A teacher reflects on how teachers are perceived, how little support they get, and how teaching has changed:
Being in the teaching profession, most of the public generally hates you because they ‘see’ you with the summer off and a pension, which most of us hope will be intact by the time we get there. If summers off were only true. During the summer is when most of your planning and professional growth goes on…’behind the scenes.’
I went into this profession because of kids and making an impact in their lives. Believe me it wasn’t for the money and it wasn’t for the summers off. If money was my primary motivator, I certainly wouldn’t have went into education. I would have went into the private sector with a car and expense account.
I have been in education now for thirteen years. When I look back over my career, I am saddened by how much it has changed. It has gone from keeping kids after school for projects, helping kids during lunch, talking with kids through problems and challenges they are facing. Basically, genuinely caring about the child as ‘whole’ person. It has gone from parents standing behind the teacher and enforcing what the teacher taught at home. To teachers having to answer and explain their every move – grading, discipline, etc.
How things have changed. Society has changed, and I am afraid to say, not for the better. I had the pleasure of working with a man for a few years before the end of his career. I looked up to him and had great respect for him for who he was, who he is, how he taught, and what he stood for. My last year working with him I remember discussing a tough school issue. Our discussion ended in him telling me that I will be saying ‘these were the good old days.’ I never thought that that statement would ring true, but it does.
Our greatest resource is our children. It doesn’t take being in education to know that. New York State is no longer holding children as our primary focus. New York State is holding greed as the number one goal. It is insulting and degrading what they are attempting to do to the public school systems. It is tragic. This state can not blame everything on education, but that is exactly what the media is doing. If we had to play the blame game, I would blame state testing. Kids hate the tests, and so do the teachers. It has taken the ‘real’ learning out of school and made learning into a ‘teach to the test nightmare.’
I am good at what I do. I love what I teach. I have motivated and inspired many students and parents. I have battled my share too, for the child. My job’s dynamics have changed drastically over the years. To say I work hard would be a gross understatement. I work hard every single day. I take work home nightly and work extensively on weekends to catch up and work ahead. My ‘growth score’ from the 2012 NYS ELA is ‘developing.’ It is insulting to say the least for many different reasons. One thing is for sure, I will not apologize for how my students perform on a three day exam. My students work hard and do their best.
In China, the people respect doctors, lawyers and teachers. The parents stand behind the school and enforce education at home. Take a close look at how their society runs. In America, the people respect rock stars and professional athletes. The parents fight the teachers tooth and nail. The system fights the teacher tooth and nail.
Take a close look at how our society is currently functioning?
Public education is not to blame for the budget issues this country faces. It never was and never will be. However, public education is the scapegoat.
I suggest all of the ‘professionals’ designing this APPR for our country come on into the classrooms and teach for a year to see what it is like.
Also, I would like some facts from NYS: how much did testing cost NYS last year – isn’t it to the tune of $385 million dollars? If we follow the money of Pearson, policy makers, and charter schools, what would we find at the end of the road? I would like to see the policy makers salary too. I know it is greater than mine at $57,000. I know it is greater than my brother in law’s who has been education for close to 26 years making $90,000. People in the private sector after 26 years are making well above $90,000 a year. Believe me.
Public education and school taxes are an easy target to get people fired up about because school taxes are one of the only things they have the control to vote on. So what a great way to get people enraged.
I wonder what validity is this APPR? What is the purpose? I wonder, if I ran my classroom the way the state is running the schools what that would look like?
“Thank you for coming to your child’s conference Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Your child’s average is a 73% in ELA. Why? Well, I can’t really tell you that. I do not grade papers for parents to see. I have my own formula that is a secret. You will just have to trust me. Your child is below average. What can you do to help? Oh, I can’t really tell you that because it is a moving target.”
As Troy Aikman said at last week’s tragic football game due to poor referee calling, “This is a joke.” I agree, this APPR scam is a complete joke. Even though APPR is out to destroy the unions and the public school system, the true tragedy at the end of the day is the children and our society loses at the end.
