When did experience become a bad thing?

Back when I was teaching--before the turn of the century--I used to fly quite a bit to make presentations about computers and technologies in the classroom. My level of angst was inversely proportional to the age of the pilot.

When I boarded the 16-seater flying from Buffalo to Plattsburg, both pilots looked like seniors from my high school physics class who were working at their weekend job. And the plane didn't even have armrests that I could dig my fingernails into!

I felt much better when I boarded a "grown up" jet and was greeted by a pilot whose grey hair was neatly trimmed. I figured this guy probably flew military jets before beginning to work his way up with a major airline.

Sure, the younger pilot may have had a couple of hundred hours in a simulator, but simulators don't have an essential bit of training: the knowledge that you may well die if you don't make the right decision. No pilot has ever had a fatal simulator crash. I figured my grey-haired guy may just have had to handle a few non-simulator dicey situations. When I fly, the level of experience in the cockpit matters!

Same with medicine. When being wheeled in surgery, it's much better to have the surgeon say "Don't worry, I've done this surgery 500 times."

Look at the ads in newspapers. Everyone touts their years of experience. Then we come to teaching.

Experienced teachers, we are told, are the deadwood. They're just "mailing it in" until they reach retirement age. Golly gee willikers, it would be so neat to have enthusiastic fresh faces at the front of our classrooms! What's that you say? They cost less? Balderdash! Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! That never entered my mind!

Well, the folks who voted for inexperience are getting their wish. Today's USA Today carries an article titled More teachers green in the classroom. Here are some interesting tidbits from the article:

• "With three years of teaching under her belt, Allison Frieze nearly qualifies as a grizzled veteran. The 28-year-old special education teacher at E.L. Haynes Public Charter School here already has more experience than the typical U.S.teacher."
• "Between 40% to 50% of those entering the profession now leave within five years."
• "In the 1987-88 school year...there were about 65,000 first-year teachers; by 2007-08, the number had grown to more than 200,000. In the 1987-88 school year, he found, the biggest group of teachers had 15 years of experience. By the 2007-08 school year, the most recent data available, the biggest group of teachers had one year experience."
• "...many new teachers are career-changers who have experienced functional workplaces. These teachers will expect adequate materials, for one thing, and the chance to collaborate with co-workers." [Well, won't they be surprised!]
• "...parents shouldn't be surprised if young teachers soon leave the classroom for better paying jobs."

Well, we certainly are enroute to making the USA #1 in education again.