BellSouth eliminates

another 2100 jobs. Coca-Cola eliminates 6000 jobs.

Painful as it is, businesses today view their workforce

as temporary employees. . .hear today gone tomorrow.

Competition and rapidly

changing technology forces businesses to become more

flexible and hopefully more competitive.

Businesses have to adapt

and accept new technology just to keep up. Workers have

to learn new business skills or find themselves like

dinosaurs-extinct.

However, teachers and

schools have a different standard. They are exempt from

reality and competition.

Despite what is happening

in the business world, many schools are still teaching

the same stuff I was taught when I was a kid when the

only computer around was the size of a minivan.

Let's take a quick survey.

How many schools are still making kids read The Tale of

Two Cities? In addition to the classics, maybe they

should also be reading, Direct from Dell: Strategies That

Revolutionized an Industry, written by Dell Computer

wizard, Michael Dell.

Good teachers shape our

lives. I remember Mr. Tolzer my 4th grade teacher. He was

a great teacher who understood me and my learning style.

He let us fourth graders refinish his sailboat.

I also remember the law

professor I had in graduate school. He was a wonderful

teacher. He wasn't a "real" professor, but a

practicing attorney.

His classes were full of

true stories that were current and relevant to the class.

I got more out of his class than most of the others. On

the other hand, I remember the sorry college sociology

professor who literally read out of the textbook for the

whole period. Two of us brave students were so frustrated

we went to the dean to complain.

I still remember what the

dean said. He said, "He has tenure and there is

nothing I can do."

Here in Rockdale Country,

just outside Atlanta, where my kids attend school, we

have great teachers and we have some sorry teachers.

Even though good teachers

outnumber the bad, it is the bad teachers who stand out

the most and do the greatest damage.

From my kids and their

friends, I hear about teachers who rather scream at kids.

Another teacher likes to give students work sheets so she

can play computer Solitaire during class.

I hear about teachers who

have marital problems and tell the students all the gory

details of their personal lives. I remember an English

teacher I had in high school would sit on the desk and

ask us if we thought she was pretty.

Why do we tolerate sorry

teachers when the business world that these students will

soon have to earn a living in is so unforgiving and

demanding?

As parents can we afford to

let our kids sit through a class with a sorry teacher? I

don't think so. We have the most powerful country in the

world but a questionable education system. It doesn't

compute. Teachers and school administrators listen up. .

.get with the program and with reality.

Change, get rid of tenure

or give us school vouchers where we can pick the school

we want.

Gregory P. Smith, author of

The New Leader, TNT for Teams and How to Attract, Keep

and Motivate Your Workforce. He speaks at conferences,

leads seminars and helps organizations solve problems.

He leads an organization

called Chart Your Course International located in

Conyers, Georgia. Phone him at (770)860-9464 or send an

email at [email protected] . More information and articles are

available at www.chartcourse.com .