Jesus Loves You, But Everyone Else Thinks You’re An Asshole
That’s sort of how I feel. After all day with administrators wanting their data standards assessment profile action plans and students asking dumb-ass questions about work they are not going to do, you’d think we’d get some love on the outside.
But no.
I’m not sure where to start. For at least a few years now the drumbeat of “we have to get rid of bad teachers” has been getting louder. (Nevermind the complexities of defining what a good or a bad teacher is.)
In recent days the drumbeat has become deafening and hostile. (Again…pay no attention to complexity or nuance. They don’t get along with loud or hostile.)
Is this job worth it? We are attacked, but there is no defense. If teachers dare to question any proposition that would adversely affect their working conditions, they are labeled as “putting adults first, not kids”. This is the Emotional Blackmail of Education (EBE). If you’re not on board with whatever the current pedagogical, social, budgetary, or Gates program is; you are against children. Shame on you.
This idea that teachers are the problem has really blossomed and come into its own. Suddenly it’s all on us. I have had parole officers call my classroom for students. I have had child protective services call my classroom because my student’s child is being neglected and is about to be taken away. I have had my principal call my room because a student’s father was arrested on the way to school.
I can’t compensate for that; not remotely. And it is unfair to expect me to. Seriously, it just happens to be the case that all the shitty teachers are in poor parts of big cities? Seriously?? And we have to get rid of them? Then what?
Anyway, people are mad at teachers. This is all over the place now, but in case you haven’t seen it, my girlfriend, Diane Ravitch, was on Jon Stewart last night. (I talk a bit about her new book here.) Both of them were excellent. The hypocrisy and misplaced anger at teachers was well-displayed. My other girlfriend, Valerie Strauss from the Washington Post, posted some highlight video and analysis. I don’t have anything to add to that.
Watch it if you haven’t already. Share it with friends.
We’re not the bad guys, are we?
And one last thing…
The New York Times ran a piece yesterday about a teacher feeling really dumped on. Here name is Erin Parker. She’s new to teaching and works in Wisconsin.
She seems to feel bad that she wants to teach and the state is now telling her that she’s got it too easy and her fancy $36,000 every year, plus being able to go to the doctor, is just a little over the top. She was bitching and moaning about not being able to save for a down payment for a house. Whining and wetting herself because her student loan debt is more than 70 percent of her annual, bloated income.
Then some douchebag from the Cato Institute responds. (Something tells me he has never been a teacher.) (Something tells me he probably doesn’t know anyone who has a household income of less than $200,000 per year.) (Something tells me he lives in a 95%+ white neighborhood and that, if he has kids, they go to a private school.)
He looks at her salary and the hours she is contractually obligated to work. He concludes that, on an hourly wage basis, if she worked a full year (Monday through Friday; 8 to 4:00; 50 weeks), she would be making almost 95% of the state’s median household income. (By the way, she doesn’t work a full year and she deserves not to because this is a messed up job. And a very large number of us take other employment in the summer because we have to.)
(And also, by the way, could people stop calling our summer a “three month vacation”? Even Jon Stewart said it. We get out in mid/late-June and come back in mid/late-August. It’s nice, but it’s nowhere near three fucking months. Trust me. I’ve checked.)
Anyway, Ms. Parker also has a college degree. As of 2004, only 25.6 percent of Wisconsinites 25 or older had a college degree. I’m curious if Mr. Douchebag would care to go to the effort of calculating the median wage for possessors of BAs in the Great State of Wisconsin. I bet not. And I bet that it is more than what Ms. Parker makes. Wanna bet, Mr. Douchebag? I’ll bet you don’t want to bet because we already know that she makes less than at least half of the people who don’t have college degrees.
Mr. Douchebag also cites a “time diary analysis” study that indicates teachers work less than 40 hours per week. I have none other than anecdotal grounds to contest that. Any of the three schools I have worked at would grind to an absolute halt in a matter of days if teachers stopped working nights and weekends or otherwise limited themselves to 40 hours per week.
