I earlier posted about the 21 teachers who resigned their positions at Weigand Elementary School to protest the ouster of their principal Irma Cobian. That was 21 out of a teaching staff of 22.
Not one of them knows if he or she will have a job next year. Theirs was an act of courage and integrity. They demonstrated the meaning of valor and principle.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
True courage! I hope they find jobs! However, looking outside of what education has become might be a good idea.
In my state, if you leave your teaching job or lose your job, you will never teach again. The job market is that tight right now. I know one teacher who changed schools a lot, never achieved tenure, and is now digging graves (literally). If the entire country is throwing teachers under the bus, I am not sure that teachers should be destroying themselves, no matter how noble. Why is this all up to the teachers to fall on their swords? I don’t agree. It is time for others to support teachers.
I hope they become activists and advocates for the children and parents!! THEY should open their own charter school with the principal!
Yes!
Now THAT is a wonderful idea. That would be taking real entrepreneurial responsibility. But will they? Are they able to conceive of life outside of the cave of public education?
Please go back into your cave.
“Are they able to conceive of life outside of the cave of public education?”
Interesting question. As someone who grew up in the Catholic “cave” of education and who broke free to go outside and see the world as it is and not as a shadow and as one who now works in what you describe as “the cave of public education” I chose the public schools for my own children. Interesting that my sense of “community” was nurtured in the Catholic system (catholic = community). However, that sense of community was limited to the sect of Catholicism, anyone outside it was condemned to hell. Well the public schools are community oriented also, but we include all no matter race, creed, sexual identity, ethnic origin, disability, etc. . . .
NO, the cave is not “of public education” but the “cave of laisse faire capitalism.”
Assume the allusion is to Plato?
Yeah, a Platonic allusion, I assume. Look what they did to Plato’s teacher when he dared to teach real critical thinking instead of the compliance desired by the elite of his community.
Linda, please don’t be hard on Harlan.
It’s not his fault that he has social learning disabilities. They were problably never caught in time and offered corrective therapies. What we now know about human development was not as well known then when Mr. Underhill attended school. And please don’t look to his parents, who are perfectly innocent in all of this.
This is the man who tells us that he has heard of the Koch brothers, but actually proclaimed he does not know too much about their involvement with the Tea Party.
This is also someone who confuses right to life with right to education.
And as an avid and fervent Tea Party adovacte, he still refuses to answer his fan base here as to whether or not he is receiving Social Security or plans to file for it.
So don’t direct him to crawl back into his cave. A cave is far too modern a setting for his primitive needs.
We should all strive to understand Harlan more instead of swiping back at him. It would be a good exercise for our permanent non-acceptance of his views and our simultaneous compassion for his emotional and social retardation.
That is a hateful comment. Obviously you have an axe to grind against teachers. Not surprising from other comments you have made in the past. You have no idea of what it takes to be a teacher in a growing, difficult system. Just what “cave” do you inhibit in your pompous attitudes.?
Linda,
No need to harass Harlan.
Duane
I am sure you don’t want him to harass public school teachers as well, so be sure to share your disgust with Harlan. No need to defend that, right?
Courage indeed. Truthfully, public education policy is the one area that our current president is simply not making adequate yearly progress. His administration seems to not only NOT making ayp, but indeed the step-children of NCLB – Race to the Top and Common Core and the rest, are (ultimately) representative of a flat failure of the Obama administration to confront the wrong-headed, big-money elitist push to END free public education, in favor of an upper-class entitlement (vouchers) and a lower-class lock-in.
Want an education? How much money ya got? And if you’ve got average intelligence and your family has average (or below average) income – SORRY! I got nothin’ for ya…have you thought of joining the Army?
And if you’ve got average (or below average) intelligence and your family has above average (or WAY above average!) income – step this way,into a real school where excellence is the standard, and we’ll teach you about cavemen riding dinosaurs (if you like).
Here in Fort Wayne, we learned in this morning’s paper that yet another set of Voucher/real estate swindle-schools that lost their charters are making noises like they will somehow magically get their charters back again, in time for the next school year. Being as this IS Indiana, and our state legislature has gone off the cliff, absolutely anything is possible.
It is impossible for me to view this whole voucher mania in Indiana as anything other than a direct attack on free public education,locally administered and accountable; and – in the short term – a flat-out money-grab by unaccountable people. Longer term, the idea seems to be to end the American norm of class-mobility, in favor of a more rigidly reinforced caste system (where a guy like Mitt Romney should easily win a national election, if only the worthy voters are allowed to vote)
If you think President Obama is not making AYP only in the field of education let me invite you to google, national debt, IRS, Benghazi, Associated Press, Fast and Furious, Eric Holder, water scarcity in the Imperial Valley, Syria, China, Europe, Immigration, 2nd Amendment, 1st Amendment . . I’m reeling. But you voted for him, right? You broke it, you bought it.
