Sara Stevenson, librarian at the O. Henry School in Austin and tireless defender of public schools and teachers, wrote this article, which was published in the Austin American-Statesman. Unfortunately, it is behind a pay wall. However, Sara solved that problem by posting it on her personal blog. Sara writes a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal whenever it bashes public schools or teachers and whenever it extols the virtues of vouchers; many of them get published. She is a one-woman truth squad for the WSJ.
She writes:
“If teachers are the most important school factor in student achievement, how do our current policies and national conversation help us to grow and retain better teachers? Tenured Stanford University professor Eric Hanushek wants us to fire “bad teachers,” but we should worry more about keeping the good ones. This year my public middle school lost a wave of talent.
To those, such as Wendy Kopp of Teach For America, who believe that experience doesn’t matter, why are our new teachers cautioned, before Back to School Night, not to tell the parents they’re a first-year teacher? Studies cited in Dana Goldstein’s “The Teacher Wars” show that first-year teachers underperform experienced teachers. Hardly surprising. Can you think of any profession in which experience is not an asset?…?
“While teaching may be a respectable starter job for young college graduates, teachers pay dearly over time for their career choice. As Goldstein cites, the median teacher pay in this country is $54,000 while the median pay for a dental hygienist is $70,000. After teaching for 22 years in Texas with a master’s degree, I haven’t even hit the median. I worked for ten years in a Catholic high school where, when I quit in 1999, you could work for thirty years and not break $30,000. None of my salary was pensionable. I cite this for those who think private school vouchers are the answer….
“What worries me most about the current fads of education reform is that they are so demotivating for our most talented teachers. While Daniel Pink reminds us in “Drive” that carrots and sticks are so last century when it comes to motivation, merit pay and punishment for students’ test scores seem to be the preferred reforms….
“Let’s abandon the latest fads for reform and find a way to build and nourish better teachers, the ones we already have. Dana Goldstein’s No. 1 recommendation for improving our schools? Pay teachers more.”
…..
Diane Ravitch's blog 
While I certainly think teachers could be paid more, I don’t think increasing teacher pay is the number one thing that will improve schools. I’m not a teacher, but from what I’m hearing, no amount of money would make up for the abusive practices teachers have to endure, including over testing, evaluations tied to testing, canned/scripted test prep lessons, forced busy-work and general micromanagement of teaching. Get rid of those things first and let teachers teach.
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The reality is that most teachers would prefer smaller classes (meaning more teachers) rather than teach classes of 40-50. It more to teachers to be respected and treated well then money.
Don’t misunderstand, teachers should be paid well for what they do.
Most people outside the classroom don’t have clue how much work is added to a teacher with just 5 more students.
http://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/does-5-more-students-really-matter/
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“Most people outside the classroom don’t have clue how much work is added to a teacher with just 5 more students.”
Not only that but added duties without even asking, such as this year we have to now “teach” an advisory class (basically a glorified study hall and B-PISS, oops I mean PBIS, oh not that now but SWPBS carrot and stick nonsense for the students), but we still have various mandatory duties attached to it.
So that now I have five class preps, and seven classes a day with my planning period (and all periods) cut shorter to make up the time for the “advisory time” and lunch being 21-22 minutes long of which they want us to supervise in the lunch room one day a week (which I refuse to do). Not to mention added “being professionally developed”, oops I mean professional development meetings after school.
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Right there with you brother. Keep dumping more crap on the mushrooms.
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yr syntax sux
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Paying teachers more money, allowing them to live a quality life, is a necessity; but, it is not the ‘answer.’ I spent an entire summer reading aloud to and with youth considered ‘at-risk.’ Not one was reading at grade level. However, through creativity and innovation, by the conclusion of the summer these same ‘at-risk’ youth were performing dramatic readings from the 270-page book they completed in six weeks. I am not a teacher, but from the perspective of a parent, and concerned citizen, there is so much more change that is needed; and, it will not come with money alone.
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Good article. It’s funny how Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hours” has become such a popular idea about how expertise and excellence develop, and yet a society that claims to value good teachers and to want better one seems anxious to lower the bar for entry to teaching (by permitting online and alternative certifications), and to make working conditions as wretched as possible (as Dienne mentions above). What is this but a formula for a steady turnover of inexpert, non-excellent newbie teachers?
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That would be the WalMart model of staffing schools. Americans hacpve aleays had this strange desire to have the best of everything while paying the least amount of money.
