Teacher "Quality"

This poster hits the nail on the head about the cluelessness of non-educators pontificating about education, and the author is also correct it takes 3-5 years minimum for new teachers to really know their craft. All too often school districts, including the infamously horrible NYC district, aren't even letting new teachers, whether they be young teachers or older career-changers, get a chance at being quality teachers.

But with all of this bitchery about "tenure" and general workplace abuse of teachers for the sole reason of either denying them tenure and thus retirement benefits and saving money on budgets, children increasingly have NO "quality" teachers who are teaching them.

The public school system is turning into a revolving-door system of temporary and throwaway teachers, with none getting tenure, much less lifetime careers, unless they are related to somebody already in the system. Disgusting.

The characteristics for a "quality teacher" is quite simple. First, the teacher must have small class sizes, Second, the teacher must know the curriculum like the back of their hand. Third, let the teacher be the master of his or her classroom, not the administrators. Finally, the teacher must demonstrate skills in classroom management and punish misbehaving students with reasonable penalties. For a teacher to be a quality teacher, the above skills must be mastered and that takes a minimum of 3 to 5 years and in many cases longer. Is it any wonder that in New York City 50% of the new teachers quit within the first five years?

This is deliberate. It's NOT about the kids at all.