Harlan,
Please. Not every discussion on education needs to lead to a discussion about President Obama and his policies outside of education. If it did, we could put up a side-by-side list of President Bush’s missteps. You are not going to convert anyone to the Tea Party on this blog. And if Rand Paul is your answer to Hilary Clinton, then you are doomed to lose again, even if you put him in a “skirt”.
As soon as you mentioned Benghazi, you showed your cards, and they’re all jokers. And yes, I will proudly say that I voted for Obama in spite of his lousy education policies. We know where you get your news, Harlan, and it’s all faux, all the time.
If becoming a Tea Party member means as a parent my children are not owned by the Federal government, their data can not be sold, the standards they are taught are decided locally, their education and childhood is not hijacked by one-size-fits-all standards and testing, their right to free speech is protected, they will not be profiled by the IRS based on their political or religious beliefs, I would gladly leave behind the others and sign up! Education is just the final frontier for those who want total control – whoever they are!
Thank you, Cindy for your advice. Actually my candidate is Ted Cruz. Patricia Hale, where WAS the President when the Alquida were murdering our ambassador? Did HE give the order not to rescue him? Inquiring minds want to know, but partisan defenders don’t care. All the Tea Party wants is freedom from government intrusion and overextended debt. You don’t see it now, but you will, you will. Remember, the fish rots from the head. Bush was bad, but not this bad.
The teachers’ mass exodus throws a monkey wrench into Parent Revolution’s plans. I’m certain they never imagined it would happen, particularly in the current economy and considering that many people share the misinformed notion that educators are to blame for the struggling reputation of our public schools.
Sooner or later Ben Austin will run out of ways to spin the mistakes that have been made under the banner of the parent Trigger Law. The two recent elementary school turnarounds in Los Angeles have left more questions than answers, and there are a group of us that are working to insure that those answers see the light of day.
With Deasy at the helm of LAUSD, there will be a private charter school profiteer there in no time. Ben Austin is a disgrace…but so is Deasy, Villaraigosa, and the rest of the greed mongering plutocrat business community which is bent on destroying American public education. Wonder if Rhee will be on all the Sunday morning talk shows explaining why this is best thing for education.
Yes, Deasy and his corporate cronies are just waiting for a private charter school profiteers to come in and take over this school. They didn’t expect the teachers to ask for transfers. Now if those teachers and the parents who support them started having meetings to discuss the future of the school, events could go in a direction totally unexpected by Deasy et. al. That’s what I’m hoping for. It could be a real victory for teachers and the beginning of a true revolution (Teachers and parents in charge!).
Zorro,
If only the teachers would have such a strong conviction when it comes to the bad policies they are forced to inflict upon the students. While I have never blamed teachers for the demise of public education, they have remained mostly silent about what they do not agree with until it started to affect their job security or the job security of their peers and administrators. Clearly, those 21 teachers are making a statement, and it might be brave of them to do so, but it does nothing but harm the children in that school.
Haven’t you heard? Experience doesn’t matter. Young TFA types have high expectations and lots of energy. According to Gates, Kopp,
Duncan, etc we are all replaceable. Kids are data and teaching is testing, so according to their logic, these 21 positions will be easy to replaced.
Imagine if this happened on a national scale and it will eventually.
Please don’t assume teachers have remained silent. You don’t know what we do both openly and surreptitiously for our children and families.
Linda,
I can only speak from personal experience and from whatever I have been able to dig up through archives and on blogs and in the media.
The only teachers that I have come across, personally, who are willing to speak out against their own districts are those that are retired. I have one retired school teacher friend who is subbing in the elementary schools and is appalled at how they are teaching. But you will not get a tenured teacher (or one hoping to receive tenure) to admit to it. I get it. They need their jobs. But then I see these 21 teachers who are willing to risk their careers for other teachers and I can’t help but feel a little bitter. Why weren’t they willing to do that for their students?
There are very few teachers who are writing blogs about the curriculum in schools and how what we are doing is not working, except to blame parents and politicians and now capitalists.
Parents, the kind that are eviscerated in most of the blog comments I read, are few and far between but are held out there as the “norm” and the scapegoats when children fail. We are your biggest allies. But when we, the parents, start finding it hard to support the status quo, you better believe there is a problem.
Now you need to define the status quo and who do you think controls that? Thirteen years of testing is the status quo and depending on where people teach, school closings and the charter savior myth is the status quo. Teacher bashing is the status quo.
Join the war on teachers, you will have many supporters. This is a grea strategy for improving teaching and learning in our country. Start firing on the front line workers and things can only get better.
I heard of a great bumper sticker and I am looking for one:
“At least we are winning the war on education.” Go U S A!
