This post explains why teachers need tenure. Tenure is not a job for life. Tenure protects freedom of speech. Tenure protects academic freedom.
The previous post linked to an article by a teacher in Missouri who warned his students not to become a teacher because of the outrageous attacks on teachers. He was suspended. He does not have tenure. He does not have academic freedom. He was suspended for speaking his mind about the destruction of his profession in a public forum.
Here is the story, sent by a fellow Missouri teacher who must (of course) remain anonymous or he will also lose his job.
*******************
Randy Turner, a veteran teacher in Joplin, Missouri, posts
an opinion on the HuffPost regarding the destruction of the
teaching profession—
… TFA replacing veterans;
… legislation banning / removing tenure;
… making ony $37 K-per-year after 14 years, then
being publicly shamed for being “greedy”…
and on and on…
HERE it is at the Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randy-turner/a-warning-to-young-people_b_3033304.html
then gets immediately suspended for expressing his 1st Amendment-protected opinion:
(quite a civics lesson for the students in Joplin, MO, don’t-cha think?)
http://www.koamtv.com/story/22046153/students-hope-to-bring-suspended-joplin-teacher-back
Here’s Randy’s blog with the latest on his own situation:
http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-did-koam-scoop-me-on-this-one-randy.htmlv
and if all this is not bad enough, some ignorant, profiteering edupreneur chimes in. The guy admits that
“as an education entrepreneur, I do not claim to understand every nuance of the classroom. I am not a
teacher..”, but that doesn’t stop him from rubbing salt in Randy’s wounds with this atrocity (also posted at the HuffPost):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fahad-hassan/teacher-pay_b_3135114.html?utm_hp_ref=@education123
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m putting a curse on those that “rub salt in Randy’s wound,” … MAY THEY SUFFER THE SAME CONDITIONS THAT RANDY SPEAKS OF IN HIS BLOG POST! Now (if “magic” works 😛 ) THEY will have low pay, no respect, everyone OUTSIDE of their profession telling them how to do their job, no job security, and NO VOICE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
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In WI, we have heard from the right that “Unions had their place, but their time is passed. We don’t need them anymore.” Here is one prime example of why we do. That, and things like the bill being proposed to end the required overtime pay for over 40 hours. We still need unions and we need to fight the attacks on unions and collective bargaining.
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I retired in June 2012. I agree with the observations made by Mr. Turner, but I was not surprised that he was suspended. Even after retiring, I am cautious about what I say in public. Teachers live in fear of losing their jobs when they become too vocal with criticisms of the changes.
However, I do understand the perspective presented by the second blog. The point seems to be that some believe that the face of education can and must change.
To me, a problems with the changes are the manner and method of change, coupled with its rapid insertion and disregard for teachers as human beings and in some cases disregard for students as individuals.
There are too many instances of abuse of educators and students with the new approach to education. There is no magic solution.
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Bravo Randy. I wish you the best in fighting the good fight. Hopefully your students and parents will rally to your defense.
BTW- Great blog you have here:
http://rturner229.blogspot.com/
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In what other profession would you expect protection for speaking out against your superiors and colleagues?
This isn’t a matter of academic freedom, but a matter of trying to protect someone who, in a way, was insubordinate.
If you walked into a bank and the teller started telling you everything that was wrong with the branch manager and company overall, would you consider this professional? In the public sector, if you went into a university hospital (at a public university), and the doctors started telling patients about all of the internal problems at the hospital, would you consider that professional?
I’m not saying this teacher didn’t have a right to an opinion, but there are appropriate and inappropriate venues for expressing those opinions. Since many of those issues are, in fact, matters of public policy, I think it would even be more acceptable to speak publicly such as writing a letter in the newspaper. However, I’m just not sure that speaking with kids in his classroom about his district’s issues are appropriate. I also certainly do not think that this is what tenure was remotely designed to protect, as it has nothing to do with academic freedom.
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In your position in an elementary school years ago, had you earned due process rights?
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Thank you, Diane, for speaking out for tenure and academic freedom. Teaching is a unique profession. Teachers are responsible for cultural transmission–for passing on to a new generation the best of what the culture has created–and it’s extremely important–it goes to the very heart of what it is to be a pluralistic democracy–that students be exposed to a variety of viewpoints presented by teachers who are opinionated scholars. In the past, we didn’t give tenure to teachers right away because we recognized that people had to earn the right, but we also recognized the importance of that right–of intellectual freedom. If someone wants to have an official single view enforced by a top-down, absolutist authority, then a very good place to start is with the killing of due process and tenure. The attack on tenure in the U.S. is not a free market reform. It’s Orwellian.
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Did he attack his district? I felt that it was more or less a critique of the current reform movement.
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He would have more protection if he had tenure, but even the most untenured teachers have First Amendment rights. He should be talking to a lawyer right now.