What Mr. Douchebag fails to mention from the same study, accidentally I’m sure, is that teachers are more likely to work at home, work on Sunday, work between 10pm and 6am, and to hold multiple jobs than other professionals.
How many hours do douchebags at conservative think tanks work? What’s your hourly wage?
Mr. Teachbad
Amen.
I dare anyone who thinks teachers work less than 40 hours a week to come shadow me for a week. I just counted and I definitely put in around 65 hours on a NORMAL week.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
….and we get to go to the dentist. (Priceless)
If Diane Ravitch is your GF, then Jon Stewart is my “baby Daddy”. LOL
Things are so bleak, I just thought I’d share a moment that may resonate with my colleagues in the teaching profession.
Today I took the time to ask my students about what school is like for them. Then, I just listened. I love these kids – they are engaged, willing learners. They are polite, smart, ambitious, funny and a delight to teach. They are seniors whom I have taught for several years because I teach different levels of foreign language. Sitting and listening to them makes me feel so proud of them.
They, in turn, have tremendous respect and affection for just about every teacher in our small high school. They talked about how much they’d learned from various teachers, from math to social studies, to English. They think that it’s the most difficult and under-appreciated and underpaid job in the world, and they are thankful that they have had such caring and competent teachers.
I was a bad teacher today, I guess. I had no data to collect, no formative or summative assessment for the day’s learning, no standards that I’d met or addressed. I had suspended everything, because I felt it was important for them to be heard, to weigh in on the issues of the day in education. Plus, a couple of them had just returned from Nicaragua, and we segued into a discussion of cultural norms, carbon footprints there vs. here, the amenities that they no longer take for granted now that they have seen the simple beauty and experienced the warm welcome of people in a far off land. I had to seize the moment while the experience was still fresh in their minds, before they had plugged themselves back into the plugged-in, sleep-deprived, eat-on-the-run lifestyle of American high schools.
And yet, I felt that all of us had learned so much today. It just won’t show up on a bubble sheet.
But these moments live on in my heart…. and, I believe, in theirs.
Thank goodness someone still knows what it means to grab those teachable moments. I won’t tell you didn’t “bubble” a thing. More power to you! And if anyone asks…you dropped the scantron sheets for today in the street and they were swept up by a street cleaner or run over by a large garbage truck, or whatever, on your rush to your second job….
Good news: I was shopping (buying work clothes, no less) and somehow during checkout, it got around that I was a teacher at Not-Very-Wonderful High School in Philadelphia.
Immediately the people waiting to pay all turned to me and said things to the effect of, “I think teachers are great” and “I could never teach. Good for you!” and “Teachers are getting blamed for everything these days. I don’t think that’s right.”
Wow. I can’t think of a better thing that could happen (aside from the manager coming out and giving me a handsome discount on my clothes – which she didn’t, but I’m ok with that)
My point is that I think the public also sees that teacher bashing is going too far. When things get down to the nitty-gritty, I think everyone had a favorite teacher and remembers the good things.
Too bad about Mr. Douchebag. His experience with teachers was probably bad just because of his douche-baggery. No one likes people like him anyway.
Let’s hope you’re right, Phillie. On a basic level, I think you are. But what would it take for all those folks in the checkout line at TJ Maxx to come out in droves to fight what’s happening when there are billions of well-organized dollars telling them otherwise?
How about a groundswell of people who have had enough? People tired of hearing about test prep and wondering why their kid doesn’t need construction paper or poster board any more?
If I had a kid in school I’d be raising bloody hell about what’s going on in these classrooms. I’d be at school board meetings, PTO and whatever else. I’d get a newsletter going.
If all else failed, my kid would be at a Friends School or any other worthwhile alternative school. I’m not rich, but there is no way I could sit by and watch my kid’s one chance for real education go down the drain.
Sorry to sound so dramatic, but really, that’s what’s getting me the most. Exactly half of my juniors’ school year has been spent on test prep. WTF?? How are they going to get ahead this way?
