A reader comments on an earlier post by a Chicago teacher who explained why he was striking:
I was a high school teacher in New York City, and I agree 100% with Kevin. Before teaching in NY I was a public school teacher in Hong Kong. What struck me the most about teaching in the US is that teachers here are expected to be “supermen” and “superwomen” who should be able to turn classrooms of kids, no matter how difficult and how little support they receive from parents and politically-driven administrators, into high-achieving academic-minded students.
The worst schools in Hong Kong have their own school campus (buildings and playgrounds). In NYC, 5 schools share one building, and the students are shut in the classrooms the whole day with only one lunch break. Their gym class takes place in a parking lot.
The American culture, more than any I have know, places supreme importance on glamour, fame, money, beautiful bodies; modeling and entertainment industries are highly esteemed and looked up to. Teenage sex is not eschewed upon in the name of freedom; public school teachers are mandated to hand out condoms to students who ask for them.
Teachers, day-in and day-out, have to fight this up-hill battle against the overwhelming larger culture, to tell students not to take short cuts or the easy way out, that having boyfriends to show off and thinness are not as important as hard work, kindness, and discipline.
“No,” the administrators say, “If you class is interesting enough, students will be engaged and they will do better in their grades.” And so if anything goes wrong with the children, if they are not learning, it is the teacher’s responsibility!
There are irresponsible and horrible, lazy teachers in the profession, just like in any other profession, but the system and the treatment of teachers–which largely comes from being ignorant of what the teaching job entails–make it extremely difficult if not impossible for the ones who have the heart to teach to do it.
Being Asian, I’m shocked and appalled at how little respect the teaching profession receives in this country, as reflected in the political dialogue, from both Republicans and Democrats, and in the salaries teachers receive compared to other professions. Get this, on the salary chart that I received when I first started teaching, the maximum salary that a teacher could ear was a little over $80,000K, that is, if the teacher possesses a PhD degree and has taught 25 years.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This is fun, Diane. Alas, teachers sometimes forget that the lack of respect and the working conditions that go with it have an impact on students. Instead of blaming each other we have on occasion joined forces–our working conditions are their learning conditions. My first teaching experience was in Chicago (as a sub!) and was stunned by the routine disrespect that I experienced — not by kids but my the adults who “rnan” the system. All participants become accustomed to it, and lose their “shock”. Our system needs reform badly–but it stars with respecting teachers and providing the time and space for them to experience what other professionals take for granted. I subsequently got half-time job as a kindergarten teacher with a wonderful young principal and mostly great colleagues–in a small K-6 school. It could be done! Fortunately we all had fun working and sharing and talking and thinking together–instead of competing for higher test scores!
In my first year of teaching in 1998, the principal announced over the loudspeaker, that if we couldn’t keep the students’ attention, that they would vote with their feet–meaning it was our boring lessons that caused the extensive absenteeism that kept our Brooklyn school at the bottom. Despite the gargantuan efforts of the staff, the school closed in 2005, replaced by seven “small schools” which opened and closed, each faced with the same intractable problems.
I wish I could say that things here in South Africa were different, but as I read your blog, I felt as though I was reading about my own country. We have schools that have no text books, no libraries, no educational equipment, no computer facilities, no sport facilities – they are basically a shell and when these schools do not perform the government immediately blames the teachers and principals. Never mind that the children have had to walk up to 15km to get there, or that they have come to school with no food in their tummies…these schools lack basic support from the government and yet they are held accountable for non-performance. Every year when the Matric results are released I wait for the onslaught from government…it makes my blood boil.
I’m afraid that ‘teacher by teacher’ we are going to need to each ‘get our craw full’ and finally say ‘enough is enough!
I feel for that young teacher who is appalled by the lack of respect….. but having been on both sides of the coin, a teacher, then an elementary principal for 17 years and finally returning to the classroom where my real passion was, I am convinced that ‘we the teachers need to COMMAND’ that respect by taking risks, daily, and chipping away at the establishment, parents, administrators, legislators, and even students. Until we stand up individually and then collectively and say “I Am A Teacher” and this is what I stand for, no one will ever respect us. Yes, it is going to take strikes, lawsuits, getting our knees dirty, bloody and skinned, but we have to believe in ourselves and rebuild our profession from within, because no one else is interested in it. I’ve been retired for almost eight years and served 30 years in the Denver schools and I did it my way. I taught, became a principal, got fed up with the pecking order and went back to the classroom and realized what my ‘real passion’ was. I retired with dignity, got very good results with students, had teachers from around the district come to observe my classroom, even taught a literacy course at a local college my last year. I am not bragging by any means, however, I took the heat from breaking rank and even became the association rep. within my school and initiated a class action grievance against the district when a group of yuppy parents wanted to take over our school, which they eventually did, all in the name of ‘reform.’ So, been there done that and am now reading Diane’s blogs to become informed of the larger issues and gearing up to ‘join the fight’ wherever that leads. My heart simply bleeds for the aforementioned teacher and for all teachers who try to make a difference day in and day out, with students. We need to respect ourselves, and our profession before we expect anyone else to follow suit. What is going on in ‘public education’ today is frightening, but we as teachers need to unite and individually and collectively regroup and define our profession and reclaim boundaries, even if we lose our jobs, because great teachers are being displaced under the guise of reform, which we know isn’t the real issue.