Anybody's Autos October 2020

for Our Students GrEat again
2020 www.ANYBODYSAUTOS.net
9
time and load already challenging their
staff. Additionally, it seems almost as
if a type of socialism has been pushed
onto public schools, starting with forced
curriculums, schedules, meetings etc.
Instead of trusting the professionals to
manage the learning, they are experienced
and trained to do.
Of course, there are always going to be
those teachers that are less than “stellar”
or that have questionable reputations.
This type has been part of the problem
and can be successfully dealt with.
However, the goal should be to identify,
cultivate and recruit the best, the cream
of the crop staff. Countless studies show
that great teachers are identifiable and
rise to the top. Most share the following
attributes:
1. A passion for their chosen subject
2. A talent to identify and adjust to a
variety of learning styles and to employ
their arsenal of tools, experience and
educational techniques to achieve
student success
3. A comprehensive, expert level
knowledge of their subject matter
4. A vision for what a class of properly
educated students would be able to
know and demonstrate at the end of
the academic year with preparation for
next level.
5. Caring hearts and the ability to positively
interact with students and parents.
When the administration takes away
the incentive and freedom to innovate,
they are not improving the outcomes of
the teachers who are lacking, they are
actually communicating to the desirable,
good teachers that their skills and talents
are not needed here. By not treating
teachers like the professionals they are,
by failing to empower them to educate
students in the best way they see fit, the
administration is demonstrating the simple
fact that they don’t trust them to do a
good job, that the administration knows
more than the educators and thus have
lowered expectations. Unknowingly the
administration has a tendency to limit
the “stellar” teacher’s unique means of
success with the students.
If our goal were to achieve the greatest
learning outcome possible for each
student, what would you need to be successful?
You would need the freedom to
decide how to address the curriculum,
how to teach it, how to evaluate and
assess your students and how to structure
your classroom and curriculum for
optimum success. You would need the
time and freedom to make individualized
decisions. You would need the time
and freedom to make plans, including
separate plans for students who were
achieving at different levels and you
would need the resources – financial,
time and support resources to maximize
the return on your efforts.
In other words, you would need the
same thing that any employee in any
role needs; the freedom, flexibility
confidence and support to assess your
own situation to make empowered
decisions. Yet today it seems that whatever
aspects the teachers are passionate
about must take a back seat to what will
appear on the standardized tests. Expert
knowledge and experience is thrown
to the wayside as curiosity, enthusiasm
and engagement are seen as distractions.
Nowadays, in public education too
often, if teachers do that they are considered
“Maveriks”, they are shut down
and or penalized. Passion is dis-incentivized.
Until government, administrators
and communities abandon the
failed education models slowly adopted
since the 21st century and the constantly
changing trends and decide to stick to
what the educators know works, public
education will remain broken. As long
as teachers are not treated with the
respect and encouragement they deserve
as professionals and we insist on telling
them how to teach and how to spend
their limited time, while loading more
on their plates, we will continue to stifle
them with low expectations, suffocate
their enthusiasm, ambition and creativity
and reduce them to mediocrity as we
continue to fail our children.
“Absolute uniformity is as bad for
human society as monoculture is to agriculture”.
“One size fits all” has never
worked and has actually worked against
us when it comes to education. A concerted
effort to encourage, honor and
respect our great teachers, invest and
pay desirable wages to the extremely
qualified, experienced, knowledgeable
educators, valuing their unique skillsets
would be a great place to start. Contrast
that with throwing more money towards
“I will work toward a bright
future for all students”
Susan (Peppi) Bennett
Susan Bennett
is FOR KIDS!
administration or the latest new trend
or new curriculums. High esteem and
recognition to those who have shown
themselves successful with parent and
student relations would go a long way.
Unless our goal is societal stagnation,
we need to encourage creativity, uniqueness,
competition, and excellence, not
only in our students, but in our educators
as well and stop limiting their time
with more things added to their plate.
Next, high expectations are the second
missing ingredient in education. Great
teachers are known for great students
and often this can be attributed to their
high expectations of themselves, as
well as the students. When we dumb
down our curriculum and standards to
the lowest denominator, as common
core seems to do, we again fail our
students and thus society. High-expectations
is in the best practices of great
teachers and can not be replaced with a
computer or socialistic type approach.
When in today’s public education we
stifle our teachers and overload them,
it is no wonder student achievement is
lowered with such restrictions. If high
expectations of teachers as professionals
has dwindled, is it any wonder that
high expectations (one of the leading
indicators of success) of students has
also withered?
Lastly, put God and emphasis on character
and integrity back in the education
equation. When students were taught to
value God and Country, we produced
young adults with higher achievement
and better character traits in society.
The audacity of humans to think they
can solve all their own problems and
educate students without the concept
Susan P. (Peppi) Bennett
for School Board
• Public School
• Private School
of their maker in the curriculum has
proven fatal to our youth and society.
Students need hope that their lives have
meaning. Humanism has failed us.
Socialism is also a failure. No wonder
so many suicides pop up when the
student’s need for hope in the world
has been neglected, discouraged and
limited. Many have only been taught a
fatalistic view of life. The truth of their
spirit has been neglected and discouraged.
Keeping God out of schools has
not worked and led us to where we are
now, with school shootings, suicides,
discouraged young adults, lost souls.
When you think you are primordial
slime that has evolved and your life is
just happenstance what incentive for
morality is there? We need to present
the other side and give students a stab at
hope in life. While some may feel this is
not important and are biased against it,
I would suggest try it and see the results
before continuing down the failing path
American children have been subjected
to for the past 20+ years. We now have
nowhere to go but up. There are many
things we can do to improve the current
public education system and turn it
around. If we started with renewed
emphasis on just these 3 noted items,
as have been proven in the past to be
successful, we could be on our way
to making our education system great
again. We could be well on our way to
producing more successful, positive,
focused, educated, happy, hard working,
young adults with integrity who
contribute to and improve our society.
Voters - it’s time to Make Education
GREAT Again in Campbell County!
• Home School
• Virtual School
– Susan Bennett has worked with them all –
School Choice is Coming!
Thank you President Trump!
Patriotic, Pro America Cirriculum
Over 30 years of teaching experience
10 years as Campbell County School
District’s 1st Virtual School Teacher
Paid for by Susan & Hugh Bennett
Making Education GREAT Again!
Susan P. (Peppi) Bennett