What They Don't Teach You in Ed School

This spring, thousands of starry-eyed innocents regardless of age will graduate from colleges of education all over the United States in search of jobs that frankly for the most part don't exist. Even if they DO exist and these new grads are "lucky" after subbing year after year after year to get a job teaching, they find out they are treated like shit, used and abused by administrators like so much dirty Kleenex. "Tenured" teachers, naturally, are treated even worse if they make "too much money" like more than $50,000 a year or are older than 50. Of course, "tenure" doesn't protect teachers as much as it protects school districts from more wrongful termination lawsuits, but the hearings are expensive to districts because they have to foot the bill. That's why school districts are so hot to trot about getting rid of "tenure," which means teachers have the same civil service protections as police and fire personnel.

However, if you are a sexual harasser like that principal I used to have, you merely get a slap on the wrist and are demoted. If you are a former superintendent of LA Unified, you get all kinds of protections that as management you should NOT have. The protections amount to merely looking the other way and pretending a violation hasn't happened. Hell, you can even go to prison as more than one superintendent did and collect a pension while there.

Who says life is fair?