This is an excellent piece reblogged by Valerie Strauss.
The author Corey Robin asks the reasonable question, why do so many well-educated, seemingly liberal people look askance at teachers and unions.
Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
This teacher had a terrible class. She had one student in particular who was impossible and who didn’t want to learn. But then the teacher started telling a story about Ben Franklin, and Ruby was hooked.
What changed Ruby? What was the a-ha moment? Can the state measure what Ruby learned? Can they find a way to measure what the teacher did? Will the Gates Foundation videotape it and show it to others? Is there a rubric for that moment?
The teacher never forgot what her department chair told her:
“But if we spend all this time preparing them for a test, when will they ever have the chance to just appreciate something beautiful?”
Ruby found something that was beautiful to her. Can it be standardized?
This article was written by Dean Baker, a macroeconomist. It appeared in Al Jazeera. Baker is in no way influenced by the big-name pundits who disdain teachers.
To give you a flavor of the wisdom here, this is how it starts:
“We don’t know the final terms of the settlement yet, but it appears that the Chicago public school teachers managed to score a major victory over Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s business-oriented mayor. Testing will not comprise as large a share in teachers’ evaluations as Emanuel had wanted; there will be a serious appeals process for teachers whom the school district wants to fire, and laid off teachers will have priority in applying for new positions.
“If these seem like narrow self-interested gains for the teachers and their union, think again. Teaching in inner city schools is a difficult and demanding job.
“Most of the children in Chicago’s public schools are poor. Their families are struggling with all the issues presented by poverty. Many of the schools are in high crime areas and serious crimes often take place on school premises. It can be a lot harder job than working for a hedge fund.
“It will not be possible to get committed and competent people to teach in the public school system if they cannot be guaranteed at least a limited amount of job security and respect. The $70,000 annual pay that was ridiculed as excessive by so many pundits would not even be a week’s salary for many of the Wall Street types who do nothing more productive than shuffle paper.
“The widely held view in the media, that the school teachers and their union are an anachronism, turns reality on its head. The so-called “school reform” movement is by now old news. These people have been more or less calling the shots in public education for the last two decades. Their policies have been tried and failed.
“The reformers have made great promises about the potential of charter schools that would be free of the encumbrances of teacher unions and government bureaucracies. It turns out that charter schools are more likely to underperform public schools than to out-perform the public schools they replace.
“The story on high stakes testing for keeping and promoting teachers is mixed at best. High stakes testing encourages teachers to teach to the test. It also can and does encourage cheating. When scores have risen because teachers have taught to the test, it doesn’t mean the same thing as when scores rise because students are actually getting a better education.”
This is a thinker who hits all the crucial points.
Now if only some of our major pundits would stop, look, and listen.
You have heard the news by now that the strike is over. I was lecturing in Chattanooga and meeting with leaders of the community from 2 pm until now. My brother tweeted to ask why I was behind the curve. Oops, offline.
Pundits and commentators will be poring over the Deep Meaning of all this for weeks and months to come. There will be countless articles about Lessons Learned.
Personally, I think we have a good idea already about why the teachers went on strike. No, it wasn’t greed or money. The compensation piece was more or less settled before the strike. Pundits and talk-show hosts who take home hundreds of thousands a year will express outrage that teachers–teachers!–might make $80,000. I ask you, who adds more social value–a first grade teacher in Chicago or a talk show host on national radio or TV?
Why did they strike? After 17 years of reform and disrespect, they were fed up with the bullying. They were tired of the non-educators and politicians telling them how to teach and imposing their remedies. Reform after reform, and children in Chicago still don’t have the rich curriculum, the facilities, and the social services they need.
They were sick of the incessant school closings. They were sick of seeing charter schools open that get wildly uneven results yet are praised to the skies by Arne Duncan and now Rahm Emanuel. They knew that the charter schools are non-union and that the Mayor will use them to break the union.
In the end, the union pitted itself against Rahm Emanuel, Arne Duncan, Chicago’s business and civic leadership, and the Race to the Top. It took on the most powerful forces in the city, and yes, even President Obama, who remained neutral.
And by taking a stand, by uniting to resist the power elite, these teachers discovered they were strong. They had been downtrodden and disrespected, but no longer. They put on their red T-shirts and commanded the attention of the nation and the admiration of millions of teachers. Powerless no more, they showed that unity made them strong. 98% voted to authorize the strike, and 98% voted to end it.
The union was fortunate in having Karen Lewis as its president. She was one of them. She had taught chemistry in the Chicago public schools for more than 20 years. She is one of the few–perhaps the only–union leader in the nation who is Nationally Board Certified, a mark of her excellence as a teacher.
Not only is she a teacher through and through, she is a graduate of Dartmouth. She is neither impressed nor intimidated by the elites who flaunt their Ivy League credentials. Hers are as good as theirs. Maybe better. She is a woman of valor.
Karen Lewis gave courage to her members, and they gave courage to her.
The strike is one of the few weapons available to the powerless. Without the union, the teachers would have been ignored, and the politicians would be free to keep on reforming them again and again and again.