Me, I wouldn’t mind a salary that enabled me to buy a house some day or let me drive a car that is not over ten yars old or even save a bit for retirement some day. I have been teaching for over 20 years ith 2 advanced degrees and NBPTS certification after all.
If I had children they would almost qualify for public assistance under my current salary.
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“Edsperts”
10,000 seconds
For “Expert” name
Is what I reckon
Reformers claim
Just under 3 hours perusing Ayn Rand crackpot sites on the internet is all it takes to become a boneheadified “expert” education reformer. “Apply today, get your PhD tomorrow!”
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“Let’s abandon the latest fads for reform and find a way to build and nourish better teachers, the ones we already have. Dana Goldstein’s No. 1 recommendation for improving our schools? Pay teachers more.”
But driving out the experienced (and better) teachers isn’t a bug to be fixed. It’s a feature of the neoliberal tecnological schooling coming to use from Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley. In many ways, this is the Progressive education plan of the early 20th Century on steroids.
To break this grip, we have to break the hold of the idea that education can be systemitized, and therefore run efficiently in a Taylorized business model. That means returning to the idea of liberal education which was trashed by many Progressive educators, including John Dewey.
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Intriguing –and very counter-intuitive –connection between neoliberals’ education program and Dewey’s. Perhaps you could spell it out a bit more?
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Both Dewey and our current neo-liberals believe that “education” (which for them means something more like the social formation of the young than the intellectual development provided by the liberal arts) is a science. Both reject the idea of the liberal arts education for the public schools. (Although it’s very much required for their own kids who attend expensive private schools.)
As Diane points out in her book, Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform, “Dewey was naïve; about how his ideas could be implemented in the public schools.” As she notes, Dewey’s ideas were taken very differently in private and public settings. In the public sphere, Dewey’s emphasis on the interests of children quickly became nothing more than cheap vocational training for businesses.
Because, as Dewey argued, education is a science, it can be systematized and optimized according to Frederic Taylor’s ideas of “scientific management”. Thus, as Diane notes in her book, we have endured a pervasive anti-intellectualism in the school that compulsively wants a direct route to knowledge that can be verified in some quantitative way.
Enter Bill Gates and Arne Duncan, and their computers.
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Times may have changed. When I was taking my orals exam from Miami of Ohio, one of my questions was simply “Do you believe teaching is an art or a science?” My answer was complicated. But, I believe it is both. There is an art to being able to manage the ins and outs and needs of all who place demands upon you. There is a science involved in orchestrating such. There is an art in presentation of ideas, interests, understandings, and outcomes. There is science needed to analyze and apply the skills and pedagogy necessary to achieve goals. It isn’t either/or.
When you look at private v public education, those who advocate for the arts and the art of teaching/learning, are simultaneously advocating for pulling these from those of lesser means. When I saw Arne Duncan on Sunday Morning … I wanted to throw a shoe at the tv screen. I am ready to scream at the deep piles of bs advocated by the haves upon the have nots.
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I agree that there are scientific aspects to teaching. But the Progressive movement took that idea much farther to untenable extremes, and I think we suffer from that today. If the Progressives hadn’t been so extreme, I think it would have been harder for the business “efficiency” model to take hold; we would not see so much emphasis on technology; and we would not be fighting to save the schools from Common Core.
In order to save our public education, I think we’ll have to start getting honest about the legacy of the Progressives, their connection to the business interests (both then and now), and what we really can expect science to provide as reliable guidance in education policy. (Which isn’t much, if you followed Valerie Strauss’s excellent post on a recent study showing how little of education research is independently confirmed.)
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Well, ties to ALEC and the Koch Brothers aren’t due to Progressive efforts. They are buying up elections, promoting privatization, etc.
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But don’t forget that the original Robber Barron supported and guided many of the school reforms on the original Progressives
And this has been my point—The Progressive idea of a highly “engineered” school system has brought nothing but trouble from those who want to control our children and society, like the Gateses, Fords, Bushes, Carnegies, Murdochs, and Rockefellers.
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But who will part the Red Sea this time … ?
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Adding to what Dienne, above says:One of our best math teachers, he had been head of the math department in our high school. He was an exceptional teacher. Above his doorway was a sign something to the effect that “through these doorways come some of our states best students”. His students competed with the best in the state and came out amongst the tops.
He left the high school and came to the administration building to build a computer system for our school. This was years ago when computers were just beginning to take their place in society AND they were SLOW and difficult to use. In the ad building he sometimes slept on a table at night in order to run out paperwork for our school system. Devoted, in spades.
