When talking about the renewal of the No Child Left Behind Law, veteran science teacher Valdine McLean from Nevada compares learning to riding a bike. Part of her essay (McLean delivered her comments before the Committee on Education and Labor of the U.S. House of Representatives on the theme "Boosting Quality in the Teaching Profession.") is as follows:
Quality science teaching is about riding bicycles. Science teachers who don't teach students "how to ride the bike" do not promote the 21st century learning our economy needs. They do not produce the scientists of tomorrow or the engaged and inquisitive citizens required in a functional democracy. The "highly qualified" teacher provision of the No Child Left Behind Act may promote the recruitment of teachers who can teach students to name the parts of the bike—or meet Adequate Yearly Progress goals by answering all the facts on a single annual test—but it does little to assure that teachers will be able to prepare students who can compete successfully in a bicycle race.
The bike-rider analogy applies not only to students, but to teachers. To become a quality teacher, you have to have your own opportunities to ride the bike—and to ride it in increasingly challenging situations. Earning your college degree and passing subject tests are the equivalent of riding with training wheels—they only get you so far. School systems must provide the resources and support that will ultimately enable teachers to perform with great dexterity in the "bicycle rodeo."
Aspiring teachers rarely go into teaching for the money. However, once we are hired, we quickly see who does what and for how much. There is great disparity in a pay system that rewards teachers simply for remaining on the job. Experience does not equate with quality. A talented teacher shouldn't have to wait 25 years to earn the reasonable salary that a talented engineer might earn in the private sector in eight years. If any private sector company stifled its employees in such a fashion, it would go out of business.
Teaching is a complex profession and difficult to compare to the private sector. I agree that students need to learn to ride the bike, but they have to be able to do a lot of other things first. My only concern about the essay is the statement "experience does not equate with quality." Although this is true in some cases, most experienced teachers I know have wisdom that only comes with meeting different challenges year after year. There are a lot of wonderful teachers who avoid the spotlight and don't "toot their own horns". Do we really want teachers to be competitive with each other like people in the business world?