Linda,
There has been a war on parents by teachers for a while. Even Ron Clark, who I have always admired, wrote a blistering, biased piece on parents. We are fed up. We are in the trenches with you trying to provide support so that all the children can get what they need as far as education goes and then some. But what we are finding is that more and more of the responsibility of education falls on our shoulders and our concerns about this fall on deaf ears. Teachers want to blame parents, but they don’t want to listen to them.
We are marginalized with rhetoric such as “we are the professionals, leave it to us”, “helicopter” parents are what is wrong with education, just “trust” us, we “love” your kids, too. We are afraid to say anything for fear of making it worse for our kids.
You are angry. You accuse parents of joining the war on teachers. We asked you to hear us when we saw the problems in the education system and you blew us off or shrugged your shoulders and said, “but what can we do?”. This is the result. We didn’t ask for this. All we want is the best education for our children. That is one of our jobs as parents.
I wasn’t speaking to you as a parent. I was speaking to you as one human to another. I have never blamed the parents of my students.
You are applying your situation to everybody and assuming it is the root of all problems and if it happened to you, the same must be taking place in every school in the entire country.
I don’t follow your logic because while you blame teachers for blaming parents you are doing the same thing you accuse teachers of
doing..blaming others, so accept responsiblity and work together or continue pointing fingers at someone else.
Linda,
You are not speaking to me as a human being but as a teacher. That comes through loud and clear.
You are making the same argument I have about these blog comments. That being that teachers who teach in public schools in large cities with their unique problems applying those problems and solutions to all public schools.
Many of us do not have those problems but still have problems within the education system such that students are being taught to a high standard and are prepared to be successful at each subsequent level of education.
I am taking personal responsibility. I tried for three years to work from within the system. It got me nowhere. Many of us out here in rural American are doing the only thing we can when the public schools fail us. We are moving our kids to private school, homeschooling, or if our state allows it, using schools of choice (cross district enrollment).
The only thing I blame teachers for is not taking a stand against the bad policies that only affect the students. They are willing to put themselves on the line when it comes to salary, benefits and tenure.
My logic is sound. Teachers have spent the last ten years pointing the finger at parents and blaming them when educational goals were not met. Take responsibility for that and realize that it has backfired. This is from someone that values the teaching profession and is willing to give every teacher the benefit of the doubt and believes in the idea of public education being the best way to meet the educational needs of society as a whole.
You are wrong. You generalize. You stereotype. I am a parent and a teacher. Your experiences are yours. They don’t indict an entire profession. Your logic is yours, but it is not sound.
Linda,
What about my friends from other school districts within my state and from other parts of the country who are saying the same things? Can you dismiss us all as generalizing and stereotyping?
What do you have to say about college freshmen not being prepared for college math and writing. Is that a conspiracy perpetrated by college professors?
Do you think the public education system is perfect outside of the problems created by budget cuts?
And don’t tell me who I “blew off”. You have no idea what we do for our children and families. Your myopic view is distorted and fits your perceptions only.
I agree. The teachers in most places have been too scared. I think the tide is turning on the reformers and this would be a good time for teachers to begin going into action. If they all came together no one could stop them.
Cindy,
You’re RIGHT! So WELL put!
Teachers – and most Americans – choose to remain uninformed, passive, acquiescent, and apolitical about issues that affect society and children.
Until we voice ourselves passionately – even as Harlan Underhill does . . . however skewered his views are – we will never achieve social justice and equality, and children are the most voiceless. We must voice our strong convictions with information to those who make policy but do not teach.
Teachers – most of them – leave this job for their unions to do, and that is a joke, a sad one.
Cindy and Linda,
The only war I know against parents from teachers is the one in which parent involvement and engagement was robustly sought after and parents remain unresponsive.
As a NBCT who teachers low income immigrant children in kindergarten, I would rather have a helicopter parent breathing down my back 24/7 any time vs. a parent who does not return permission slips, does not show up at conference time, does not respond to phone calls or e-mails. A parent who does not partner with the teacher is virutally a foe. The “overly”involved parent can always be utilized by a patient teacher who puts them to work to help their own child (as a supplement to classroom instruction) and/or to volunteer in class.
Parent-teacher partnerships are a beautiful marriage that form the village to raise a child. But apathy is not welcome by adept teachers. I think Linda would agree.
And Cindy, the parent-teacher dynamics change to be very challengin when you work with poorer populations. They don’t have to be impossible, but they take enormous 16 hour/6 day a week work days to implement well. This could legitimately produce frustration on a teacher’s behalf.
Remember Cindy: a parent is a child’s first and foremost a child’s teacher. But when that parent partners with a hard working teacher, it is kismet.
Robert Rendo: online postings can mislead as much as inform—especially re tone—so with goodwill towards all in this particular conversation, I thank you for steering us back to producing more light than heat.
