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High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

washingtonpost.com

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Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#131

Post by jrs235 »

Cyph0n wrote: post #86
pavel_lishin wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had a high school teacher who demanded that we address them as Dr. Whozits on the first day, and would correct us. They learned that you can demand respect all you want, but if you actually want to get respect, you have to earn it from the people you're expecting it from.

He earned that title, and he was your teacher (a superior), so I don't understand why you were annoyed. Most importantly, it was the first day! Think of an interview for example: would it be polite to address your interviewer using his/her first name? No, unless the interviewer gives you permission to do so. Edit: It seems like a lot of HN users have a severe aversion to authority, so I guess I've learned something n…

>"It seems like a lot of HN users have a severe aversion to authority"

I would say a lot of HN users have an aversion to blind submission to authority.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#132

Post by magic_beans »

losteverything wrote: post #50

My experience with young people is they think nothing of googling someone. Example. 25yr old always G Earth the presons address, searches other sites,FB, etc As ROUTINE. New male client comes in she openly tells coworkers about her results.

What's wrong with that? Especially in a case like this article's? Maybe if some of the "old" people had googled this superintendent, the district wouldn't be in this mess.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#133

Post by magic_beans »

losteverything wrote: post #80
derrickdirge wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience with old people is they take a shocking amount of time to consider googling something or they have me google it for them.

I would never had thought a normal, well reared person would Google anybody just because they can. I think the net-natives think nothing of it and probably dont think it's wrong. My comment demonstrated my discovery that I am not surprised it was from a young person.

You haven't explained why you think it's wrong to Google someone. Note: not everyone you encounter is a "normal, well-reared" person. Googling someone is a good way to weed out the less "well-reared".

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#134

Post by lordnacho »

throwaway729 wrote: post #38
lordnacho wrote: post #25

It's time consuming to chase down credentials, especially as when you're hiring someone, it always feels more likely that they aren't making it up. After all, you have a great hiring process, right? My father-in-law is a doctor, and he tells me there's been several occasions where he's thought some colleague was really quite shockingly ill informed. He's always been too timid to call the bluff, but he says it's happe…

> Heck, I worked with someone with a mathematical PhD for years wondering how he'd never heard of Banach-Tarsky. Not that it's a specifically useful or necessary thing, just that you'd think a math-interested person would have come across it. Math is huge. If he does have a Ph.D., he has probably forgotten more named theorems than either of us know. Banach-Tarski is one of those results that, for a pragmatic mathemat…

> That's not surprising at all. Why would a math Ph.D. have any clue what-so-ever about how to build quantitative finance software?

Perhaps it's worth me specifying that we were sitting in a quantitative hedge fund, building financial software.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#135

Post by jrs235 »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #130
jrs235 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the stories I heard, this teacher told his children to call him "doctor"... at home...

Wait, what stories did you hear about the particular teacher I'm talking about?

I was referring to the teacher mentioned in the article that I submitted that is the parent to your story of your teacher.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#136

Post by lordnacho »

ska wrote: post #64
lordnacho wrote: post #25

It's time consuming to chase down credentials, especially as when you're hiring someone, it always feels more likely that they aren't making it up. After all, you have a great hiring process, right? My father-in-law is a doctor, and he tells me there's been several occasions where he's thought some colleague was really quite shockingly ill informed. He's always been too timid to call the bluff, but he says it's happe…

I know many practicing math PhD's who I wouldn't expect to remember Banach-Tarsky. Especially if you spend your time doing discrete math you really don't have much occasion to worry about the implication of AoC or non measurable sets. Heck I probably only remember due to giving lectures on it, rather than having taken them. Not that I'm really practicing much these days. Math is a big place. Most of us will have at l…

> Some might only remember it as "oh, yeah, that sphere thing".

Yes exactly. I haven't got a clue how to prove it either, but just like with Godel, I'm not going to drop my jaw on the ground when you state the conclusion.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#137

Post by lordnacho »

scrummytim wrote: post #63
lordnacho wrote: post #25

It's time consuming to chase down credentials, especially as when you're hiring someone, it always feels more likely that they aren't making it up. After all, you have a great hiring process, right? My father-in-law is a doctor, and he tells me there's been several occasions where he's thought some colleague was really quite shockingly ill informed. He's always been too timid to call the bluff, but he says it's happe…

MD here. Is your father-in-law suggesting that several doctors he works with aren't legitimate physicians? It seems a bit hard to believe. I've had to apply for medical licenses in 3 states, and it was a colossal pain the ass for each. Took 4 months the first time; and I have a completely clean record. Getting hospital privileges takes forever, too. If fact, I think it should be easier, especially for those of us who…

Yeah, he strongly suspected some sort of lack of skill. The UK system might be different from the US.

He's retired so not his problem anymore.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#138

Post by magic_beans »

IIAOPSW wrote: post #8
itchyjunk wrote: post #2

Great read though the title felt a little click baity. Are credentials not verified when hiring someone? (especially for a public school) or was this a result of the board being lazy? Because if credentials are never verified, this might be hinting at a bigger problem.

My high school physics teacher got fired middle of the year. Turned out he wasn't at all licensed to teach and may or may not have actually finished college. He got all the way to tenure before anyone noticed. The guy was a wonderful teacher and knew his topic insanely well. Other students hated him cause he actually held students to a standard. Dude ran a convenience store out of his class room to fund our robotics…

I know it's messed up, but this story makes me so happy.

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#139

Post by magic_beans »

pc86 wrote: post #77
mratzloff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or in academia.

Or in most non-tech jobs. You can't be a nutritionist without a four-year degree in Nutrition (or I believe a few very closely related fields). There are even some fitness certifications you can't get without (any) four-year degree. No amount of self-study or exam passage will get you to be an RN. Tech is an outlier in that education is secondary to most other factors. I'm happy for that because my Political Science…

I suspect that requirements for degrees in STEM have much more to do with weeding out "undesirables" from your hiring process. Many companies won't even take candidates from non-ivies + soft ivies (Stanford, CM, etc).

Re: High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials

#140

Post by Balgair »

r_smart wrote: post #120
cwingrav wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't pay them well so we get what we pay for. The exceptions are those that love to teach and love students. You can't run an organization via exceptions however. It's really a shame we don't value education more.

Teachers in the US make more than the median salary, and get a ton of perks. The US spends more per student than any other developed world. I'd say we're paying plenty.

Source? What are these perks like? Also, teachers are paid in highly variable ways depending on state, school district, and union (if any). Saying that teachers get paid higher than average should be expected, considering they are usually required to have a bachelor's degree, pass many rounds of background checks continually, and (in many districts) must continue taking classes and gain education (similar to a nurse).
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