He once made the statement that we did not go into teaching to get rich. [We ALL would have loved to be able to do more for our own children with better pay. One teacher said that with just a few hundred dollars less his children would have been eligible for reduced lunch fees.] But our math teacher also said, I will never forget, that there was always “bitchin in the kitchen but that we were so mad we could bite the heads off nails”. That was when the school board started debilitating the hard work that we had all done to build a superior school system. The end result was he became so discouraged he went home and hung himself after they started “playing games” with him.
A TRAGIC end for someone who cared so deeply about our school system, was such a great teacher and worked so very hard to make for a better school system.
Indeed, money is always good but when people are disrespected, work so hard and do great work and their work is not only disrespected by ignorant, not bad but ignorant, people who are “led down the garden path” by corporate propaganda, and destroy that work because they cannot recognize superior work, terrible things happen. That superior work is often different from what those ignorant have experienced, ergo it must be not good.
Money is always helpful but as he said, we did not go into teaching to get rich. We did not expect a pat on the back but neither did we expect to get stabbed in the back. I will stop there. There is so very much more.
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I’ve lost 2 colleagues to suicide in the last 5 years. It never goes away, the pain of loss and the frustration of knowing that some idiot’s pet theory du jour contributed to their loss.
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Paying a respectable wage is very important but so is respect and consideration. Teaching has become a punching bag profession. That has to stop first!
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Exactly. The anti-teacher propaganda is probably the most discouraging thing for me. Vergara, in particular, and the “reformers” crowing about that (such as Duncan) has been hard. Duncan and the others have blood on their hands from all of the teachers whose lives and sanity have been ruined by their enormous disrespect. And the same goes for the awful state, district, and school administrators who push teachers down just to get ahead.
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You’re are correct. Money is part of the issue, but a total lack of respect is a bigger issue.
http://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/new-teacher-bill-of-rights-2013/
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I had to write in and let everyone know that all of your comments were wonderful. Teaching has definitely become a “punching bag” profession. I couldn’t agree more. I think it is easier for the rich politicians to blame teachers for everything that is wrong with our society instead of truly trying to fix failed government policies. I’m afraid, though, that this horrible treatment of teachers will eventually affect the number of young people who will go into the profession. It is already happening in our universities. The sad thing is that this is exactly what the rich politicians and tech industry want. Everything is going according to their plan.
I did not feel like a “punching bag” 30 years ago. I truly felt like I was going into an honored profession. It hurts me greatly to see how we are treated now. Our kids will suffer the most in the end. The beloved teacher will be replaced by a computer screen all day long. That computer screen can never love a student like we do.
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…but the reformers WANT to pay teachers more….in merit pay. They want to get rid of tenure, tenured teachers, unions and union teachers, older teachers, experienced teachers, certified teachers…..and have TFA Scabs teach to the test, use the test scores to rate the “teachers” and then, pay them bonuses based on the test results. This is what they say. Basically, they won’t stop until teachers are clerks walking the aisles in a 100-student crowded room, where they are tethered to computers. If those robot kids do well, then its merit/bonus pay for the teacher/clerk, who by then will sign up at Walmart for the job online, and make Walmart wages. Perhaps the bonuses will be Walmart gift cards.
I posted an interested link on another story – http://www.salon.com/2014/09/19/ego_money_and_false_promises_michelle_rhees_big_secret_and_the_collapse_of_education_reform/ – and it says reformers may back off because their rhetoric is just that, their ideas are failing largely to produce the results they promised, and …. tech is the new wave of the future where returns on investments are looming. Lets see what happens.
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Donna, Ha..Ha..Ha.. Your blog is so true, and it made me laugh!!! I am sure their bonus will be Walmart gift cards! I don’t shop at Walmart anymore. Since the Walton family is trying to end my profession as I know it, I know longer buy their groceries. I just heard their profits are down. More people need to stop shopping at Walmart. Maybe the Walton family will begin to mind their own business, which is the grocery business, not the art of educating our young people.
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OOPS! “no longer” It’s been a long day! (:
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I too have heard Walmart sales are down. Many cities don’t even want Walmart there – but Walmart bullies its way in. I think there may be a low-key boycott occurring. I won’t shop there either. Nothing they have is worth giving the Waltons even 1 dime of my hard earned money.
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Donna, one of the best ways to punish Walmart is to buy, buy, buy, and shop ’till you drop there.
Keep onto all the receipts and consume as much as you can of the goods that you purcahsed. Then, take the receipts to customer service and voice your concerns and complaints about the quality and performance of the goods and demand a full refund. 9 times out of 10, you will get the refund. It’s Walmart’s policy.
