It seems like the larger argument here (which I wholeheartedly agree with) is that the role of skilled teacher (whether it be human, book, YouTube, whatever) simply cannot be understated when it comes to creating that “spark” in a learner to develop and pursue their own passions.
What’s interesting to me, and what follows from this, I think, is that we therefore have a lever for creating more passionate people: create more extremely skilled teachers.
It’s obvious to me that this idea isn’t new; I just wonder why it’s so deprioritized at almost every level of education. (Not least the highest.)
Defund schools and create horrible working and learning conditions for those who stay. Create a problem and then say you are the only one who knows how to fix it. Prey on peoples’s fear, especially fear for their children. Sow mistrust and bigotry in their communities.
Unfortunately far, far too many in power who actively and intentionally do not have the best interests of students at heart.
“There should be no such thing as ‘good schools’ and ‘bad schools.’ All schools should be great.” shouldn’t be be a controversial opinion, but every time I’ve brought it up people get uncomfortable because parents now how precarious their child’s education can be. They’ve seen what has happened in other schools and they don’t want anything bad to happen to their child’s education. So even if things could be better, they fear change and anything that could rock the boat because they don’t won’t it to get worse. And they aren’t wrong to be afraid: how many times has a politician promised to fix education and it turns out the fix is something like one more layer of standardized testing, or cutting art classes, honors classes, special education services to “focus on the fundamentals” while class sizes balloon and the money from those cut classes and services just goes poof?
On top of that, there is the "education first" mindset. When a culture puts education first(e.g Eastern Asia countries), it not only means they will sacrifice their limited resources for education, it also means teachers are well respected and well paid across the society, relatively speaking.
Further, when a country focuses on CRT and LGBT+-education and Equity-grading at K-12 these days, school is no longer a place to prepare kids for a meaningful career, instead it is a playground to raise future everyone-is-a human rights activist or politician, we will have to rely on skillful immigrants that actually _DO_ things to sustain the economy, this pattern won't last very long obviously.
It's not a teacher's problem, or school's funding problem, it's more of a political problem to me these days(including the recent education-unrelated law changes). I feel lost as an independent.
About 18% born after 1995 are claiming they're LGBT+, I have friends that are LGBT+ so no worry about the scaremongering part, but some of those folks are going too far these days. Specifically I don't get it why it has to be on K-12's agenda where my kids attend with my tax money and they told me that it's offensive to address classmates if you use the wrong he/she, these days you better ask "how am I supposed to address you?", it's ridiculous.
I think this puts the cart before the horse, and presumes that you can find the right balance of teacher skills to student requirements and that you can maintain that balance year after year.
I honestly think you get more mileage thinking the opposite direction. If you want students with passion and a life long commitment to knowledge, then they're going to need to develop those skills first. At that point, in our modern world, a single oracle of generational knowledge isn't a particularly useful addition.
What you want is generalists that know how to motivate students and to help them find and utilize the resources they need. You might only need a bunch of librarians and proctors and can skip the specialists of the "oral tradition" entirely.
What’s interesting to me, and what follows from this, I think, is that we therefore have a lever for creating more passionate people: create more extremely skilled teachers.
It’s obvious to me that this idea isn’t new; I just wonder why it’s so deprioritized at almost every level of education. (Not least the highest.)