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Part of our terms of employment was to subordinate ourselves to offering no criticism of anything going on within the district that might be controversial. If we did, we were ordered to stop. Punitive action was taken to make sure we kept our mouths shut. Most people wanted to keep their jobs because they had mortgages to pay, children to put through college, and medical needs. The teachers were good and dedicated but they didn’t want to make waves and to wreck their own lives. So we did our best to deliver the demanded curricular changes while maintaining our own personal styles. The stress was horrible. Many of us retired because it was just not worth the constant stressfulness and our lack of a desire to deal with the hypocrisy of it all.
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And when people ask why teachers are silent on all the reform issues going on right now? Your answer and the mistreatment of Randy Turner are exactly why.
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Thanks for the kind words from everyone. My suspension coming at almost exactly the same time as my Huffington Post blog was a coincidence. Basically, it happened because I wrote a novel, No Child Left Alive, criticizing many of the practices in education today, particularly those done by overambitious administrators. I just finished posting the charges against me on my blog: http://rturner229.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-joplin-school-districts-charges.html
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Randy, either way you were suspended for exercising freedom of speech.
No difference.
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Hopefully, at least four members of my board of education will see it the same way. It has only been two weeks, but I miss being in the classroom.
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Do you think it would be appropriate to post a correction to your blog post so that no one else that reads it misunderstands the story and thinks that Mr. Turner was put on administrative leave for attacking education reform efforts? I do happen to think it makes a difference, although I do agree that there should be protected free speech for teachers, just as I do for all professions.
I would just hate for anyone to be confused unnecessarily.
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Does his book support current “reform” efforts?
He wrote and did not ask for a correction.
If he does, I will.
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I appreciate everyone’s concern. For the moment, I am on paid leave, so money has not become a factor at this point, though it certainly will. Because I am a tenured teacher, (in Missouri you have to teach in the same school district five years to become tenured on the first day of your sixth year) I have the right to a hearing. Tentatively, thas has been scheduled for May 9. About my book, it does indeed speak negatively of the reform movement, standardized testings, practice standardized testing for those tests, and practice tests to prepare for the practice tests and basing curriculum around the testing. Plus, it explores the demeaning way teachers are treated and the efforts to cook the books on disciplinary statistics by simply making it almost impossible for a teacher to write a referral. Everything I wrote was based on things I have observed, or have been told by teachers in my school district and across the nation.
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It seems to me that they are do no service to the students to remove a teacher mid-year when that teacher isn’t doing anything harmful to the students. Having a sub there is not the same. It is like turning this into an “emergency” situation. They are not thinking about the children.
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@Deb. Agreed. They aren’t thinking about the children. They are thinking about sending a message to others. Randy has become the sacrificial lamb.
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He was not speaking about his school but about general problems the teaching profession faces today. He loves teaching and no where does he badmouth his school. From what he wrote on his blog after the charges were received, he apparently thought he had a good relationship with his principal. I would guess he was right; this attack on his integrity is not directed at a building level. He definitely should “lawyer up.” The school district’s investigation was obviously rigged to reach the conclusion that Mr. Turner was morally and ethically unfit to teach. In case anyone wonders, tenure would not have protected him from this attack. Does anyone wonder why teachers choose to remain anonymous on this blog?
I will not even repeat the name of the edupreneur’s who felt his comments added to the discussion.
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Ms. Ravitch – It’s unfortunate my opinion simply as a non-teacher (as I wrote the HuffPo article) adds no merit to the conversation — or the fact that you left out I’ve been involved in almost every other facet of the conversation except as a classroom teacher (which I make clear). I’d like to think an outsiders perspective is welcome in the great education discussion — and tried to write a positive article expressing the need for greater appreciation of teachers — as I believe is lacking in this country.
I also do not agree that Mr. Turner should be suspended for expressing his beliefs.
Completely uncalled for.
I may disagree on several points, but I respect your opinions and try my best to maintain a positive outlook and avoid negative banter back and forth.
-Fahad
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Fahad the problem is that teachers out here are going through H@#$ and you write an article as if you know better. That’s the problem. People are truly demoralized. Not many teachers are going to respect your opinions.
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Randy Turner is an outstanding teacher. A certain administrator is jealous of his fame and how much the students love him. We are all working really hard to get him back in the classroom.
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It is generally so. Someone is ostracized as a means of squelching others. Randy must be able to afford the days without income (due to being a writer) from his teaching job, or he’d be in a world of pain, even moreso than he must be already. There is simply very little consideration for those who have had successful years as teachers, especially if they dare to “question” anything that is presented as new and “forward” thinkikng. Change for the sake of change is NOT necessarily good or even necessary.
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Good luck to you. Obviously your district is not putting the needs of the students first.
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Well, by persecuting Turner, they have drawn a great deal of attention to his book and his blog. I intend to read both, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
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Well, if we just had robots for teachers this whole problem would be solved. If anything, his experience helps to highlight why people are leaving the profession!!
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