Teachers

    Yesterday I introduced the topic of Teaching and Education and today I want to take on a small, but so important piece of that puzzle, public school TEACHERS.  As much as I would love to debate/discuss the pros and cons of all types of teachers (public, private, age-level, home school) I am just going to focus on the public side of teaching for this discussion.   In full disclosure I have been a teacher and administrator in the public schools since the late 1990's, mostly in high school but I also have taught at the middle school level, I also taught at the college level for several years.  Although I never taught the primary level, I did have a prolonged internship in a grade school while I was working on my doctorate and earning my Superintendency license.  So that is my background.  I mentioned that I have "taught" since I was 15yrs old, but I have memories of "playing school" when I was much younger.  My grandmother was a teacher for a number of years and my aunt was a teacher her entire career and I also have a cousin who is a teacher and I was married to a teacher.  So I would say teaching is in my blood and family.  

     I really did not know what direction I wanted to go with this topic but as I thought about it I think it is a good idea to maybe go with a general statement and see where it takes us.  So.....I love and have loved being a teacher.  Yes there are days when I question my sanity, but mostly I look forward to going into work and having the opportunity to do what I do each day.  I have been asked if given the opportunity would I do it again, and my answer is yes.  But.....

     Being a teacher is not what most people envision it to be.  For that matter working in the public educational system is not what people think.  First the politics of it is far more than most are aware.  You can be the best at what you do, provide outstanding customer service, great lessons, multiple opportunities and kids can love/or/ hate you.  You say one wrong thing, have one unpopular opinion and in some places it is a career ender.  Students can do and say just about anything and are given multiple opportunities for improvement.  But as a teacher you work in a job where pissing off one wrong person can end your career. 

      I have seen it happen. I have been the target for a pissed off board member who came after my job, unsuccessfully, when I suspended their child for a sexual assault (they thought that because they were a board member their child was above reproach).  I have heard so many stories from teachers and principals who have been retaliated against or knew of someone who had.  Compound this with the pressures of state testing, the complete lack of respect in the classrooms, in the schools, for a work life balance, for the overcrowding of classes and I could keep on going.  

      I do not think schools should be controlled locally, I do not think there should be individualized districts, I do not think that curriculums should be different from one school to the next, or that funding should be different, or that pacing should be different or that students who live one place are receiving different funding/educational opportunity/curriculums....period...

    It should not matter if you live in rural Mississippi, or New York City, if you are in 9th grade the lessons should be the same with the same materials, same qualifications for your teachers, same pay for your staff, same level of facilities.  No student should have things better than another because of their geographical location within the USA.  No teacher should receive less/more pay because of where they work.  No student or teacher should have to attend a school where violence and watered down standards are the norm or acceptable.  

I am going to stop here for today.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

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