🙂
I want to emphasize something that came up: a great many teachers are parents too. Hence, sharply distinguishing between them is difficult at best. For example, one of the SpecEd teachers I worked with had two severely handicapped adopted children. In other words, he was working both sides of the aisle. He experienced firsthand what it meant to work in, and with, the LAUSD, as a teacher and a parent. IMHO, this definitely made him more effective as a teacher but at the same time he was justifiably less inclined to put up with an ineffective and unwilling LAUSD or with parents who simply dumped their SpecEd kids into school and wanted the teachers to do all the parenting.
No, he was not abusive or bullying. Quite the contrary. But he didn’t put up with a lot of excuses from any quarter, including himself.
I know these kinds of discussions can be difficult and even aggravating. But they are necessary if we are to achieve a “better education for all.”
Thank you one and all for posting.
🙂
To Robert,
Agree wholeheartedly on all counts! Have a great week!
cindy,
N matter what they cannot hide their condescending to parents, which is sad. their ideas are right and yours are wrong, their way or the highway. you are correct in my “myopic ” view, and coming from experience, teachers do not seem to stand up against the lousy gibberish teaching trends, despite knowing how stupid they are, and which have failed all public school children. Or they do not know they are bad, or don’t care. Many go along even if they disagreed, because they want to keep a job. where is the integrity in that? it is not using critical thinking, or higher order thinking, or even engaging in the text of the reviews or critiques. my 5th graders teacher told me in confidence that she was glad to be going on maternity leave and would not recommend teaching to anyone. Common Core has ruined it for her. But she taught it, despite her objections and got out by maternity. She did not stand up to admin about it. its like giving our kids moldy food because the principle tells you to. And Robert wants us to partner with him, sort of like give the kids medicine when they get home from school to counteract the mold poisoning. Cindy, so many teachers and common core pushers really despise parents because we get in the way of indoctrination. they must be taught this in teacher college and continuing education. Teachers are spilling the beans left and right, though. now would be the time to jump ship because common core is goin down and classical education is coming back where teachers can be teachers not psychotherapists, babysitters and data processors and be individuals who are valued
for their excellence rather than their typing skills.
Have you ever been a teacher? Do not assume or presume that teachers are afraid and silent. But, have you ever been in a position where your livlidhood is based on a position where your boss can evaluate you into joblessness? THERE is no tenure where I live. I could lose my poisition if I speak up. And if allowed to continue to teach children how to take tests- I literally have to teach them how to fill in the “bubbles” correctly- said “boss” can make my life a living hell. We do speak, but on deaf ears. If we could “afford” to lose our jobs, maybe we would not be forced to “inflict bad policies upon the students”. What those teachers are doing does not harm students in any way. That school will hire new and young teachers who are idealistic and last as long as they have some kind of work ethic they will stay. Oh, and the school will surely be glad to not have to pay the salaries of the 21 instead paying 21 starting teacher salaries!
@ Robert Rendo
I have taught at title 1 AND at a school in an affluent area. Yes, it is difficult to deal with parents who do not involve themselves in their childs education, can’t or doesn’t feed them breakfast, doesn’t read to them, doesn’t make sure they get their rest, etc. However, it is also difficult to teach students responsibility when their parents do everything for them, demand extra time on school work, interrupt classroom learning time to deliver water bottles, lunches, homework, just to say hi, etc., demand you get them into special ed when they just need structure and don’t qualify, or refuse to believe your professional observations about their child needing to be evaluated for learning issues. Your assumption that children in affluent areas have no “issues”. Title 1 schools have social workers. Affluent schools do not. We have students who have parents are addicted, parents that don’t involve themselves, parents that are over involved, parents who neglect, parents who are fighting over custody, etc. Please know that ALL teachers in my district have the same impossible issues and they often attempt to speak up.
We have a very real fear that we will be jobless every year. With budget cuts, declining enrollment, etc. we bite our tongues to survive in this career. Where else can we go? What else can we do?
Cindy,
Please don’t assume that remaining silent about what we do not agree with was a choice made out of either cowardice or lack of passion. For many of us, it has been a choice of wisdom.
It’s changing now, but for many years I worked in a system where I could close my classroom door and do whatever I wanted. I have been working in the same classroom for 18 years and I have been observed exactly 3 times by administrators for a total of about 40 minutes. That is a powerful amount of freedom to do what I believe is right. If I had risen up in public protest against the same things that I simply, quietly, subversively refused to implement, odds are good that I would have been replaced and the replacement might very likely have been someone who lacked the insight or the initiative to ignore the marching orders and do what they knew was right.
Dave,
I have no doubt that this happens and I commend you for striving to do what is best for the children entrusted to you. Obviously, I did not think that was the case at my daughter’s school.