If many people did this, they would bring the company to its knees. . . . . . . .
I have been lambasted about this strategy, but I don’t care. Walmart is pure evil, even if it does employ people in remote regions of the country.
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They also want to get rid of WHITE teachers. Emboldened minorities are clamoring for white teachers’ jobs, under the guise of: I want MY people to teach my children, ad nauseam.
Perfect way to get rid of white teachers, just as they are getting rid of whites in other professions to accommodate massive waves of illegal, unwanted immigrants.
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Oh please. The percentage of minority teachers has been dropping like a rock. Veteran black teachers are getting pushed aside for fresh-faced elite newbie white TfA scabs every day.
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Racist filth.
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When schools were desegregated, many, many black teachers lost their jobs. Now most schools are defacto segregated again (or still), and teachers of color are a scarcity in many places.
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J Bryant’s article is a good read; thx for link. But shift not soon enuf for Newark Pub Ss. Have been calling state reps, NJ Dept Ed, USDA re federal lunch program shortage at Barringer HS. Hoping to get more ideas; also urging friends to call.
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I get the sense that teacher exodus is a “business plan” bottom line strategy of many a Superintendent or CEO (as some regions call them now). When teachers are given more and more paperwork to complete, more and more things to post in the classrooms under mandate, more and more tests to give, are even tested and quizzed themselves in PD’s, data, data and more data and then must compile their own data on themselves which their careers are based upon and have no professional say in anything anymore and are so starved for actual teaching but unable to do so and spend all home hours doing work that should be done at school and that often time has little to do with actual teaching and have virtually no time to spend with their own kids and spouses… Ceo’s and superintendents know this is untenable and yet they just add more. So what inference should seasoned teachers make? Who leaves the profession now in droves? Seasoned and fed up teachers are leaving. Great teachers who want professional autonomy. Great teachers who want to use their brains and to be respected. Superintendents now are preparing for this mass exodus by stepping up alternative certification programs for recent college grads in their regions. Yes while some regions are stepping down on alternative certification, many regions ARE STEPPING IT UP! So when one weary, disrespected, overworked teacher quits the profession out of physical and mental necessity, a superintendent is able to hire 2 1/2 to 3 newbie teachers to replace that teacher. It is all bottom line. Oh yes… and part of the bottom line.. so long expensive pensions. But at whose expense? Career teachers pay into their pensions as well as agree over the long haul to work earning lower than private sector salaries knowing they will have that pension. New teachers? They are not expected to stay the long haul and the new contracts certainly support this. Bottom line for business profit at the expense of society seems to be the norm these days.
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I could not have said it better. Overworking and stressing out teachers is all a part of the big plan to eliminate career educators altogether. Honestly, I think their plan is working. No young person will put themselves through this insanity. Again, our kids come out the losers. It is all very sad.
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I tell all young people run, don’t walk, away from teaching. America does not value teachers. If I hear again the vapid phrase “thanks for all you do” while those same people turn around and vote in tea party wingnuts intent on destroying teaching as a profession… I’m going to stab my protractor with a Ticonderoga pencil.
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It is still an honorable and important calling for young people. I would never discourage any candidate from entering the profession. The dark times we are experiencing will not last forever. No force can stop the swing of a pendulum when its momentum is righteous. And I think it behooves us to stay positive about the future of our profession.
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I completely diasagree.
Who are we to encourage young people to sacrifice their future lives, families, and health as martyrs to our cause? We have no way of knowing how long the war against the reformists will last and how dastardly they will fight to destroy us all.
Until the system is fixed Stay away from teaching in oublic schools! Try Montessori if you are called to teach.
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Chris, I could not agree with you more. I would never recommend teaching as a profession to my own two children, and I would never lead my students into this discouraging profession either. I had 4 of my students job shadow me last spring, and I was totally honest with them. We researched other careers after school, and all 4 of them agreed that they would not go into teaching. My past students sincerely thanked me for being honest and for giving them time. I love my students too much. I would never want them to suffer like I have with these cruel and unusual policies. I treat them as if they were my own two children. Gosh, I couldn’t agree with you more. No one deserves going into a low paying career and be “beat down” at the same time. It’s cruel and unusual punishment. I put on a good show at school, but I am exhausted and sad in the evenings. My family understands the horrible stress I deal with, and they are so kind to me. Thanks for your awesome comments….
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Just because you know you’re licked before you start is no reason not to try. Think of what side of history you want to be on, for one thing. Or how your accounts will stand were you to die tomorrow. This isn’t martyrdom. It’s an examined and well-lived life.
