I left teaching in 1998 not because I wanted to but because I had been living under threats and harassment from my Principal. She wanted me gone and had for around 5 yrs. not because I was a incompetent teacher but because I made too much money (MS in computers and 30 + yrs.) and could not be manipulated by her. She could hire 2 teachers for my salary and use the leftover amount for her own personal use (gifts to influence others). Those she would hire would be Probationary Non-credentialed Personnel which also meant that they had no training in dealing with children. This also was the time that class size (20) was a main push. To do so in Kindergarten this Principal put triple session in my assigned room. That meant 3 classes with the Teacher in the middle overlapping both the AM and PM classes and that lucky person was me. I had 1 hour alone in my classroom with my students. The PM teacher was only teaching to get the money she needed to attend the Film School at USC. She had no interest in her students and their learning. She also was a spy for the Principal to find something against me but there was nothing. My students went to 1st grade knowing how to Read, Add and Subtract, Write Sentences, Count to 100, etc. The end result was that I filed suit against the Principal and won. I didn't go back because I would need to go to another school in the District and my Principal would spread as much negative information as she could to all the other Principals, even though that was against the contract she had with the District. Even though I loved teaching and all my students, I could not live constantly being on guard against her evil so I resigned. I am in touch with many of my former students and that is part of what makes teaching a great occupation.
The way I see it Principal and District Administrators are the main problem with Education. The lack of money many times is due to the high salaries of the Management. Principals in many cases are not doing their job and have no idea what is really going on in the Classroom. Most of the low-ability Teachers are in the hip pocket of the Principals--that is how they keep their jobs after they get tenure. The blame for what is wrong needs to be move where the power happens to be. Students are not commodities and the Power needs to stop treating them as such. The students are the people we serve and they deserve all the energy we can give in that direction everyday.
_____
Teachers are an easy target. They have decent salaries, insurance, and other benefits. They perform one of the most demanding and stressful jobs available today, and instead of celebrating them, we demonize them. Do you notice how teachers seem to shoulder a lot of the blame for under performing and disruptive students, while not sharing in the success of students who perform well and who do not draw attention to themselves during class time. There are millions of kids that come to school extremely prepared, due to the investment their parents put into their children's early childhood educations. I cannot thank these parents enough. When we assume an overworked and underappreciated public servant can fix and solve all of our problems, we know we are missed placing the blame. Politicians are afraid to attack anyone that is not on the public payroll, so teachers are obviously fair game.
Former teachers, many of whom have served the public good for decades, should be leading any kind of" education reform", not MBA frat boys who have never spent a day in the public classroom and are more concerned with making profits then building people.
_____
In places like New Jersey, where among the highest municipal property taxes in the USA provide the bulk of K-12 educational revenues, the 2008 economic collapse, so many foreclosed homes, closed and never to reopen manufacturing service workplaces and small retailers along with massive tax cut deals extorted out of local governments to keep the few left, is creating massive cuts in revenues needed to pay for K-12 public education. Local tax payers are totally opposed to paying any more as their jobs disappear, their pay and benefits cut, or if older and have a home may not be able to keep their home much longer due to very high property taxes. The puts pressure by voters on the local governments to cut local taxes and in turn spending on school budgets or get cut out of office in the next election, replacing them with those that will cut taxes despite the harm it does to school systems.The state has to spend by various state court decisions most of the limited monies they have to districts to low-income (and property tax starved) cities and urban areas so little money for use in suburban and rural districts facing major revenue cuts.
I have a niece who got her degree and teaching certificate over 2 years ago and is stuck in no-benefits, so-so paying substitute teaching despite having excellent skills in 4-6 grade math - something critical to pass the 'standards' exams. The current economic collapse in the USA has eliminated the opportunities for her and 1000's of others who hoped to become full-time professional teachers. She has student loan debt, is becoming despondent of never getting a real tenure track teaching job in a decent school system. It hurts her relationships with family and potential male partners. She was very shook up about the Sandy Hook massacre as close to the age of the one teacher killed and the horror of the murder of all those children fearing that could happen to her.
We need massive reform of our antiquated K-12 public educational system, especially as to sufficient funding. I deeply oppose almost all of the private for profit, and some not-for-profit 'charter' schools. We need to end our obsession with teaching to the test. Excessively paid and quantities of administrative positions and football and other sports coaches, need to go. We need to have true tenure that protects good teachers from political pressures yet allows removal in a proper procedure and protecting retirement benefits of the true incompetents. We need to educate children to become open minded and well prepared active adult citizens, not just robots to obey the corporate leaders.
(Corrected the spelling errors in the last post.)
No comments:
Post a Comment