Which Expert?

 So one of my FB Friends sees himself as an expert in science and education, which makes sense since he is a high school science teacher.  With this in mind he is often condescending and insulting regarding my differing thoughts regarding education improvement, helping poor kids learn and climate change.

Which of course makes sense since I certainly am not a Teacher or a Scientist. Here is a sampling his latest lecturing...

"Your callous “know it all” opinion is typical of the lazy Republicans I have dealt with who value their ideology over anything else even at the expense of the environment. You have no idea what I believe about supporting public schools, nor do you know what issues I am talking about. You have never valued by expertise in that field . And I’m not going to get into it with you because the issues do not match with your perceptions and you are unwilling to listen to anyone that may know more than you about it." 

"I always seek out, listen to and discuss a topic from people in a particular field who have spent their lives working in that field. I value their input before making assumptions about a particular topic in that field."

Now I am not angry or offended, I do throw a lot of ideas out there but hopefully with adequate sources, data, etc to pretty much back them up. However I understand how folks can think that I am not listening / learning.

Well there is the lead up to this post which is labelled Which Expert? for a reason...  Here are a couple of our favorite topics:

1. How to ensure all mentally capable children are academically capable when they graduate from High School? 
2. What should be done regarding man made climate change?
3. Other...

Just to explain my expertise for folks who are not familiar, I am a Professional Engineer with an MBA and significant experience as a 6 Sigma Black Belt.  I have spent ~30 years leading cross functional teams to solve problems, fix things / processes, develop new products or execute projects of different types.  Some a week long and some several years.

In summary I have some general experience in many things, however my true strength is in listening to and working through others who are much more capable than I am in the areas of study / experience.  I probe, prod, promote collaboration, organize, challenge group think, track, analyze, brain storm, track, nag, time keep, etc.

SO given this problem statement: "How to ensure all mentally capable children are academically capable when they graduate from High School?"  Which experts should be involved in solving the challenge?  I mean imparting knowledge in the classroom (ie teaching) is a part of the issue certainly, so I am happy to listen to teachers about how discipline, teaching, technologies, etc can be improved.  They are the experts.

However I would argue that the performance management, staffing, compensation, termination policies and other issues are key to ensure that the Teachers are performing at a high standard. Which leaves me wondering who are the experts in performance management maintenance and improvement?  I certainly do not think it is the employees (ie Teachers), though they should be communicated with regularly.

And we have not even gotten into where children spend most of their youth and how that impacts their academic performance.

And when given this problem statement: "What should be done regarding man made climate change?" I have no doubt that a Science Teacher may be up to speed with the latest scientific releases.  However does that make them more capable of understanding and balancing the massive financial trade offs that we are looking at?  Where does the role of "science" end and the role of public and private policy begin? 

Well that is the question on my mind...  Personally I think many of us may be experts in small areas, and yet some like to think that makes them an expert in the whole topic.  So when I disagree with you and request sources / proof...  That is why... :-) 

And I promise to continue explaining the rationale for my beliefs and providing sources, so you can see how I got to my belief.  Then please feel to question the rationale or point me to better sources.  Thanks John