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Which Nirvana are you working in NY Teacher?
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Chris
I have tremendous respect for your opinions. However, on this issue I would urge you to re-think your position. How on earth would it benefit the future of our profession by discouraging young people from entering it. Before I even entered college in 1974, people tried to dissuade me from teaching, based on the dismal job outlook at the time. Thirty five years and going strong with absolutely no regrets. Please try to stay positive.
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NJ Teacher
A far from perfect school district. But I still love my job and I refuse to let the current madness make me leave early or talk young people out of it. Complaining or quitting will never solve anything. I just don’t see any upside to being defeatist. We all have to take the road that’s best. Compliance? Good riddance? or Defiance? Have a good school year. The choice is yours.
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I admire your words. But I would be doing a young person a disservice recommending teaching. I prefer to be honest with them about the current state. This is not pessimism or a disgruntled teacher. I love teaching, but hate education. But to now go into $60,000+ debt for a temp job paying $30,000 to $50,000 with dwindling retirement and benefits, plus the disrespect and demonization from most of America – rational beings would think twice.
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NY Teacher, I respect you too but teaching in NY and teaching in FL are two very different things now, although you are starting to taste the bitter fruits of FL reforms in NY now too.
As I said above, I’ve lost 2 colleagues to suicide which was job related. I have 2 colleagues right now on my team who are starting counseling to deal with all the stress and health problems associated with their job; I had to do that myself last year due to anxiety attacks and other work-related stressors.
Our district had a teacher drop dead of a heart attack last year during a state DOE Differentiated Accountability walk-through from the stress of being scrutinized by a team of hateful bullies who left the classroom long ago, all of whom eagerly enforce the most humiliating form of micromanagement by negativity with glee.
I can’t counsel young people to enter such an atmosphere not knowing when or if it will ever go away. Without tenure and with no protections whatsoever anymore, as at-will employees they are at the whim of whichever edubully is in power at the moment. And for their dedication they no longer can sign into our retirement system so what is the point?
Although there are signs of some pushback here the horrific is far more entrenched and harder to remove than the tiny points of good.
I am remaining positive by working on my Montessori certification and I plan to leave public school teaching ASAP, probably at the end of this year or after 1 more year, at the most. I can’t take the emotional abuse and the constant disrespect and bullying anymore so I am following my counselor’s advice and being proactive about changing my work life.
I will always advocate and fight for public schools but I will do it without being a doormat and scapegoat anymore.
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Chris,
I am glad to hear you being positive and emphasizing its necessity.
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Thanks NY for the options.
I am currently working outside my certification as additional support. I am being punished
for my perceived lack of lock stepping. The person hired in my place is way ahead of me in the brown nosing department. I am growing weary of humiliation tactics.
I always read your comments and I generally agree with you.
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Chris
I’m sorry to hear that you have it so bad in your district. Florida sounds like a teacher’s worst nightmare compared to NY. I am one of the fortunate teachers who has a building principal that trusts his good teachers enough to leave us be. Not everyone is that lucky. If I was stuck with a power tripping, ego maniac I would be singing a much different tune. I don’t mean to come off as preachy, but I still can’t see the upside to being defeatist. Every time a good veteran teacher quits early, it becomes one more notch on the belt of the reformers. No matter how bad it might get, I will never give them that pleasure. Keep the faith and just do what’s best for your kids.
NJ Teacher
From the sound of things, I’m glad I got out of Paterson when I did. A lot of the complaints seem to stem from unreasonable administrators. I thank my lucky stars every day (make that ‘night’) that I don’t have a lunatic behind the laptop. I have experienced that in gentler times and can only imagine how much the problem is magnified under CCSS. Keep the faith NJT. And don’t forget, I have the added advantage of 35 years of experience. I’m playing with house money so to speak which is providing me the luxury of decreasing my level of compliance and increasing my level of professional defiance.
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NY,
I have 25 years of experience with only 15 in Newark. I can teach circles around anybody in my field, but my administration has little interest in academics. Now they have introduced Character Ed classes and restorative circles. The underlying message is that poor children need to be taught how to behave (comply with authority). In my view, it clearly exemplifies institutional racism, not that anybody is interested in my opinion.
My new position requires a lot of physical activity. I am exhausted and I have given up on asking myself what qualities my colleagues possess that I lack. My friends are telling me to just shut my mouth.
One Newark has resulted in increasing class sizes. Many classes have thirty two kids. The atmosphere is toxic.