Douchbags like McCluskey are paid a LOT of money to propagandize for the corporate oligarchy. I mean CATO? Whadya expect? He’s a sell-out, and probably a dweeb to boot. My guess is that these free-market plutocratic windbags are all over-compensating for some (small) thing, and they feel real important as a result.
Wow – just what I needed to read today. I was at the gym, leaving after my Zumba class, and I stopped to chat with the babysitter who is majoring in education (thought about screaming, “NOOO!! Don’t do it!! It’s too late for me but you can still save yourself!!”, but practiced considerable restraint). We chatted a bit and I mentioned that I will be laid off at the end of the year because all Reading teachers with less than 10yrs are being laid off and I only have 5yr as a Reading teacher. Anyway, this woman barges into the conversation and, feeling that it was her civic duty to unload on a teacher, laid into me about my pension, my *gasp* ability to go to the doctor, reluctance to take a pay cut to a first year teacher salary to keep my job,
my insistence that class size limits are good for kids and NOT a union ploy to create as many jobs as possible, and on and on. How we can’t afford these huge salaries, fabulous benefits and jobs for life when the country is broke. I had to say, point blank, that there’s plenty of money – just tax the millionaires a bit more, and don’t worry, they’ll still be rich even after paying some more. She continued her diatribe about my wanting to “pass the buck” to those who WORK for their money and earn their paychecks. Finally, I had to tell her that as long as these CEOS are getting millions in bonuses every year and as long as ExxonMobil can make BILLIONS in profits and pay NO taxes, but get tax REBATES, I feel no guilt about taking my time off and pension. And then I excused myself, left the gym, and drove home in my 11 year old Civic.
Now I need wine, as I think about this woman trying to survive a Friday afternoon in my middle school where frozen water bottles get thrown during passing, the principal got punched in the head, and kids throw desks across the room when they feel they haven’t gotten the proper “respect”. A happy thought, no?
Girl you are a good one lol. Jesus would have definitely been called on because wooooooooo…
A few thoughts come to mind:
1. Hit her with your frozen water bottle
2. Call her unspeakable names
3. Punch her in the head
I don’t know how you could be so civilized. I work among kids like the ones you described and when the moment’s right, I am dismayed to find it’s easy to fall into their behavior.
I know you did the right thing. Maybe I would have done the same thing. But lately it’s getting real hard to be good.
Thanks for the kudos, fellow teachers. I think it was the shock of having been accosted in such a manner that kept me civil, but like we manage to stay calm and say things like, “You are not making very good choices” as kids throw furniture at us, LOL. I reserve the right to go all Brooklyn on the next person who tries that crap with me. As phillieteacher said, it’s getting harder and harder to be good these days.
Thanks for sticking up for teachers, and WI teachers at that!
Excellent. Peeling back the numerous layers of bullshit, it seems to come down to this: Teachers believe in the essential goodness of their students, and admin believes in the essential badness of its teachers. I’m not going to start a dissertation on John Locke, but really, at the end of the day–when I am exhausted from remembering that goodness when dealing with the actual students and trying to overcome that “badness” persona when dealing with admin…..that’s what I’m left with.
Well…you must understand where our detractors are coming from. Mr. Douchbag, Gates, Rhee, Fordham, Duncan, the lady at the gym etc. all think that the qualifications for being a teacher are: 1) is breathing 2) can spell the word “cat.”
Considering their understanding of the job, yes of course we are way overpaid whiners.
Sooo…. Mamas do not let your babies grow up to be teachers. Start warning any well meaning youngster to stay away from this profession (no not profession, job) – even the ones who only meet the above qualifications would be better off as waiters and waitresses at Chillis.
ON THE MONEY, Señor Enseña-mal (your name in Spanish).
I spent the last 2 days begging a judge to let a kid out of jail so he could take the standardized test because otherwise I can’t test 95% of the students. The judge pointed out that keeping him in jail probably wasn’t doing him any good. I pointed out to the judge that he might get out and then do something else bad. I asked him how he could do his awful job, seeing these little beasts day after day, unable to fix the problem. He said he could never do mine, he just saw a few of them every day, I have hundreds every day.
p.s. the kid will be out for the makeup tests, if he doesn’t do something else to be locked up for in the next 2 weeks. I don’t think the teachers in the suburbs have to do this to make AYP.
