Three for Three

Three for Three

These are my thoughts regarding my recently received third consecutive pink slip. That statement alone gives cause to pause and consider the epicenter of my concerns set forth within this piece.

It is an unusual phenomenon, I once thought, for a passionate educator to receive three years worth of pink slips in retribution for three years of service. In fact, I met a teacher with a multiple subject credential today who said that she received her eighth consecutive slip. I cannot confidently say that this makes any modicum of sense, considering the quality of work that a teacher deemed passionate would produce. On the other plane of this educational juxtaposition is the thought that for a person to earn more prestige (in the public education institution the definition of prestige is contentious), surely they must have produced more attributable work. In my most recent experience, I find this to be an either marginally or blatantly false assertion.

Often, when a recent college graduate finds themselves applying to and beginning their credentialling programs, they do not expect to make any type of sustainable salary. Indeed, it is arguable that the majority of teachers do not begin teaching because of the salary, the benefits, the prestige, or the vacation time. Some do, please do not misunderstand what I am saying. However, I firmly believe that there are three main reasons that a person goes into teaching: because they either can’t figure out anything else to produce with their college degree and becoming “qualified” to become a teacher is a mundane process, or because in this environment, no other private company would hire them, or because they are passionate about children and the process through which children must mature.

Not Everyone Who Goes Into Education Achieves Excellence

The first teacher, the one who was indecisive about the direction their studies and passions would take them, is the teacher who may not completely fulfill the role of the teacher you truly want with your students in the classroom. They are the teacher with passions outside of their classroom that may detract from their instruction, rather than add. They may be the teacher who loves studying the way the ocean lives and thrives but when put into a classroom with students, children add a different dimension and no longer does the teacher want to teach. An apathetic or over-out-spoken child drains the teacher of their energy within the classroom. It causes them to shrink back and stow away their passions within them and instead focus on classroom management and simply making sure that the students do not believe them to be weak or eccentric. They hide their terribly bright, well-intended passions from the students, frightened of the perception that they are not as worthy as they once considered themselves to be. It is a teacher with a weakened self esteem that most falls victim to this scenario, and it is this teacher that takes away from our institution.

We must protect our schools from this sort of teacher. This is not to say that this individual is an enemy. Their lack of knowledge is. We must provide more applicable, practical, hands on, in classroom instruction for these teachers. We must teach them how to control and manage certain types of children without detriment to that child’s learning. This can be in credential classes, or it can be during open arms sessions between experienced teachers and new teachers. We no longer have the luxury of believing that new teachers are meant to be seen and not heard, as a former coworker of mine still believes. We must listen to the concerns of the new teacher so that we can pinpoint the problem and directly control the situation of the societally-labeled “problem child.” A mentorship is one option to root out the problems that the first year teacher brings or experiences. There are others, including raising the bar on our teaching programs. A fully online experience does not provide the same caliber of readiness that a classroom-integrated program does. Go figure.

Unfortunately for our schools and our children, individuals make it through the credentialling program, acquire their teaching certifications, obtain a job at a school, and are even trusted with 9 months of between 24 and 180 individuals’ education. These students, in a secondary setting, sit in this individual’s classroom for between 1 and 2 hours a day, for 180 days. That is 180-320 hours out of any given school year. If the child has only one of this sort of teacher, the numbers stand as I’ve set forth. However, if the student is assigned to multiple teachers like this, the enormity of the situation has much more gravity and potential for destruction. Imagine the chaos inside the walls of these classrooms. In essence, in the doom and gloom scenario of the ill-prepared teacher, lives are altered forever.

Calling for More Rigor. Again.

Yes, I call for rigor. Seasoned teachers scream for it. University programs can’t give it properly. The ways that teachers are taught vary from school to school, state to state. We need a formal system that prepares our teachers for the jobs they’ll actually get. They won’t get the white kid sitting in a class, fingers laced, and notebook at the ready. No. They’re about to be thrown into a classroom (or six) of 42 diversified children each with their own baggage and needs. Some will lie for attention. Some act out, seeking negative attention because they desperately need to know where the boundaries are- something they’ve never experienced at home with their fractured relatives. The new teacher needs to know not what issues every single prospective student will bring with them to class each day, but rather how to reach out to them appropriately so that this gaping gap is finally closed. Closing that Achievement Gap is not possible without the teacher willing to work outside of their training. Then again, we pay them next to nothing to do just the basics of their job.

Why, in this country, do we allow our children the least of what we collect? Yet, we expect our teachers to bear the brunt, to work the extra without the support? And teachers do it. They stay late for the kid without a ride, they provide after school tutoring, they encourage students to go beyond what anyone else ever told them they were worth. Teachers are lied to by students, parents, and central office personnel. They are taken for granted by school boards, community members and the federal government through budget cuts, slander in the press, and a lackluster approach to rights and appropriate expectations. We give them a week of appreciation, the obligatory Christmas gift, and perhaps they are honored as teacher of the year. Some give absolutely everything they have to give, including their families, their marriages, and their own children. But, they aren’t paid for any of this. They do it because it’s what makes them think they are making something of a difference in this world. It gives them a greater purpose. And every time they're given a pink slip, it is an outright, well-aimed slap in the face from someone who doesn't understand the sacrifices that the teacher made just to make it through the last three years. My cheek, and the thousands of other cheeks, still sting from the blow dealt by the powers that be (right now).

I recently posted a piece I composed about our views on education, and I find it appropriate to close this commentary with those thoughts:

What if... October 2010

What if kids were not freely handed the opportunity to forget what they learned all year over the extended summer vacation?

What if teachers left the profession the very moment they felt disconnected to the students, and didn't waste classroom space just to wait out retirement and pension?

What if the government truly realized that they wouldn't exist without funding education properly?

What if we treated schools like palaces instead of less than prisons?

What if instead of making little changes here and there, we made monumental, gigantic changes to the HeartCore of the institution?

What if we made the teaching profession fierce, and paid teachers six-figure salaries?

What if we made schools incredibly expensive for the government and absolutely free of charge to the citizens, just like national defense? (thanks West Wing)

What if we held a whisper of a moment in our guilty, tired, sodden hands--stopped throwing stones at the sinners, finally ceased our incessant bickering over blamegame roles, metaphorically annihilated those that seek to uphold corruption over education--and actually transformed our dialogue-anger-depression-madness into action?

What if, indeed.