I just read Teacherken's diary on the subject of teacher evaluations with some interest—one of the reasons I don't feel drawn to write very many diaries is because Teacherken normally says what needs to be said before I've ever even had the chance to start writing. But this time I think there are some substantive things left out of the discussion. By dint of being in a classroom for most of their childhood, everyone thinks they're experts on education; the call for evaluations by politicians, pundits and parents is a perfect example of this. There haven't been enough voices from the classroom speaking against the lunacy. Not everyone is waiting for Superman. I, for one, think that the current move towards 'evaluating teachers' is wrong. I may not have Teacherken's decade plus experience and my subject is art, not civics, but even fifth year art teachers have a stake in this. Let me say it bluntly: the current move to enshrine 'teacher evaluations' is misguided and potentially destructive if not outright evil. But why are evaluations so bad?
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