I have reached the conclusion, however, that there are different “camps”, if you will, in this education debate. The majority of those who post here seem to have experiences in big cities and teach in inner city schools and secondary ones, at that. They can point to poverty and gangs and apathy and a whole slew of other problems that complicate teaching and learning that people in my area and other smaller school districts do not have (at least not to that degree). Yet, we still have kids who are not learning to read well, write well, or who are not mastering math so they can succeed at the next level.
In some ways, it makes it easier to identify the problems, or at least you would think so. But teachers, principals, administrators, and school boards in my area cry budget cuts, standardized testing, and lack of (or too much) parental involvement while parents cry curriculum, class sizes, and, yes, in some cases, ineffective teachers and/or administrators. Most of us do that in private, however, and continue to support teachers and work in the school and with our children at home and burn ourselves out.
We are at an impasse it seems. It doesn’t matter what I say or how many examples I give from other friends who have had similar experiences, it is not going to ring true if the people reading it come from a completely different demographic.
I suppose we can agree on some basics like every child, every day and that teaching strictly to a test is bad, but I’m not finding much other common ground. Sadly, I am beginning to understand that just like my own hometown people who put high school and middle school above elementary school, the big players in education work from this same mindset.
So, I will continue to homeschool as I am confident nothing will change in the near future. I will try and stay abreast of the issues, but my inclination is to bow out of this very contentious debate about education reform and the Common Core (which I will proudly use as an excellent guide for my homeschool classroom) and parents who want to have a say in their children’s education
FWood,
Maybe you have had some experiences where you believe a teacher was putting you and/or other parents down. I don’t know. I have never seen this in 19 years of teaching. But you obviously have some high expectations of teachers. Do you have these same expectations of those in other professions? Should everyone who works at McDonald’s quit their job in protest because some of the food is unhealthy? Should all soldiers go AWOL in protest that some military actions are unjustified and excessive? At some level, every job is a compromise and the employer is the one in charge. In the case of public school teachers, the employer is the people, whose representatives have made the choices we have regarding the Common Core and other initiatives you appear to be against.
And can we stop the rampant stereotyping? Many great teachers I know have been working tirelessly and at significant personal risk to stand up for what they think is right. I have met some truly awful parents in my day, but I still support parents and my mindset is not to assume the worst about them. Can you do the same for teachers?
One last question. I’ve been hearing lately about the common core being some kind of indoctrination and you bring it up again. I’ve spend a little time reading the CCSS and a lot more with the NGSS, since I’m a science teacher. Can you fill me in, because I’m not getting the indoctrination vibe from the actual standards themselves? Maybe I need to know how to read between the lines a little better.
I do want to add one more thing: there are far more parents in public schools, Title 1 and affluent that are supportive of teachers and students. It is the one or two that a teacher has to deal with every year that seems to bring teacher morale down. I want to make sure that you understand, if you are not a teacher, that teachers do appreciate supportive parents. Most teachers work with parents as partners in their child’s education.And most parents work with teachers as well.
Kim,
You are the perfect example of someone who is very negative toward parents and I would point this out to Robert who thinks there is not a war going on against parents. This is the kind of attack against parents I heard regularly.
In one breath you fault a parent for not providing the proper nutrition and in the next you fault the parent for delivering a water bottle. Too involved – not involved enough – who knows what the middle ground is?
And, Kim. I have refused, on many occasions, to do work that I disagreed with and have taken a financial hit for it. I am self-employed, pay for my own health insurance, which is a 30-year-old beater compared to your Cadillac of health care coverage. I have no pension, no matching funds 401K, no paid vacation, no paid benefits whatsoever.
Yet, I have volunteered at the school, spent hundreds of dollars on parties and school supplies when the classroom ran out, brought in sharpened pencils when I saw the kids writing with nubs, purchased books for the class at the book fair, directed traffic in the car line when NO ONE would do it, and helped struggling students with their reading. And that’s just a few. I would do my work at 4 in the morning so I was available to help at school.
Yet, when I discussed the curriculum with teachers and the principal, I was either given stacks of books to read or told not to worry that it all worked out in the end. No amount of data, by equally intelligent and knowledgeable education professionals, made a difference. How could it? Were they going to teach my one child a different curriculum? What was I thinking?
@Kim,
I wanted to point out that I posted my reply in the time that you made your clarification. I, too, would like to clarify that my unhappiness was with the curriculum. The teachers, whether they believed in it or didn’t, would not say so. They did the best they could with the the curriculum, the class size, and the budget.
