Ah, then I'll respond. :)

Progressives in Vermont do _not_ want to separate and separately challenge children. I know you'd like to think that, but the lion's share of the focus is on the kids on the bottom. The kids in the middle ride the system and the advanced kids will occasionally be given a more challenging assignment, but that's only done by teacher's going way out of their way.

The kids at the top are expected to be there to help the kids at the bottom. We expend great deals of effort to give them a tiny boost because we don't want to 'track' children in separate classes.

Teachers are actually expected to attempt to teach three different versions of each lesson to three different levels of children in each class. You can imagine how well that works!

There's always the familiar chorus of 'More money! More money!' but a smartboard will not make the difference.

What will make the difference:
- Parents, but that's not something we can control via changes to the school system, so I'm essentially leaving that one out.
- Control. Give teachers the ability to actually do something when students are out of control.
- Accountability - actually being able hold students/parents accountable when there are problems. There's little a teacher can actually do when there is a problem situation.
- Track kids. Actually put the better students in a class for better students. It seems obvious, but in Vermont they do not start doing that until high school - way too late.

I'm sure there are others but those are the ones off the top of my head right now. It's still early in CA.

/s/teacher's/teachers

I think that's the glaring difference from the Euro model to ours. Segregation isn't even possible till 8th or 9th grade. Sure, there's the occassional gifted and talanted program, but they don't fall within the standard teaching model. Segregation begins in Germany in the FOURTH GRADE. That's 9 year olds. Just in time for kids to detach from the bad elements that are coming into their own by 10-12.

I'm all for this type of segregation, but this country is too fucking whiny for it to ever properly happen. Too much "my kid deserves to be in the good class" regardless of how undeserving they are.

maybe I am completely wrong, but I am guessing that after the start of dismanteling of unions, only the strongest ones have been able to survive.

which leads to unions trying to be strong, rather than do what is best for the profession, because if they did that, they would have been destroyed.

I guess the teachers union is afraid to give even an inch, in fear of losing all strength in these times of warfare against unions.

stronger union laws, might lead to more flexible unions.

fyi, vermont, we can all agree that german cars are really good

from wiki
"Some countries, such as Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, and the other Nordic countries, have strong, centralized unions, where every type of industry has a specific union,..."

And I think we can agree that American cars are (generally) pretty bad. :)

I think kreuz hit the nail on the head. When unions are more concerned with maintaining their existence/power they in effect are no longer concerned with doing their job as professionals. Unlike American unions, unions in Europe do not concern themselves with maintaining power/existence and as a result their unions are highly productive and effective workforces.

We could absolutely emulate the European models with a change in our policies towards unions... Then again that would be an olive branch I don't think conservatives like thraxle would be willing to give/take.

Unions are a tough beast. See the construction industry in NY and Philadelphia. You can't change them.

One of my best friends has dealt with many unions, and he has pointed out that different unions are far more easy/difficult to work with than others.

I know unions aren't going away, so anything that can be done to make them anything other than what they currently are is a plus. Unions hold businesses and sometimes industries hostage. Other times unions are used to whine and cry about bullshit like false discrimination/sick leave/smoke breaks/blah blah blah...

By all means, change the dynamics of how unions operate. As of now they contribute very little to the American landscape.

Personally, I'd say lumping them all together is a mistake.

Just like people lumping all business owners or all of wall street together doesn't make any sense.