There is a new place to share your ideas, thoughts and funny teaching stories with other Teachers Anonymously. Check it out today AnonymousApple.com
How can it be anonymous but have a log in?
The Cato Institute douchebag WAS a teacher. According to his biography he was a high school English teacher…doesn’t say where, when or for how long. He probably taught with Michelle Rhee and had OUTSTANDING improvements among his students.
Just out of curiosity what jobs are teachers who quit going into…I’m on my way out too!
I left the profession and am now an education services coordinator for a company that creates real estate software–LOVE IT
i understand that no one wants to bring less home in their paycheck. and as a teacher who switched states recently in hopes of finding a better environment to work in, i understand how crappy and discouraging the job can be. but i must say two things:
diane ravitch was on NPR recently and i read the transcript. one caller said he was a teacher. then he said his class size had grown exponentially. he just made himself sound like an idiot b/c his classes cannot have grown exponentially. now, people who understand that concept of exponential growth will assume that all teachers are idiot b/c this guy made a dumb remark. as a teacher, i’m annoyed that he did not choose his words more carefully and thereby gave people one more thing to criticize teachers for.
also, if teachers do not want to give up more money, why keep demanding that wealthy people give up more? just b/c they are wealthy they should? that’s not fair. it’s punishing them for being wealthy. i’m guessing most teachers do not know any actual millionaires, or at least not beyond a mere acquaintance level. so teachers cannot say that taxing the wealthy more would have a minimal effect on the wealthy. when i hear: “make the wealthy pay more” what i think is this: “i’m not willing to adjust my way of living at all. i want someone else to adjust their way of living so that i can maintain mine.” if we use the line of reasoning, “they are wealthier than i, they can afford to give” in this context, extrapolate that to a world wide model. if you own a car, you are in the wealthiest 6% of the world. you can afford to give up more b/c you make more than 94% of people in the world. so, let’s tax you more and give it to everyone else. it’s just not a good line of reasoning unless you are looking to level the field. and we see how well that’s worked in NCLB. i’m thinking it won’t be any better in finances.
Your post is mostly incoherent and pointless, and your reasoning is supremely faulty. I feel bad for students that depend on you for guidance.
School me, Bro…
Make an alterative argument or point out something specific I’ve said that’s wrong…anything. You haven’t given me much to work with.
Her post made perfect sense to me – do you have comprehension issues in addition to terminal rudeness?
I spent 23 years as a programmer/network administrator for a small chain of bookstores. During that time, I typically worked about 50-70 hours per week. I have worked as a teacher for the last 5 years. During that time, I typically work about 50-70 hours per week during the school year.
Here’s the difference: Now, I don’t have my boss calling me in to work on my day off to fix an errant computer. Now, I don’t have my boss calling me at night because the server is offline. When I work at home, it’s my choice. When I was a programmer, I never got more than a week’s vacation at a time. I agree that it’s not “three months” in the summer, but it does add up to three months off per year.
My experience is not typical, but because I went from working for a small company to a large school district here in Texas, I only took a $1000 pay cut my first year, and I have since considerably outpaced my previous salary for a lot less work per year.
A lot of teachers complain about their salaries without ever having worked outside of teaching. This is as distasteful to hear as listening to those who have never taught complaining about teachers. I’m sorry, but I have very little sympathy for Ms. Parker who got herself into a boatload of student debt for a profession whose starting salary she should have researched. Also, as far as I know, no one is saying she can’t “go to the doctor”. She’s just going to have to pay more of the cost, just like everyone else.
As taxpayers, we are told over and over that we need to spend more money on education “for the children”, yet over and over, we see teachers complaining about how little they are paid. Likewise, we see again and again, that all of this money that we are spending doesn’t seem to have much effect on student achievement. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for taxpayers who are finding it difficult to make ends meet to look at schools and wonder what good more money will do.
