(The following is my latest Huffington Post blog.)
Nothing I have ever done has
brought me as much joy as I have received from teaching children how to write
the past 14 years. Helping young writers grow and mature has been richly
rewarding and I would not trade my experiences for anything.
That being said, if I were 18
years old and deciding how I want to spend my adult years, the last thing I
would want to become is a classroom teacher.
Classroom teachers,
especially those who are just out of college and entering the profession, are
more stressed and less valued than at any previous time in our history.
They have to listen to a long
list of politicians who belittle their ability, blame them for every student
whose grades do not reach arbitrary standards, and want to take away every
fringe benefit they have- everything from the possibility of achieving tenure
to receiving a decent pension.
Young teachers from across
the United States have told me they no longer have the ability to properly
manage classrooms, not because of lack of training, not because of lack of
ability, not because of lack of desire, but because of upper administration
decisions to reduce statistics on classroom referrals and in-school and
out-of-school suspensions. As any classroom teacher can tell you, when the
students know there will be no repercussions for their actions, there will be
no change in their behavior. When there is no change in their behavior, other
students will have a more difficult time learning.
Teachers are being told over
and over again that their job is not to teach, but to guide students to
learning on their own. While I am fully
in favor of students taking control of their learning, I also remember a long
list of teachers whose knowledge and experience helped me to become a better
student and a better person. They encouraged me to learn on my own, and I did,
but they also taught me many things. In these days when virtual learning is
being force fed to public schools by those who will financially benefit, the
classroom teacher is being increasingly devalued. The concept being pushed upon
us is not of a teacher teaching, but one of who babysits while the thoroughly
engaged students magically learn on their own.
During the coming week in
Missouri, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill which would eliminate
teacher tenure, tie 33 percent of our pay to standardized test scores (and a
lesser, unspecified percentage for those who teach untested subjects) and
permit such innovations as “student surveys” to become a part of the evaluation
process.
Each year, I allow my
students to critique me and offer suggestions for my class. I learn a lot from
those evaluations and have implemented some of the suggestions the students
have made. But there is no way that eighth graders’ opinions should be a part
of deciding whether I continue to be employed.
The Missouri House recently
passed a budget that included $2.5 million to put Teach for America instructors
in our urban schools. The legislature also recently acted to extend the use of
ABCTE (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence), a program that
allows people to switch careers and become teachers without having to go
through required teaching courses.
It is hard to get past the
message being sent that our teachers are not good enough so we have to go outside
to find new ones.
And of course to go along
with all of these slaps in the face to classroom teachers, the move toward
merit pay continues. Merit pay and
eliminating teacher tenure, while turning teachers into at-will employees are the
biggest disservice our leaders can do to students. How many good classroom
teachers will no longer be in the classroom because they question decisions by
ham handed administrators looking to quickly make a name for themselves by
implementing shortsighted procedures that might look good on resumes, but will
have a negative impact on student learning.
If you don’t believe this
kind of thing will happen, take a look at what has occurred in our nation’s
public schools since the advent of No Child Left Behind. Everything that is not
math or reading has been deemphasized. The teaching of history, civics,
geography, and the arts have shrunk to almost nothing in some schools, or are
made to serve the tested areas. Elementary children have limited recess time so
more time can be squeezed in for math and reading.
Even worse, in some schools
weeks of valuable classroom time are wasted giving practice standardized tests
(and tests to practice for the practice standardized tests) so obsessive
administrators can track how the students are doing. In many school districts
across the nation, teachers have told me, curriculum is being based on these
practice standardized tests.
That devaluation and deemphasis
of classroom teachers will grow under Common Core Standards. Pearson, the company
that has received the contract to create the tests, has a full series of
practice tests, while other companies like McGraw-Hill with its Acuity
division, are already changing gears from offering practice materials for state
tests to providing comprehensive materials for Common Core.
Why would anyone willingly
sign up for this madness?
As a reporter who covered
education for more than two decades, and as a teacher who has been in the
classroom for the past 14 years, I cannot remember a time when the classrooms
have been filled with bad teachers. The poor teachers almost never lasted long
enough to receive tenure. Whether it is was because they could not maintain
control over their classrooms or because they did not have sufficient command
over their subject matter, they soon found it wise to find another line of
work.
Yes, there are exceptions-
people who slipped through the cracks, and gained tenure, but there is nothing
to stop administrators from removing those teachers. All tenure does is to
provide teachers with the right to a hearing. It does not guarantee their jobs.
Times have changed. I have
watched over the past few years as wonderfully gifted young teachers have left
the classroom, feeling they do not have support and that things are not going
to get any better.
In the past, these are the
teachers who stayed, earned tenure, and built the solid framework that has
served their communities and our nation well.
That framework is being torn
down, oftentimes by politicians who would never dream of sending their own
children to the kind of schools they are mandating for others.
Despite all of the attacks on
the teachers, I am continually amazed at the high quality of the young people
who are entering the profession. It is hard to kill idealism, no matter how
much our leaders (in both parties) try.
I suppose I am just kidding
myself about encouraging young people to enter some other profession, any other
profession, besides teaching.
After all, what other
profession would allow me to make $37,000 a year after 14 years of experience and
have people tell me how greedy I am?
3 comments:
May I simply add one word to your response: AMEN!!!
Thank You for writing this article...as a former classroom teacher..I was told I was a "pretty good" teacher...does that mean almost good? not good enough? So sad that it's a profession that doesn't get paid what it's worth.
It is very sad to know that one more thing like the intelligence of our students or their employ ability is all about money just like everything else all about the money no one really cares about the rest of the important issues just the money!
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