I'm No Musician

          I have two articulate, intelligent friends that I'll call John and Jane Doe. One day John told me that he and Jane agreed that public schools teach children how to be losers and failures, and in general make kids feel bad about themselves.  I was flabbergasted because, as John knows, I'm a public school teacher.

          "It's interesting that you and Jane have that opinion when neither one of you have experience in education," I said.

          "What are you talking about?" John was incredulous.  "Both of us attended public schools."

          And I love listening to the cello.

          People who have attended public schools have opinions based on their experiences as students.  They may have positive and negative memories of good and bad teachers.  Those opinions are important and should be part of a discussion on how to improve our public schools.  But changes in the schools shouldn't be based on the opinions of people who have no background in education and no experience in teaching.  Changes should be based on input from teachers themselves, and based on solid research.

          Interestingly, John has told me on other occasions that he couldn't do what I do; that he doesn't know how I do it.  Apparently he does know that I'm doing it all wrong.  To be fair, when I told John that I didn't realize he thought I was producing losers and failures each year, he said I'd misunderstood him.  Hmm.  By the way, John and Jane would describe their own public school experiences as positive, and each has a pretty healthy dose of self esteem.  I'm sure neither one of them would describe themselves as losers.