I think teachers need to make more of a case that we are not the ones wasting the money. I think we need to do a better job of letting the public know just how much money is wasted on and by administration. I think, especially in a time of 10% unemployment, we need to stop complaining about our salaries–non-teachers will not be sympathetic, especially as spring break and summer approach.
Let me tell a story about my best friend from high school and myself.
We both grew up in a small town in Texas.
- My best friend has a high school diploma, I have 2 master’s degrees. ( M.A. History, M.Div. Theology. I thought for a while about becoming an Episcopal priest.)
- My best friend work got a job right out of high school working at a refinery that is #1 on the Fortune 500 list. I could have done the same, but instead, I went to college.
- My friend works about 60 hours a week. I work about 60 hours a week.
- My friend is paid OT and when I spoke to him about a week ago, he told me ” Oh, I had an off year last year, I made about $120,000.” I am a teacher at poor rural school in East Texas. I am one of the few who actually make the state minimum. I will make about $45,000 this year. I receive no extra monies for my masters.
-My friend receives a raise every year. My steps ran out 10 years ago. I received about $800 about 4 years ago as a raise.
-My friend’s company pays for his family’s medical and dental. I pay almost $500 for my family. ( No dental)
-My friend’s wife doesn’t work. My wife of 30 years has a job.
-My friend put 2 of his 3 kids through an expensive Baptist college. The 3rd went to college in Maine. My 1 child went to a local college and I took a 2nd job to avoid his student debt. My son got into Rice and Tulane, and even with grants, we couldn’t afford them.
-My friend buys a new car every 2-3 years. He has a 2011 Ford King Ranch F-250 truck. I drive a used 2007 Honda Element. I was thrilled to buy it last year.
-I e-mail my friend at work from time to time to see what they are cooking in the operator’s kitchen. On a regular basis they are making gumbo, chili, beans and rice with venison sausage. If I have a chance, I get to stand in line at one of our 2 microwaves in the teacher’s study to nuke last night’s leftovers during my 27 minute lunch. My of the time I eat peanut butter crackers.
-My friend “cooks” gasoline. I teach high school seniors.
-Other than the money, I wonder if my friend likes his job. Until about 7 years ago, I thought I had the best job in the world.
-My friend’s job is the desired blue collar job by everyone in our area. He is a member of the PACE Union. No one sees a problem with his union. There are people who think I am an overpaid communist union member because I teach school. ( Texas has no real unions, we have associations and we have no collective bargaining rights or right to strike. )
BTW: My friend’s company just receive a huge tax abatement to add onto their plant. The tax they do pay to the local district is much less than the average homeowner, yet, they want a well educated workforce.
I am retiring this year. I am worn out…..I have really been questioning if I have wasted my life. It has caused a state of melancholy like you would not believe. At one time I told kids who wanted to be teachers it was a good profession. Now, I tell them it would be the worst mistake in their life.
Teachers want to be regarded as “professionals,” along with doctors, lawyers, or accountants. These professions, while having some of the same educational requirements as teaching, have completely different pay structures from teachers. A lot of teachers seem to want the respect and pay of a medical doctor, and the employment and retirement guarantees of an auto worker. What we end up with instead is the respect and pay of an auto worker and the employment and retirement guarantees of a doctor (i.e. we’re on our own)!
Coming from the business world, I still find it hilarious that every teacher in my district is paid the same for the same years of experience and education. By that logic, every student would make the same grade.
I know my job is not easy, and I know many teachers have it much harder than I do. I can’t help but think, however, that a self-employed plumber or electrician (especially in Texas in the summer) works way harder than I do and deserves to be paid accordingly, whether or not he has any letters after his name.
I would like to share some commentary:
– I teach at a high school that is in its second year of being opened. I love the school that I work at and I love the administration. I can honestly say that whatever happens, they have my back.
– This year, we have been accepting “transfer” students from a school 20 minutes away that has not made AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) in two years. It is the ruling that if a school does not make AYP for 2 years in a row, then other schools which are under-capacity may accept any student wishing to transfer.
– Last year, we had an awesome freshman class (I taught them and I am teaching them again as sophmores). Grades were up and things were looking good.
