Some of my teachers regressed me. Some of my teachers SAVED me.
In particular, at a formative age (and when we only had one teacher for all subjects):
- 8 year old: I still feel very uncomfortable (and really quite sad), when I think of my classroom experience. Horrible. I regressed and was getting Ds and Es. The teacher was dismissive and belittling. I stagnated socially.
- 9 year old: Average teacher / no particular change.
- 10 year old: Incredible teacher that brought me from D/E to A/B, but more importantly brought me out of my shell.
Perhaps others in my 8YO class had different experiences, but regardless - I can't reconcile your statement "there's very little evidence that teachers matter at all" to my experience.
Perhaps you're meaning 'in terms of skill level', and perhaps increased wages wouldn't correlate to 'better' teachers as I am defining 'better'. But 'they aren't individually important and almost anybody can do it' doesn't strike me as true at all.
Edit: Also, I was having.... a bad time, at home and outside of it (No shade on my parents). I am so thankful of my 10YO teacher. They were the only person able to see it and in a position to help, and help they did (as much as could be done).
That is not at all what GP is saying. What they said, very clearly, is they believe anyone who can stand in front of a class, maintain some control, and read from a workbook is equal to all other people who can do the same.
Ridiculous claim IMO and is dismissible on the basis of most people’s own experiences, but that’s what they’re claiming.
Sometimes if I go into the same coffee shop every day for a couple years I will develop a rapport with one of the baristas and, of course, I like some of them better than others. Maybe one in ten ends up being so nice that they are memorable.
But none of that changes that new baristas can be trained to do their job in a few days and almost anybody can do the work.
Your claim is closer to “there’s no difference between a good and bad barista.” Of course there is. And of course closing the gap between a good and bad barista is much easier than closing the gap between a good and bad teacher.
If you take any person off the street and have them make you a cappuccino, you will absolutely regret it. But apparently you don’t believe this is true of teaching children?
All your evidence points to a much, much simpler explanation: most teachers are just average, and even exceptionally good or bad teachers can have their own exceptionalism overpowered by other factors.
This does not mean it would be wise or yield just-as-good or better results by throwing any person off the street into this role, which would be the natural implication of “it doesn’t matter which individuals you put in front of the classroom.”
- 8 year old: I still feel very uncomfortable (and really quite sad), when I think of my classroom experience. Horrible. I regressed and was getting Ds and Es. The teacher was dismissive and belittling. I stagnated socially.
- 9 year old: Average teacher / no particular change.
- 10 year old: Incredible teacher that brought me from D/E to A/B, but more importantly brought me out of my shell.
Perhaps others in my 8YO class had different experiences, but regardless - I can't reconcile your statement "there's very little evidence that teachers matter at all" to my experience.
Perhaps you're meaning 'in terms of skill level', and perhaps increased wages wouldn't correlate to 'better' teachers as I am defining 'better'. But 'they aren't individually important and almost anybody can do it' doesn't strike me as true at all.
Edit: Also, I was having.... a bad time, at home and outside of it (No shade on my parents). I am so thankful of my 10YO teacher. They were the only person able to see it and in a position to help, and help they did (as much as could be done).