current public school system is based on an agricultural and industrial economy. As we are now operating the knowledge economy, we must rewrite the rules of education. Nothing is sacred. Every stone must be turned and analyzed. “Why are we doing things this way?” Unions is part of the fabric of American life. So how do we deal with this necessary, but evil instituion. I believe unions have largely contributed to the poor education kids get today. We are surely short changing them and we will all pay dearly for this.