– This year, at the beginning of the semester, my department AP (I teach Math, which seems to be where the most students struggle) had a sit-down with our department to let us know that 40% of freshman students had failed at least one class last semester.
– Then I got to thinking, we have an abundance of students from another high school that did not make AYP that are now given the option to come to our school (I am assuming because we have better teachers?) and now my colleagues are being pressured because more kids are failing.
– Coincidence, I think not. I would like to know when parents are going to stop blaming their kid’s teacher’s and realize that it their child is failing at 2 different high schools, it can’t all be the teacher’s fault, right?
Teachbad – that comment was directed at the poster “maia”. Your post is great. I agree 100% with all of it.
If you were to add up the number of folks calling for the ‘removal of bad teachers,’ it’s not more than a few dozen; a typical teacher has 10x that many a year in the classroom.
I do not fret over this ‘assault’ on teachers, as so many of us should not, because for many of us our customers, parents, students, and communities, are quite satisfied.
Now, if you’re in a public school that suffers a drastic population drop because people are choosing an alternative maybe you should be concerned. We can argue about whether that alternative is viable, but what we think doesn’t matter because we’re not the parents of those children seeking an alternative.
To win this seeming ‘war,’ we teachers must win the hearts and minds of those whom we serve: parents, the local electorate/taxpayers. Remember we are public servants, and we serve at the pleasure of those voters/taxpayers. If we can make a strong case for what is best for their children, then let us go forth and do it in such a way that convinces voters and taxpayers to ‘put their money where their mouth is.’ If we can’t do that, then all the screaming and drum-beating we do will be for naught, and those of us who disagree with the direction we’re taking must either, in the words of Hall & Oates, “…give up and move on, or (the weak) give up and stay….”
I have been teaching for nine years. I STILL never have a free weekend. If I don’t give feedback on assignments how will the students improve? Rarely can I meet one-on-one with all 110 students. I’ve missed my own child’s concerts and games because I am always after school trying to get some of my students to pass. Our planning periods are filled with meetings every day except our lunch duty day. And then our lunches are short because administration requires that we escort the darlings to and from the cafeteria. Time for the photocopier or calling/emailing parents occurs before or after school. Every day is well over ten hours and that is physically at school, not including the time I spend at home. I wonder how many teachers have remained single their entire lives because they simply don’t have time for a social life or are so tapped out that they prefer peace and solitude. There are five that I know of in my middle school building alone!
I know exactly how you feel.I am overjoyed for a planning day or a long wknd. I think I have symptoms of burnout but who tells teachers to go on a long vacation? We just have to wait for the summer… The mental and emotional stress is overwhelming for me. It may just be at my school/district because my district is now on accreditation probation. I feel like I am doing all I can short of standing on my head juggling flaming swords to get my students motivated and keep lessons interesting.
I too am feeling some burnout after just 9 years of teaching. I would love to take a mental health day, but we are almost out of sub days for the year. I’ve only taken one sick day and one personal day this year when we are each given 12 total. Unfortunately, they do not fund all of those days, so if I take a day when we’re out, they have to split my class. Upper grades have to sub during their preps. I’m tired of hearing about all the time off we get. Yes we do get a good chunk of time during the summer, but I wish I could take a day off when I most needed it.
I think you are right on with the workload. I have 2 good friends who stayed single because they are such dedicated teachers. That is why I find the “teachers are lazy” claim and the “no excuses” claim to be so offensive.
The PR problem for teachers is this whole misconception of the student schedule being the same as the teacher schedule. Interesting that at the college level this idea is non existent. (So are tenured positions, but, that is another story). College profs teach about 3 hours a day, maximum. Of course the preparation is at a very high level. But we don’t see college profs taking the same blame for “destroying the country”>
I have a single cousin in that same shape…..She is, as she herself says is ” an old maid schoolteacher.” Very bright, has a chemistry degree, made the remark one Sunday that while she was with her kids at an all day academic contest, that her kids knew why she didn’t have a husband. ” Miss **** , you’ll never get married spending this much time with us.”