To Cindy and Kim:
CIndy: At this point, most teachers throughout NY State do not have Cadillac healthcare coverage, and if they do, they are contributing about 25% toward the plan. Right now, most districts have downgraded to less expensive plans, and that spells less comprehensive coverage. If you should get seriously ill, chances are about 1/3 that your healthcare plan as a public school teacher does not provide adequate coverage. My district in (mostly) affluent Westchester County is now going on its third plan, and it’s akin to a HIP plan, which is anything but “Cadillac”. I can’t speak for other states, other districts. But please, if you know of any district in my state that offers cadillac coverage, I’d love to know who they are and consider working there. I am in excellent health fortunately. On a much bigger picture note, if we had a single payer system like all other modern, civilized, developped countries, there would never be any pitting of tax payer against public servant. THe fact thay our system is mostly privatized and for-profit is a failure of our democracy. Healthcare is a human, civil, and birthright. If you’re in business for yourself, can you write off any of the premiums on your taxes?
Kim: I agree with what you said about parents in affluent schools. Bad parenting is bad parenting, regardless of socioecononc status, and it never aids the alliance between teacher and parent when the parent is difficult, defensive, uncooperative, resistant, and not open minded. That said, it has been my experience that 95% of my parents are team oriented. And those remaining 5% are on the spectrum from rude and inconsiderate to downright lunatic/off-the-wall. But the intention of partnering with parents is to maximize one’s parent engagement, knowing full well that not every parent will become engaged. I have had to do a lot of ego stroking to parents to win their trust. But most parents in my experience (and your own experiences are VALID!!!!!) want more to be paid attention to than not. But they are passive and need all sorts of solicitation, phone calls, begging, even “tough love” sometimes . . . but with enough solicitation, most respond. I conduct typical one-on-one 75 minute conferences with parents in what I call “academic counseling”. I bring in materials and model how to use them at home with their child working with me in front of the parent. This is one of several approaches that pays off ten fold. But the hours are MURDER!
Also, you’re right about speaking up about curriculum and internal initiatives and policies. If teachers speak up too much or to the wrong person in advocating for children, they stand to lose their jobs are evaluated into joblessness. This terrible consequence is increased in its odds also if the style of communication is unprofessional. In some instances, a teacher can have the best polish in their tone and choice of words and still get slammed by an insecure administrator. I understand your legitimate frustration in this instance!
It’s not a perfect world, and the USA is morphing into an oligarchy with all of this free market choice and reform. But we all must keep on fighting for families and children regardless of our employment in whatever way we can. Our discussions on this forum, even when incongruent, evidences such advocacy.
@Robert.
I would love to teach with you!! I love dedicated teachers like myself. We take the time we need to reach the child and assist the families so that there is success in school. Not just success but a lifelong desire to learn. I am sure that you, like myself, try to make the most of those learning moments we have despite the time constraints to teaching to the test!!
@ Cindy,
Sorry, but I do not have cadillac insurance. My state has threatened my retirement (pension). After 10 years of teaching, due to salary freezes, pay cuts, and no increases, I earn the same salary as a third year teacher. I can not afford to get my masters, which if I did, the cost will never be seen in my salary, so it is not worth it. (If I were 25 and just starting my career, I would be a fool not to get my masters). Bravo to you for taking a stand and not doing something you do not believe is right. I believe you are able to make that decision for yourself with no other consequences to your career other than a financial loss. Well, for a teacher to refuse to do something they don’t believe in would be a possible career ending choice. I work hard for what I do get and it is my choice to do what I do. I do not have paid vacations, so don’t fool yourself into believing I do. I get paid a salary for the hours I work. It comes to about $30 an hour (FOR the hours I work). I do not get paid for my summer. I take classes in the summer that I need to take to keep up with the curriculum changes. If you think I go on vacation- think again. I have living expenses just like you and a child I am helping put through college. I choose to receive my pay so it looks like I am getting paid during the summer. So, if my under $40,000 annual salary comes with medical and pension- so be it. I have to pay for individual insurance on my own for my son because it is much less expensive than the coverage through work. Not a cadillac plan. Speaking of curriculum- Do you think teachers choose the curriculum? We don’t. But we are required by LAW to teach it. We sign a contract to teach the curriculum we are given. We can not just do our “own” thing.Openly anyway. The districts purchase curriculum for lots of money. We are under legal obligations in our profession to accomodate IEP’s and contractually to teach to the standards. I teach the core knowledge curriculum, which is used to model the common core standards, however my district dictates that I teach the curriculum they purchase as well. Please know that if you want to discuss curriculum at your school you need to talk to the superintendant and school board, not the teachers. AND as for common core- the problem we have in our school and state is that they are expecting us to teach it NOW without giving us the training and time that we need to develop lesson plans, maps and calendars. That is why the teachers are frustrated and there is so much in the news about common core standards. It has been “shoved” down our throats so to speak. So, my summer “paid vacation” is taking 3 classes to learn how best to teach the new common core standards so my students will pass the test.