The strike transformed the teachers from powerless to powerful.
The teachers said, “Enough is enough. With us, not to us.”
Regardless of the terms of the contract, the teachers won.
Thank you, CTU.
A reader asked for suggestions. I said I would ask for your ideas:
My sister is an experienced teacher struggling to keep her chin up in an impoverished district serving children whose parents are non-English speaking or meth addicts. She and her staff want to form a book study group this year – looking for ways to enhance their professional practice and their children’s lives – wanting desperately to have positive and productive conversations about this important work during these bleak times. Can you or any of your “followers” recommend some titles for them to consider? A retired teacher myself, I remain passionate about helping those who carry on.
Thank you for any and all suggestions.
A reader responds to a post about decimating the education profession:
So where are the voices of legions of education professors who are willing to support the profession of teaching? I see some here on this blog but never see anything written by them in my local paper…..and these folks know the ropes. Colleges of Education will just quietly go away unless the people who work there start advocating for their programs and public schools.
An earlier post described research showing that experienced teachers are leaving the profession in droves. In 1988, the modal number of years of teacher experience was 15 (meaning there were more teachers with 15 years experience than any other cohort). By 2008, the modal years of teacher experience was ONE. There were more first-year teachers than any other group. This can’t be good for children or for the quality of education as every study I have ever seen says that first year teachers are the weakest of all because they are brand-new and just learning the ropes (sorry, TFA). There are anecdotal reports that enrollment in teacher education programs is plummeting. Here is more:
This was in my local paper on September 11, 2012: “The number of teaching credentials issued from 2004-2010 dropped by 40%, while the number of college students in teacher training programs plunged by 50% This comes from the Task Force Report on Teacher on Education Excellence (State of CA) which also stated, “The state has focused too heavily on holding teachers accountable for standardized test scores without properly equipping instructors and schools. This dangerous combination has driven many accomplished educators out of the profession.” Does this surprise anyone? I personally know of first and second year teachers who have bailed because of pressure applied by their site principals. Instead of supporting them, they have been overbearing in their expectations causing potentially wonderful teachers to second guess their choice of careers and leave. Not just move to another school, but leave the profession they worked so hard to join. We are losing a generation of students to the almighty test score. Do we want to continue to lose great teachers as well? Our children ARE our future. Invest in their future by investing in their teachers who are highly trained professionals.
A reader writes in response to the question of whether teaching is harder than rocket science:
I am not quite a rocket scientist, but I do have degrees in nuclear engineering. And now I am National Board Certified Teacher and have been full time in the classroom for almost 20 years. I started out exactly like this reader with volunteering in classrooms. And then I decided to take the plunge into full time teaching. Teaching has a lot in common with engineering. Both require creative solutions to problems where you begin with basic theories and then look at your constraints to design workable solutions. However, teaching is much tougher because the variables are constantly changing. We know a lot about how people learn and what we know tells us that learning is contextual. No situation is ever the same, not year to year, not day to day and some days not even class period to class period. Physics assumes that the basic causal models apply regardless of context. Neutrons do not have days where their parents let them stay up all night. They do not fight with their best friend right before my class. Neutrons do not have hopes and dreams and fears. Teaching is incredibly dynamic and complex. It is so much more intellectually and emotionally challenging than simple observation and test scores can reveal.
This reader sees ominous signs as his school complies with the demands of Race to the Top:
Race to the Top is diverting teacher know-how, skill, talent, passion, etc to numbers crunching and reporting. taking valuable time away from figuring out how to teach well. We are heading rapidly to where the only people who will be able to get a deep enough education to be capable of being in charge of anything in the world will be those who can go to private schools.
Race to the Top is a misnomer – it is Crawl off the Bottom because it does not allocate any”measurable” value to AP classes, college credit offerings. art or music. Our numbers are measured by scores on academic tests. To comply with Race to the Top, we have to give our students a “pre-test” at the beginning of our classes this September, a test designed for students to fail because it is similar to what they will take as final exams at the end of the year. the point being to show improvement, but it means students all over NYS are starting off their year by massively taking tests they will fail miserably on, per requirement of NyS’ compliance with RTT.Every teacher I know learned in their earliest classes & experiences, that testing to show failures is VERY bad pedagogy.
And to keep things in perspective, 60% of the federal budget goes to war & defense, compared to 2% to education. The rest of the cost of public schooling is carried by state & local governments. is that the kind of support that will allow this generation to run the country any better? I don’t think so.
This teacher read Alex Kotlowitz’s article in the New York Times about how teachers can’t solve poverty all by themselves and this was her reaction:
Alex Kotlowitz says about solving poverty, “teachers can’t do it alone.” I say, we can’t do it all, and I’m sick of being even imagined to be able to do it. I teach, that’s it, I TEACH.
Think of it. If she teaches chemistry, is she solving poverty? If she teaches art, is she solving poverty? Some would say yes, others would say that the best way to solve poverty is to create jobs. This teacher says, just let me teach.
Is she wrong?
Diane Ravitch's blog 