Education Today

Teachers Need To Get Off Their High Horse!

(I have spent the past couple months of Tuesdays tracing the history of schools and curriculum in America. I will now turn to the current crisis in education. I will look at a variety of topics like the role of the teacher, unions, parents, administrators, and government in education. In addition, I will look at current curricular movements and the dangers I see in them. These comments will not be received well by the education establishment.)

In 1990, as I was going through teacher training, one of my colleagues shared a story with our cadre of about fifteen people. His roommate was a first year law student and commented how he was going to make so much more money than the future teacher. Being a witty guy, my colleague responded, "That may be so, but I will always have the moral high ground." The rest of us laughed and nodded our heads in agreement. We do hold the moral high ground don't we. How naive I was back then.

To get respect you have to earn respect. The idea that a public employee in any field is owed respect due to their job--whether it be a cop, firefighter, or teacher--is ridiculous. Teachers more than any profession act as if they hold some sort of moral superiority over others. I have met and observed far too many poor teachers to buy into that anymore. Do good teachers work over Christmas break grading papers, during the summers going to workshops and perfecting their craft, volunteer umpteen number of hours supervising clubs or coaching sports--the answer is YES! Do some teachers not do those things--YES! While beginning pay may be low compared to similar professions, by the time a teacher has ten to fifteen years under their belt, when benefits are added in, they are making between 80K and 100K. Teachers need to shut up about pay and support requirements that makes real professional development mandatory in the summer. Don't get me wrong I think the teaching profession is one that requires some extended vacation time, but all teachers should have to strive toward becoming better. Maybe then respect will be earned.

Teachers need to start policing and criticizing themselves. The teaching profession is treated by most outspoken teachers as if it is some elite club, and its members better not criticize other members for fear of losing power. Well ignoring or making excuses for teachers who do not belong in the classroom only demeans the profession. LA Unified has close to 500 teachers being paid to not teach. That's right! They are under investigation by the district or law enforcement for inappropriate behavior, which generally means physical or sexual abuse of students. Granted, some of those are unfounded accusations, but most are not. The district wants to get rid of them, so they force them to go to work, meaning a special school where there are no students to teach, hoping they will quit. These folk just sit around reading, texting, blogging, whatever and are paid to do it. Even after getting rid of such facilities, New York City is paying out 22 million a year to teachers that are not allowed in the classroom. That equates to over 200 teachers. This is not acceptable, so please teachers, begin policing yourselves and tell your unions to end the job protection for those being investigated by law enforcement.

Finally, how are we to maintain "the moral high ground" when teachers refuse to speak up, whether its to their union, the district administration, the state department of education or national organizations. Too often teachers know that some curricular change is wrong for kids but because some "educationist" says its the thing to do we go along with it. (An "educationist" is someone who has a heavy influence on educational issues but little real experience teaching or administrating at a school.) Many, many math teachers knew the "New Math" was going to fail but didn't say anything. Many English teachers knew "whole language" was throwing the baby out with the bath water, but kept mum about it. Believe me, I get it. It's comforting to stay locked in your classroom. It's a safe zone away from the buzz of educational controversy. But there is a lot at stake here. And there is nothing moral about staying silent during times that try our souls.

So teachers, we do not hold the moral high ground. We are human, and human nature is full of frailties. The sooner we escape this egotistical veneer and come clean with whats right and wrong with education, the sooner real change for the better will happen.

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