By Tracey
When I first saw the headline in the Seattle Times What's the Matter with Teachers Today?, I prepared myself for more teacher bashing. I was relieved to find an article seeking to provide a historical perspective on the teaching profession, and how American society has perceived it over the years. From the mid 1800's, when we were more concerned about shaping our youth into moral citizens than skilled workers, to today, when we expect everyone to go to college, Linda Shaw sheds just a little light on how we've come to where we are today — holding teachers' feet to the fire and raking them over the coals. She even quotes our very own, Tom, and Jeanne Harmon, from CSTP.
While I won't say that the article solves any problems, or settles any arguments, I felt a little better after reading it. It's reaffirming in the same way that when Ferris Bueller's sister goes home to catch her brother getting away with skipping school and she opens up his bedroom door to discover his fake snoring soundtrack hooked up to a pulley operated mannequin and screams, "I KNEW IT!"
Knowing this doesn't change anything for me, nor did it for Jennifer Grey's character in the movie. Maybe it will help others understand just a little more about the teaching profession and the pressures we face. Towards the end of the article, Shaw alludes to just one more pressure teachers must deal with, poverty. Yes, it would be nice if people took our profession more seriously; but honestly, I'd much rather see us take poverty more seriously, and not treat it as just another challenge teachers have to work with. If we're truly serious about competing academically internationally, then we would end poverty today.
Tom, I’m glad you got the one sentence in!
I’ve been really wondering, lately, how much of the teacher bashing is caused by regular people who are jealous of a teacher’s job security, how much is caused by politicians hoping to create a platform on the backs of those who will deliver the promise, and how much is driven by those who have a product to sell and want to justify its purpose.
I’m starting to feel like the frantic bait and switch being used to chase higher test scores for tests that keep changing, and to improve test scores by using whatever latest miracle cure is being marketed by someone who’s getting rich isn’t creating more bad press for educators than good.
And yes, poverty is a herd of elephants, but teachers are supposed to turn those elephants into college graduates who know how to compute, write, read and think like scientists.
Sigh.
Amen, Tracey. Poverty is the herd of elephants running around the room.
By the way, Linda interviewed me for over an hour, and was only able to use one sentence. That says something about my oral language skills.
Bueller…? Bueller…? Another model of a great teacher, Ben Stein. (I loathe pretty much every representation of public schoolteachers in pop culture, but I digress.)
Your post, and the article it links to, definitely articulate the “complicated” relationship America has had with its teachers. As the article suggests, by and since our very founding, the country itself has had “authority issues,” to understate the matter, so there is no surprise in our conflicted feelings toward teachers…those under whom we have been subject for the majority of our formative years.