Stoopid News

This is the inaugural post in a new category I call "Stoopid News."

One of our local affiliates, WCCO News (Twin Cities Channel 4), ran a an interminable trailer claiming that a new study indicated that "teacher burnout" was not caused by low pay, not caused by working conditions, not caused by students, and not caused by workload. It was caused by something else. Details later on during the news broadcast. And so on.

When the story was finally aired, it turned out that the study was done in Germany of German teachers.

Fine.

Now, this is an international blog, and I don't want you to think I'm not interested in the problems teachers in Germany have to deal with. Some of my best friends are German teachers. But, this was a local news station hyping a story to local audiences. I think there are very few TV sets in Germany that pick up Twin Cities WCCO Local News.

So, the story comes on and it turns out that the German study indicates that the number one cause of Teacher Burnout (in Germany) is pressure from parents. Oh, and all those other factors that were mentioned above are also true, it's just that pressure from parents ranked somewhat higher.

Of course, the reporter giving the story did go ahead and interview a bunch of local teachers about this story. One teacher said there are pressures from lots of sources, not just parents. Another said the big problem was testing. The teacher sitting across the room from me right now with two cats on her lap says the big problem is unrealistic demands from society on what can be accomplished given the time and resources available.

And the cats are in agreement. This was a clear case of Stoopid News....