I am the parent of 3. I am the parent of a “gifted” student, a special ed student, and a “normal” student. I have been in all those meetings as a parent and as a teacher. I do not have any misconceptions of public education. I am the product of public and private education myself. I can tell you it is the TEACHERS not the schools or the programs that make a difference.
Kim and Robert,
I am positive that whatever health care plan you have, it is better than mine. When our health care coverage for myself, my husband and one child reached $1,600 per month, we switched to a high deductible, health savings plan (we had to or we would go bankrupt, I am not exaggerating). Even the $1,600 did not cover dental, eye care or prescriptions and we still paid 50% of our office visits. Now, we pay $574 per month (and it goes up regularly) and have a $10,000 out-of-pocket expense before it picks up any health care expenses. If we go to the doctor, we pay 100% with the exception of a few health maintenance procedures which it does not cover 100% (mammograms and one yearly checkup). Again, that is no dental, no eye care and no prescription coverage. And, Richard, the government keeps changing their minds about what we can “write off” as far as health care, but it amounts to a pittance (no Medicare or S.S. tax, but we still pay Federal Income Tax and State Income Tax on it), and the amount I pay an accountant to make sure we are doing it properly likely puts us in the red (again, I am not exaggerating).
I live in Michigan. Kim, you definitely make less than the average teacher here AND they have excellent benefits, though I couldn’t quite rectify your $30/hour computed wage with how many hours you indicate you put into the job (are you including benefits?). Robert, as I understand it, NY pays its teachers pretty well (compared to other states) but I know the cost of living in many areas of NY is high (I used to live in New Haven, CT so I feel your pain), and I don’t begrudge you your salary. I don’t begrudge any teacher their salary, for that matter.
I do, however, think that teachers, by-and-large, do not have a good sense of what the rest of us (those who do not work for government) are going through on a daily basis. Many of us (please think outside the box of wealthy Westchester county) have no safety nets, not even crappy ones.
I hear all of the frustrations that you encounter. I know they exist. But when I say that parents are being singled out to shoulder a significant portion of the blame for both teacher dissatisfaction with their jobs AND student academic failures, I hear crickets. I suspect that I am being considered one of those 5% lunatic parents that Robert described.
Robert, “partnership” requires honesty. There can be no true honesty between teachers and parents. Those honest moments come only rarely and they are delivered “off the record”. I am sure that teachers, when they do let down the veil, spend the rest of the year worrying whether what they said will come back to bite them in the rump.
This particular blog post was as much about the parents (and the tone regarding the parents is not positive) as it was about the fired principal. The parents used a tool -one they have been afforded in a democratic society – to oust a principal that they felt was not meeting theirs or their children’s needs. I did a little research. This is an under-performing school where 61% of the parents signed a petition and the board accepted it 5-2. Those are some pretty impressive figures where you cannot usually get 60% of any body of people to participate in anything that matters. Further, many of the parents complained that the principal would not return their calls and was rarely at the school. Is that true? I don’t know. But if it is, it is a problem outside of the poor student performance. The teachers – who also exercised their right to protest via requesting job transfers – apparently disagree with the parents. What would be most interesting is to hear actual discussions between the parents and the teachers about why one side thought A and the other side thought B.
Kim, I am curious what grade you teach and what is the curriculum you are required to teach? Our elementary schools use Daily 5s and Literacy CAFÉ. This teaching philosophy stresses independent learning (my daughter can’t independently pick her clothes up off the floor even with nagging – and she’s a good kid) with 20 minute group breakouts; read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, word work, work on writing. Using pictures and context are the tools to figure out unknown words (even in 3rd grade and beyond). Daily 5’s own literature describes a “good fit” book as being one where the student knows 99.9% of the words and understands 90% of the vocabulary. Reading by pictures means, for the most part, that neither the words nor the vocabulary is likely very advanced or challenging. Kids are allowed to choose their own books, and often they choose the ones they have read over and over and with which they do not have to challenge themselves.
Our classroom sizes are very small and are not suited for this type of “group” or “center” based curriculum. It is like trying to fit a Boeing 757 education plan into a Cessna single engine plane. This curriculum is well respected within the teaching community, as far as I can tell. I don’t like it. It is pretty on paper, but I don’t think it reaches the at-risk children effectively and I don’t think it pushes potentially high achieving kids to that level. I think I am right. I feel so strongly about it, that I am homeschooling. Trying to teach my child at home after a full day of school is too much. Can you suggest how parents and teachers work together when they have a situation like that?
Let me say, that I thank you for your dedication to teaching. If you don’t hear that often enough, I am truly sorry.
