Bill Gates and Education...

It took awhile but finally I managed to catch Bill Gates in action at TED.

He first talks about malaria, pulling an awesome stunt on the crowd. I'm sure he freaked out quite afew of the guests in the front row.

His second point is on education and he brought up several interesting points which I will talk about below.

Before that, watch the video from TED.com!



On education, Bill Gates gives a couple of interesting statistics.

1. 30% of students in America don't finish high school.
2. You have less than 25% chance to get a 4-year degree if you come from a low-income family and
3. You have a higher probability of going to jail than graduating the 4-year degree course.

The irony of this is that you can only raise your income through education. This of course puts many people into a poverty cycle, something that isn't particularly easy to get out of.

I made a comment on the video which I will post here as well.

Comment on TED.com
I agree with Bill Gates that teachers play an extremely important role, in a child's education. Great teachers make for great learning but finding these teachers is the problem.

Firstly, I agree with his claim that getting further education in the form of a masters degree has little effect on the quality of teaching. I am from Asia and although we share a similar reward structure for teachers in my country, the best teachers aren't necessarily the most qualified ones. Being dynamic and having the ability to engage students is pretty much what a great teacher does. Interestingly, the best teachers are those who practice what they preach. I've never seen a teacher who is enthusiastic and engaging in class not live their lives in the same way and vice versa. In my opinion, getting these people into the teaching profession is probably not difficult but keeping them there is. In my country, teachers are faced with extreme amounts of stress, which I will address in my next point. However, despite this, their remuneration packages are at best average relative to many other professions. After awhile, the job takes a toil on them and many are unable to keep their energy levels and choose to leave. So I feel that the way to get good teachers is to gain support from the government to make teaching as a career more financially rewarding, to retain the best teachers. Then naturally this will bring us to the debate on how exactly should we measure performance.

My second point, is on the suggestion that Bill gave to use video to help teachers share best practices and ideas for improvement. I just feel that this will put immense pressure on teachers, knowing that they are constantly monitored, and really put some of them off. This and his idea on sharing teaching videos with students as assignments to review the coursework assumes 2 things - all students are eager to learn and all teachers are eager to teach better. Both of which are highly questionable.

In conclusion, we need great teachers but these teachers are found and not made. Once we find these people, we better give everything we can to keep them happy and in the system because they will burn out eventually so let's try to delay this as much as possible.

You can't teach a teacher to teach. What do you think?