Wasting Time Studying Instead of Doing

I want to thank the members of the education community for inspiring me to FINALLY put together a blog. An honorable mention will go to my fellow parents, but I will save that for future entries. Today I want to discuss the STUDY of STUDYING. That's what I call people spending time and monetary resources studying the way schools are run, reporting on what they have observed, then going back to their universities or private offices and do some more studying.

It has been said that those who can. . . do, and those who can't. . . .teach. As a teacher, I always took exception to that phrase. I am not saying there isn't some truth to it; however, teaching in its own right is an art. . . a skill. . .a talent that requires a special person to connect with other people to inspire them to be better. There are, however, those burned-out teachers who are just riding on auto pilot and collecting a check. (I am sure I will blog about them soon too)

I would like to add my own part to that old phrase. Those who can. . . do, and those who can't. . . .teach, and those who can't teach. . . study it.

I am continued to be amazed by the money being spent. . . wasted. . . on studies that continue to report the obvious without any real solution. I read yesterday, for probably the 50th time, that there is a problem with the academic progress of our inner-city students. Our "minority population" is performing poorer than our non-minority popluation (Do we call them the majority?) How about, for once, someone decides to not just report on results of a study, or the results of standardized tests, and/or pontificate "what we should do" and actually roll up his/her sleeves and get back into the classroom, or the principal's office, or the superintendent's office, and make it happen.

That would require work. Real work. It would also require the risk of not being successful. It is easy and safe to observe and report.

I was prompted to begin this blog because once again I read about a person who wanted to study education for another 20 years. It was from an article in the New Jersey Paper, the Star-Ledger. A seven year study that resulted in the recommendation for another 20 year study. SO, come 2030 we will start implementing the results of this study - or start another one.

By then, I might have a grandchild entering preschool . . .comforting.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2010/01/princeton_university_researche.html