@Cindy
Yes. My healthcare is better than yours. I choose to teach, you choose to be self employed. The rewards I receive from students are priceless. But I work very hard and I deserve every cent of my salary, benefits and pension. It would be/will be very difficult to walk away from my pension, but the stress and frustration is too great. There are too many people making decisions about education who have no knowledge of teaching and it doesn’t look like it will get better any time soon. It is interesting that parents can dictate the ousting of a principal, but when teachers have issues with a principal there is no one listening. Obviously this group of teachers felt the principal was fired for the wrong reasons. I am not sure how or why it happened, but students are no longer held accountable for their learning, grades, homework, etc. by some parents and by some teachers.
I am sure that the district that your daughter is in has a reading curiculum that they adopted, such as McGraw-Hill or Harcourt. Daily 5 is a management tool teachers use to enable them to meet with students one on one and in small groups. It is what we used to call centers. This is a way to engage students and hold them accountable for their learning. I live and work in Arizona. Our class sizes are large and getting larger every year. In order to facilitate differentiation in the classroom, teachers must have something for students to do when not working with a teacher directly. Most teachers are not going to allow a student to reread a book over and over again. Independent reading levels are different than instructional levels for a reason. We teach children different strategies to use when they read and we use instructional level books to do so. Then students read independent level books to practice what they learn. I have taught 6th,kindergaten and now second grade. I have used different management programs to engage students while I teach small groups or work one on one with students. For every parent that doesn’t like a program, there is one who does. For every parent who thinks I don’t give enough homework, there is one who thinks I give too much. I have to at some point find my own balance. I would suggest that if homeschooling doesn’t work, you do what parents here do, choose a charter school that fits your and your child’s needs.
Kim,
We don’t have charter schools. No one is pushing for them. We have two rival school districts that are content to see who can build the biggest football stadium. As long as one or the other can claim bragging rights to being “better” than the other, they really don’t care what the numbers say about their “absolute” achievements. So sad.
Wow, in this educational market, with this LAUSD leadership and with this deform board of education, this is a big deal for 21 teachers to resign their jobs. I hope that they can transfer instead of resign because we do need them in education. The current principal that they want to replace can sign all of their transfers. Now these are the type of teachers that we need in UTLA.
It is my understanding that the teachers asked for transfers and did not resign.
Click to access A1.pdf
They asked for transfers but if no school takes them in, they don’t have jobs
Why won’t they have jobs if they don’t get a transfer?
A fantastic and heroic gesture. There will always be a place for teachers of quality. More for teachers that exhibit principles and bravery as well.
They’re models of democratic citizenship and the type of person I want for my children.
Agreed.
Actually, assuming that they have tenure, they do have jobs. And because Bennett Kayser is going to introduce a motion to reduce class size, which will most likely pass in July because of the result of Ratliff becoming a school board member, the job market in Los Angeles should get better. Deasy will have less ability to divert funds out of the classroom.
Great way to stick it to Parent Revolution and Deasy. When a principal becomes this good, the powers that be always transfer them. It is just LAUSD.
I’m curious about the one teacher who did not resign. It sort of reminds me of the sole survivor of Thermopylae.
One teacher is not transferring…perhaps moving.
Teachers were asked not to interfere with trigger process. We even had a legal injunction to cease and desist order when we tried to use our own school auditorium to tell parents about our school. Parent Revolution lawyers and money and influence are aggressive and abrassive. It’s a sad statement when improving a school does not include the teachers in the process, and not to mention the principal. This process is divisive and only destroys trust and hope.
Because the teachers at this school have the support of the parents, it’s a perfect opportunity for the teachers and parents together to take control of it. They could appoint a head teacher to administer and make all other decisions themselves. Teachers think they would have a lot of extra work but they would appoint people to do the administrative duties. The main difference is that a governing group (Faculty Senate?) would make the decisions regarding curriculum, instruction, personnel, etc. It’s time for teachers to be in charge.
Oh, how I’d love to see that before I join the Great Schoolhouse in the Sky.
On virtue alone…it’s difficult to work with a process that devalues collaboration, uses intimidation and disrespects all the work and dedication that goes into improving a community. Its bad enough we work for Deasy! Now we have to listen to Parent Revolution.
Could you tell what city, or least what state this rare act of courage happened?
Better than any teacher’s union I’ve ever heard of and much more daunting, no doubt
to that administration and city!
Mary Pishney, this occurred in Los Angeles.
As I have said before “Fight Back” as those signatures were illegal under rule 4, page 2, item (g) which states that you cannot promise anything or intimidate or pay for the signatures. Parent Revolution has broken all these rules every time. Therefore, these Triggers are no good due to lack of proper signatures. Weigand parents testified at the Board of Education on this and the parents of Adalanto are on the record now concerning the same things. This is backfiring on Parent Revolution and Deasy and his crew. I have sent this information to each Board Member of LAUSD in an email. They cannot say they did not receive this information as there were no come backs. It is their responsibility. It is also the responsibility of these employees to not just lay down when there is a legitimate reason to fight as the signatures are no good as the legal rules were broken and they knew it.