Who are the Judges? And Where are the Rubrics?

For those who do not know what Rubrics are - it's a new term in teaching, parameters for grading your creative work. It is a list or a chart that shows the students what they will be graded on as they hand in their work.

Recently I read an article about teachers. In that article american teachers were compared to the teachers from other countries and were given a very disappointing low grade. The teachers from other countries were so much better, they even had better grades when they themseves were students. I was reading and thinking: who are those superbeings? How do they know who is a good teacher and who is not a good teacher? Where did they place the Rubricks to compare us with each other?

Later another thought came to me. Again I was reading an article, but this time somebody tried to tell me which chocolate chip cookie was the best. And again I marveled about this superbeing who knows what I like in my cookies. But then I thought that my Rubrics for my favorite cookie is very different from somebody else Rubrics for the same cookie. I love them chowy and soft, others love them cranchy and hard. How can we put those things in the same Rubrics. No we need different cookies. I love the fact that I can be in a different mood and get a different cookie. Nobody can tell which cookie is the best.

This is why competitions do not work any longer. They do not work at a work place, they do not work at schools. Competitions still work in sports and only for entertaining the fans. They still help the organizers to collect a lot of money. But then those fans go home and go to work and they do not compete there they cooperate. They help each other. They brainstorm together to achieve even higher heights, some that were not achievable by one competing individual alone.

Back to poor bad teachers of America. I know these people, I work with them for many years, I know how many really bad teachers I met in my 23 years of teaching. The numer is 3. Out of these 3, 2 left the job, and the third one already retired.

If we are so bad, why is that every country is sending us their teachers and researchers to learn our methods? If we are so bad, why do they want to learn how we do it? If we are so bad, why do we have Classroom 2.0 and Future of Education, and Ning, and Wiki, and Google - all are here, the headquaters are located in the United States.

But the main thought I want to deliver here is that nobody is good for everybody. I might be a great teacher, but there are always some students with who my methods do not work. I am bad with those who need my instructions at all times and has no initiative. I try to teach my students how to be independent learners and once in a while I meet a kid who watches me and wants me to tell him or her what to do all the time. I give them less and less instructions as they grow into their independent routine. So here I am a bad teacher, because I didn't tell the kid what to do and was surprised when he asked. I am hard and cranchy with a kid like that, but chwoy and soft with those who jumped in and started to create.

So again, who is the judge? and who writes the Rubrics?