Thanks for your encouragement.
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extremely moving, NY! yes yes yes. We must remain positive, despite the onslaught. This is the most noble of professions. It is the profession of the Buddha and Lao Tze and Zuangzi and Jesus and Socrates and Mullah Nasreddin and Rumi and the Baal Shem Tov. Thank you for this comment!
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And I will be part of this exodus:
http://ludwig-richter.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-choice-to-leave-teaching.html
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We do an incredible amount of work for what we get paid. Simplle solutions – reduce class size and pay us more. Give the students a full curriculum – with art, music, science – put the money there – listen to the teachers.
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Art? music?
Listen to the teachers?!!!
Next thing you’ll probably be asking to bring back driver ed and shop class.
No money to be made by Gates, Walton, Rhee, Coleman, Koch and Co in any of those suggestions.
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What about Home Ec?
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Now Caligilrl…that would make too much sense. Smaller classes and higher pay. Teach a well round curriculum so that we can teach the whole child and not just the tested part.
http://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/new-teacher-bill-of-rights-2013/
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The privatizers and anti-public education folks have no desire to pay more teachers more money for teaching less children. They have a huge desire to pocket money for the hard work of people they consider to be their servants, not respected contributors to society. We are dreaming if we think that there is a real desire to understand the teaching profession. Too many people don’t even know what we do. Too many people don’t care what we do for any child except their own child. Too many people have no idea of the new things that are heaped upon educators, needing to be learned on their own time, even though they have lives of their own and other obligations (such as planning lessons and grading papers) in order to meet the needs of such diverse demands as we have in the classroom today. What we teachers find as ideal, they find as too expensive. It is difficult to think of paying teachers a professional salary when many think of us as overpaid baby sitters, even though if we were paid a sitter’s rate per child, we are underpaid … way underpaid. There is a disconnect as large as the Pacific Ocean between reality and need.
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Yes you are correct. If a teacher did everything that was expected of them to the finest detail it would be a 21 hour a day job 7 days a week and it still wouldn’t be good enough.
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yup well said, cali!
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I think most who comment on this post regularly love teaching but have deep sorrow for what has been made of public education by those WAY ABOVE US who ironically have no knowledge of education and we can see how policy detrimentally filters down to teachers and students.
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Artseagal you are correct.
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No truer words were spoken. As teachers we are asked to put everything in the positive light, such as “Use an inside voice,” instead of “No shouting.” But when it comes to how we are treated, it is a negative stance. Instead of continually talking about “bad teachers,” let us concentrate on retaining “good teachers.” I left in June after 30 years of teaching. I was one of the innovative teachers of the year, but felt so stifled with revolving door administrators throwing out things that worked in pursuit of advancing their career in the name of student test scores. I wasn’t ready to leave. I advocated for my students with special needs who were expected to score proficient on this testing, even though most were three years behind. Most teachers are hard working, talented and creative. We need to nurture these teachers and prize their abilities.
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I decided to retire in June 2012 because, due to the constantly demanding, changing, circular expectations of the job, my stress levels had reached mass. My health suffers, and it will until I die. Stress it simply a killer. And, even though I was stressed, I always, always loved the children. I always will.
I decided to start subbing this year, since the economy has kicked my family in the gut. But, I get the paltry sum of $75 per day. I do everything the teacher asks, follow lesson plans, grade papers, stay late to get things in order for the teacher’s return, and slowly exit the building after I am done with things as much as possible.
I had worked for 30 years as a teacher of various grades, but the last 18 had been in 3rd and 4th grades, the then important test years in Ohio elementary K-4 schools. It was increasingly stressful. The final years were in 4th grade, with salary frozen. I have a permanent certificate, a masters +15 (actually almost +30 but couldn’t afford to get the other 6 hours), and enough Prof Dev to have a Doctorate. I learned and used every single bit of tech that they threw at us. It changed every single year. When you are over 50 and jump on the learning curve to try to deal with change, tech can be daunting. The eyes don’t move as quickly. The hands aren’t as nimble. The brain has so much prior knowledge that is “non tech” that pushing even more acronymns, shortcuts, etc. into the gray matter is not quite as easy at it once was.
I was always a good student. High grades, high participation, dean’s list, top 5% of class, yaddah, yaddah. Well, for some reason, today, that is not relevant. It is ignored. The knowledge acquired and the experience gleaned over 30 years of teaching is shrugged off as “nice but not necessary”. I was a very good teacher, with respect from my peers and acknowledgement from the administrators. I came in early and left late. I did every community request that was asked. I helped/tutored for free middle school students who needed some additional support as they worked their way into more and more difficult math courses. I completed my lesson plans, did whatever I was asked/told, and seldom missed school. In my entire career, I missed only 5 days, except for having two sons (maternity leave).
