Feb 21
Teachers are not the problem in education.
Look, most teachers are altruistic do-gooders who are in the profession because they believe in the importance of what they are doing. We are not motivated by money so “merit pay” is pointless. We have certain protections (not tenure, though) because our jobs would otherwise be subject to the whims of state legislatures, principals, parents, and even students, not the marketplace. Like doctors and lawyers, teachers sign an oath. Unlike doctors and lawyers, teachers can’t pick and choose their clients. Like other professions, the more experienced teachers are the better teachers. Unlike other professions, the majority of teachers leave the profession in their first five years. Like all human beings, teachers have certain physical and emotional needs. Unlike other professionals, teachers can’t go to the bathroom when they need to, call in sick if they want to (not unless they want to come back to a class in utter chaos), take a break if they need it, make or accept phone calls, have a long lunch, leave early on a Friday, come to work late on a Monday, get paid for all the work they do, chat with colleagues around the water cooler, give all the grunt work to a secretary, expect more than cursory attention to the cleanliness of the workplace (floors get mopped once a year, rooms are never dusted, windows are never washed).
While I have no doubt that there are people who should leave the teaching profession, the “bad teacher” meme has become the new “conventional wisdom.” If districts were given the latitude to lay off any teacher they wanted, believe me, they would not be looking at the effectiveness of the teachers. They would simply look at how much each teacher costs the district and lay them off accordingly. How do I know? Because districts always make decisions that maximize revenue, even at the expense of student learning. I’ve seen it.
The fact of the matter is that teachers are not the problem in education. Schools that do poorly are in areas with students who come to school with certain disadvantages. (See Diane Ravitch) Comparisons with students from other countries generally compare their elite students to our general population. Head to head comparisons between American and other elite students show much less disparity or none at all. Unions do not stand in the way of educational progress. As I tell people, my working conditions are my students’ learning conditions. My union, while far from perfect, has been out front in advocating for children - smaller class sizes, more money for the classroom, universal preschool, etc.
I’m so tired of having to justify myself and my profession. We’re teachers, for goodness sake. We provide a much needed service to the welfare of the nation’s children. We’re not responsible for the crash of the economy, the collapse in revenues, etc. I’m not paid enough to be that much of a problem. It is a topsy turvy world where teachers are the new villains and the crooks on Wall Street and big business are the knights in shining armor.
