Due to word count limits in LinkedIn, I am posting my response to Teachers, focus on preventative medicine! in its entirety here…
Thanks David for your followup and welcome to blogging in LinkedIn…was curious about how it would appear and what kind of interaction (if any) would result. Let me say that your post is certainly not inflammatory (and applaud you for being idealistic) and have come to recognize your style as one of provocation…a good thing. Having had the pleasure of conversing with you in the past, I’m certain we agree more often than not. The only real difference in opinion that I see is what kind of language best provokes a change in another.
What caught my attention of your post were two things: attempting to decipher your own beliefs and (more importantly) envisioning how others might interpret your message. I’m constantly curious about how language is used and spend a fair amount of time discussing this with teacher trainers. As I tell my students, my interpretation is only one and should be placed among many others before attempting to understand the “true” message (intent), the person who wrote the message, the target audience, locutionary/illocutionary/perlocutionary forces, etc.
Your point about “playing teacher” could very well be true. My point is simply to ask, should we generalize this idea as fact or idealistically look at it as a potential problem and make suggestions towards fixing it. Unless they are conclusions from empirical evidence, I tend to avoid blanket statements about groups of people…but that’s just me. Perhaps in your post on preventative medicine you might clarify what you mean when you say “teachers should prescribe”. For me, prescribing is saying that a group of individuals (e.g., teachers) should do the same thing in different contexts: same teaching techniques, methods, approaches, strategies, etc. – I’ll admit that teacher-doctor analogy falls a bit short in this regard. My point is that we should attempt to expect similar student outcomes regardless as to the technique, method, etc. teachers employ.
Regarding your reply on $$$…I completely agree with you. My only point is whether or not this message addresses a slightly different target audience than the target audience you sought for the overall post – teachers. This shift in audience seems to cloud the intended message…again, one that I completely agree with.
Always appreciate your point of view and will continue to follow your ideas and perspectives that continue to help further my own understandings.