I am subbing at the school of my previous employment, at 1/4 of my daily pay (which is the same sub pay that they offered in 1994). And, I see the changes that have taken place in the last 2 years. The changes aren’t so much the fact that the teachers are about 25 years old or that there is so much tech going on, but the changes are in the student needs, behaviors, accommodations, and demands. The accelerated need to practice MAP tests for all grade levels, to troubleshoot the lack of computer skills and willingness to stay on task, to mainstream all kinds of disruptive students into the regular day, thereby creating less time to focus on the students who are compliant and interested in learning, is astonishing.
I taught 4th grade. We had to by the lynchpin for the summation of our schools success. I have now subbed in K, 2, 3, and 4 in the last couple of weeks. I am amazed that these students are able to function in the 4th grade classroom and complete the volume of learning necessary to succeed.
The teachers have great plans and activities for the students to do. And, the mix of students is like jumping into a bowl of salad and sorting out the various ingredients in order to isolate each element. All this must be done within the first 30 minutes of the day, routines, lost books, disconnected phones, unfound sticky notes, paper clips, colored markers, helpers, etc.
But the thing that strikes me most is: the attention needed to get ANY work to take place by certain students. Some of sensory needs, yell all day, (it is ok to just ignore), roam the room, wear noise cancelling headphones, need 3 desks to buffer other students from their personal needs, have various services pulling the kids in and out of the room at various times all day, making sure the students will participate in fire drills, lining up for the bus, going to the lunch room, realizing that they are permitted to touch and examine things on the teacher’s table, to pout, cry, demand, etc. all the while receiving tokens for good behavior but not really punished for negative behaviors. This only touches the tip of the “needs” that are met … and I understand that these kids have needs … but this is in the regular classroom, with other kids with equal needs that have to be ignored or managed somehow peripherally.
I feel bad for the rest of the students. They learn to adjust, have empathy, tolerate differences: all worthwhile and necessary traits. But, it is sad that these students have their needs put on the back burner because of the time and attention required by a few students.
I sigh to realize that so many lives are changed by these rules and demands that, in the end, slow down the students’ ability to ever reach their full potential … unless their parents take charge of their child’s educational reinforcement and give them the boost needed to excel. Not all students’ parents even have that capability.
Back to the stress. This climate for teaching/learning is very difficult for many teachers to comprehend. Teachers who have always been goal oriented, success oriented, conscientious workers, compassionate nurturers are required to assure so many other factors are incorporated into their days, to evaluate it all with objectivity, and to assure that ALL students are somehow able to demonstrate proficiency (or in our district, advanced status) regardless of the constant interruptions and distractions that are part of every day. It is quite a blur.
I don’t think most parents have any idea of the demands that they make, the school makes, the state makes, and the ever changing technological world makes upon teachers who are giving more and more time to relearning most aspects of their jobs while the job is ongoing (note: as soon as you learn one tech program, it will be replaced by two more). All this stress with the added burden of having to meet AYP, VAM, and district demands of having all students achieve at a top level are ridiculous at best. WHAT are we trying to prove when we expect teachers to wear so many hats? How can people cry out that teachers are overpaid? How have we reached this level of insanity?
And to think that some of these reformers, and Arne Duncan himself, seem to think everyone’s expectations are too low? Good grief. I am not alone in thinking that these people simply have no clue. In order to be a sub … after teaching 30 years and being involved in education for 40 … we have to be trained with online modules for understanding abuse, air borne pathogens, depression, substance abuse, violence, and youth development, followed by tests to be sure we have digested the 700-1000 bullet points we were exposed to in 45 minutes and then move on. (I had to wonder if this testing was provided by Pearson … it isn’t). What in the world is going on? It is training that is time consuming and gives even subs responsibilities for instances where they aren’t truly qualified to assess. All this for pay less than the teens at Wendy’s receive.
I love these kids, all the kids. I enjoy interacting with them and trying to keep their day together as best I can for the teacher who will return the next day. I don’t wish to add to their chaos and stress. However, the exodus that is happening will continue. Human beings can only tolerate so much stress.