The state’s agenda is to conquer and divide the unions and public education for nothing more than their own greed. Bring it. Get the attorneys in place. When it is uncovered and exposed to the true agenda, and it will be, these policy makers may need to leave this country.
Widen your lense to see the big picture. We will not let our children and this country suffer. Game on.
Great comments except it irks the heck out of me when verbs are misused. “I certainly wouldn’t have went into education. I would have went into the private sector with a car and expense account.” Seriously? (Occupational hazard!)
I truly feel sorry for those entering this profession today and for their students. The only “teaching” they will know is teaching to the test. Our days are filled to the the last possible minute with scripted teacher-proof lessons. There was a time when we developed our own units. Kids were excited about learning, and that ability to create made us happier and more effective teachers. Morale is very low. We stay in our classrooms during lunch to tackle the piles of paperwork that seem to grow year by year rather than socialize in the staff lounge. We are a fragmented staff. Our sense of community is diminished. I think the children sense this and react to it as well. It used to be something more, but now it’s just a job.
I hate to say it, but I was someone who wanted to be a teacher and decided not to because of the conditions seeming to get worse each year. I really hate that it got to that point, but there’s only so much that people can take.
Now is not the time to teach, open a tutoring business instead, you’re better off!
As long as we view schools as factories we will view teachers as “workers” and not “talent”… and businesspeople will use industrial engineering models to “measure efficiency”. The reliance on standardized tests, which assume that all children mature and learn at the same rate, reinforces this mental model which is deeply embedded in the public’s psyche. We need to reformat education to open and change people’s minds about schooling. waynegersen.com
“Our greatest resource is our children.”
NO, absolutely not!! Children are not “resources”. Resources are used and exploited not nurtured, cared for and loved. Speaking of “children as resources” is the neoliberal way of looking at the “value” of human beings. What a bastardization of a concept, that humans are resources-blahhh!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
I agree with what has been said above. Students are our future and must be nutured and developed. Our society is completly out of control with testing and unreasonable expectation. You can rewrite this article and change New York to Texas and it would be exactly the same. Too much teaching to the test and very lilttle legitimate learning. I believe that there is an unwritten and unspoken movement to destroy publication in the name of money. The whole system is broke. The educators in Chicago are on the right track. Stand up for their rights and don’t report to work until they are treated fairly and like professionals.
Love this
Diane
I am a former teacher, and now work for public school employees at the National Education Association. It is my joy to work for the finest people in the country. It saddens me to see our teachers dejected because they hear that people hate them, beacuse they have summers off and enjoy a pension. My frustration is that I can’t get the word out to enough of our public school teachers that what they are hearing from right wing ideologues, who controll the media, is not what the American people believe. The most recent Phi Delta Kappa poll confirms, once again, that the public appreciates the teachers in their community. They know them, have met them, love what they are doing, and hold them in high regard.
More Americans also need to realize that a teacher’s day does not end when they leave the school. There are lesson plans to do, papers to grade, tests to create, parents to call, and reading and course work to stay up on the latest research and new methodologies. Our communities need to understand that teachers have foregone raises for the promise that a pension would be there when they needed it.
Your reader is right. Teachers don’t go into the profession for a pension and a summer off. They do it for the chance to make a difference in the lives of their students. What they need to keep in mind is that the people who ruined the country financially through bank and securities manipulation are looking for two things. They want someone else to blame for their folly, and they are looking for another opportunity to seek financial gain though the privitization of the public shcools. Right wing ideolouges are urging them on.
To all public school empolyees, I urge you to fight for your public schools, and hold your heads high. You have much to be proud of, and to realize that most Americans agree with what I am saying.
This is a real article about being in the trenches in education. I hate those we are the world articles that paint this let’s hold hands image of education. Those days are unfortunately over. Test scores and top down education is the modern standards. Education needs an overhaul and it won’t happen until folks with the power…teachers standup for their profession.