Students responsible for their education

To the editor:

The article from the Washington Post in the Aug. 5 Gazette citing a study showing that the money spent on teacher development is largely wasted hits a large nail squarely on the head ('Billions of dollars for professional training of teachers called a waste”).

The 'crisis” in education lies not in the schools or the components (teachers, facilities, texts, teaching methods, and so on) that comprise them. The problem lies with students who come to school lacking both respect for the educational process and an acceptance that they are responsible for their own degree of accomplishment. The bottom line is that what students take away from school is entirely dependent upon the amount of effort they put into the learning process.

Spending huge sums of money on the latest fad in teacher development, programs and methods does little if anything to improve student performance. What it does do is funnel billions of dollars into the coffers of the companies who roll into town with their wagons painted with slogans and loaded with all sorts of (genuflection required at this point) data-driven research and then fast-talk the well-meaning, but gullible, into handing over their money.

John Rassler

Belle Plaine