I wish on no one the health issues that stress brought to me. It makes me cry to note the potential for so much good that most of us share and the disrespect and impediments to achieving that. Just take a look at the Reynoldsburg, Ohio, strike and community outrage that is occurring even as we speak. This isn’t my district, but my heart goes out to all of them. Comments from the community are “homeschool makes more sense” and I have to wonder why these administrators wish to run themselves out of a job. It is a mess.
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527 teacher vacancies in Arizona.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/joedanareports/2014/09/21/12news-education-teacher-legislature/16030749/
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800 plus in Clark County, Nevada…..and more to come!
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And, yep, I left teaching after 32 years. All because of Common Core! Now, my aim is to get as much exposure out there to other people who don’t know about it. The teachers I know hate it.
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“Shock and Awe”
When teachers are all gone
The bots will teach the children
Shock them when they’re wrong
Just like Stanley Milgram
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alas
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High teacher turnover = Winning! for the so-called reformers. Anything they might say to the contrary is their usual dissembling.
After all, they’ve conclusively demonstrated they couldn’t care less about children, and when the last vestiges of humanistic institutional memory are purged from the schools (not far off), they’ll have a greenfield development site for scripted lessons given by low-wage temps.
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Michael, You are absolutely right. Everything is going as planned. Make sure the older teachers retire, but at the same time, make sure young people do not go into the teaching profession. Pearson and the tech industry “got this”…..they no longer need a human body in the classroom with the knowledge and expertise to teach our children. The computer screen can do it much cheaper….while supervised by a much lower wage worker. Teacher salaries can go to the tech industry and charter school leaders. We are much closer to this scenario than we know. I hope I am wrong.
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Maybe it’s time for a nation wide educator strike. Pick a day in April (before we have to take state tests in Texas and every educator in the country stays home. In Texas that amount to about 5 million children that will be at home with their parents. It won’t take very many days for change to occur.
If it happened in all 50 states then maybe they would finally realize that educators were serious.
In order for this to happen educators would need to be bold and trust the process. If there is to be change then the process must be drastic.
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This requires NEA /AFT organizing. It cannot be accomplished at the grassroots level on the scale required for success. besides there are too many fearful teachers, and for good reasons. Face it; we are political orphans.
April 4. It would be a good date to demonstrate civil disobedience as one of the great activists in our country’s history was cut down for that very reason. If we ever pulled it off, I think MLK would be pleased.
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Why wait till April?
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It will take that long to get the word out and make it happen. Besides it will shut down all testing for the rest of the year.
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I had to let everyone know that your comments are wonderful. Again, your comments help me cope. I feel so sorry for the Reynoldsburg, Ohio teachers. I can’t even imagine their stress levels. Then, there is that question in the back of my mind….Will those destructive attitudes, like those in Reynoldsburg, Ohio schools, spread to other school districts? I’m too tired to even think about the possibility.
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There are many, many know-nothings, these days, who make a living micromanaging teachers. Many work at the district and state levels and keep themselves busy, busy, busy carrying out misguided caricatures of national educational policies initiatives.
The best teachers are, of course, the ones most likely to push back against these encroachments on their professional autonomy. They become extremely disenchanted.
These teachers’ jobs are already extraordinarily demanding, in ways that few education policy wonks understand, but the teachers put up with the many difficulties of their jobs–the long hours and heavy work loads and poor pay–because they care deeply about what they do.
But when these same teachers are FORCED to toss their wonderful lessons and pedagogical approaches–ones that they have honed in practice for years–and to adopt in their stead poorly thought out, counterproductive strategies and standards and testing instruments and curricula cooked up overnight by educrats in pursuit of the idiotic edufads du jour (don’t provide any background information; use out-of-context snippets of difficult informational texts instead of engaging literaturel, don’t read to your students, etc., etc.), it all becomes too much for the talented, experienced teachers. They start looking for something else, anything else, to do.
This is a great tragedy for kids and for parents, and it’s precisely the opposite of the result that reformers want. There’s a terrible irony in this, of course.
I do not think “tragedy” too strong a word. The consequences of this teacher micromanagement for millions of kids are dire. It’s the great, ugly untold story of current “reform.”
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Long time no see. Welcome back Bob.
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The consequences of this teacher micromanagement for millions of kids are dire. It’s the great, ugly untold story of current “reform.”
Have missed your insightful commentary. This one cannot be overstated.
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Thank you, NY Teacher. I am simply reporting what I hear from many, many of my fellow teachers, from highly experienced ones who have been forced to toss approaches they have honed over years of successful teaching in order to follow scripts cooked up by poorly educated, cognitively and emotionally challenged educrats who would be clueless if called upon to teach actual children in actual classrooms.
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