Toulmin Teacher Argument

How can we raise the status of teachers in the United States? In this article Zeke Vanderhoek states that we need to pay them more, give them "autonomy," and "encourage professional growth." I completely agree with his philosophy. We need to raise the quality of teachers in order to raise their status, and if we do these three things for the teachers we could end up with a much better education system. Teachers do not feel like they are important. Sure, they are teaching the young minds of America, but how much of that do they have input on? Teachers do not have the freedom to be able to teach the way they want to. In schools today, teachers are given clear goals, strict curriculum, minimum freedom, and in turn, they are not teaching to the best of their abilities. Most teachers know their students: what they want, what they feel, how they learn. The people picking the curriculum do not know anything about this generation of kids. They should not be the only people that pick the material that kids learn; the teachers should be able to have a say in the matter, too. Vanderhoek also proposed that teachers should "observe and learn from talented peers in other classrooms." At school there are some teachers that are wonderful: they teach the material, they keep the kids interested, they motivate the kids, but there are other teachers that haven't got a clue about how to actually "teach." Those are the teachers that would exceptionally benefit from observing other teachers. By seeing how the good teachers interact with kids, the other teachers would learn what works for kids, what needs to be changed in their lessons, and how to better future lessons. Vanderhoek also stated that teachers should be paid more. In the world that we live in today money is extremely important. More money would make the teachers have more motivation. At school teachers are always complaining about the small amount of money they make, but if this was increased they would have less to complain about. Some may say that if teachers were given more freedom that they would not teach what students need to learn. But if they are still given "clear goals" about what needs to be taught this would not be the case. They would simply have more freedom so that they could choose the way that they teach their given material. This proposal will increase the quality of current teachers. If the quality of current teachers is increased, then the quality of students is increased. If the quality of students is increased, then the quality of future teachers is increased. If the quality of future teachers is increased, then the status of teachers in the United States rises.