Sad part is there is an element in the many Southerner’s psyche that still wants teachers not to have a life outside the school.
I’m going to jump on the fence here and say that since both sides are so pissed off about it, teachers are paid fairly.
It is hard to argue the fact. In my district, a 10 year teacher with a Masters (which is a requirement by year 10), pulls down $62,000. A house with 2 teachers would pull in more income than 85% of Americans, and is right in line with the median income of a full time employed American with a Masters.
(Granted, I live in a weird district that is both affluent and has failing schools, so the pay is somewhat below what would be expected in this area, but if I spent my summer’s writing curricula, and considered my pretty good health insurance and pension, I’m pretty much back on track).
Thanks so much for writing to stick up for teachers. I feel the same way. I have a friend who just told me that she thinks that firing the lowest performing 5% of teachers “would be a big step” in solving education problems. I felt like saying “Wouldn’t that solve 5% of the “problems”?” What about everything else?
Here in WI teachers are under attack and also the governor wants to make huge cuts to education in general. But the big issue is not the pay. He wants to cut collective bargaining rights. He wants the teachers to vote each year on whether to keep the union in existence. (Nobody is paid to count the votes, so how is that going to work?)
I saw my child’s teacher marching around the capitol and she said she was going to then go to school, I guess to prepare for the week. I felt like saying, “Don’t do it, you are wasting your life for other peoples’ kids and they don’t even have the decency to let you negotiate.”
I am new to this state. Incredibly, I moved here for the schools. Brilliant, huh? So far the schools here are great, but it looks like that will be ending soon. I have the distinct impression that either many teachers didn’t vote or they voted for the governor who didn’t mention “destroying teacher unions” during his campaign.
The irony is that here, in part because there are 14 Democratic senators hiding out in Illinois to slow down this bill, teachers are looking at President Obama as on their side. They even think he will come to the rallies to speak! What I see happening is he makes a lukewarm comment like “We want good teachers.” and then “ok, let’s race to the top”. The sad thing is that even if Wisconsin were to “win” Race to the Top money, our governor would probably not accept it because he already turned down 800 million in train money.
I am also not convinced that the whole voucher, charter, fire 5% will solve anything that smaller class sizes wouldn’t.
The other thing is this. Who is going to want to do this job? It is not that it is so underpaid necessarily, compared to fast food workers for example. But beyond that who wants to blamed for all of societies’ problems? Is there a point at which teachers become so demoralized that they quit trying?
I think we teachers and former teachers like myself are included in this, we have to start contacting people in power. Bill Gates was just quoted as saying that class size doesn’t matter. It is nice he thinks excellent teachers are so great that they can teach the same way with 25 or 35 students, but come on, we KNOW that is wrong. In that sense, as much as my governor is bugging me now, at least he is not saying that and he is admitting it is about the money.
By the way, I have never been so proud of teachers as I have these last 3 weeks in Wisconsin. The 14 Democrats left and thus delayed the bill because they looked out and saw all the people. A lot of those people that they saw were teachers. We at least stalled the bill so everyone could see what was in it. For all the teacher hating out there, there is hope. A lot of people at these rallies have signs that say “We love our teachers”. Also, please don’t believe the negative reports. There have been about 700,000 people at our capital during the last 3 weeks and only 16 arrests total, much less than at a college football game. Also, many many parents.
I know this was a long response and sort of on a lot of topics at once.
I love this blog because you are honest.
One of the problems with this kind of conversation is that it is someitmes hard to generalize about certain situations and conditions. Obviously, there is a significant range of variation in teacher pay and benefits. HOWEVER, the one thing we probably have in common is the demoralizing effects of catching all of the flak and being burdened with much of the shit that is rolling downhill towards teachers.
I am saddened to see teachers going after teachers here. It ain’t us–it’s them. Ms. Miller: I get your point and surely there are teachers complaining about salary. BUT, what has really taken all teachers down to the depths of despair is the ways in which we are castigated again and again by folks from outside of the profession that I love and value, no matter how much crap keeps coming my way.
I have never complained about my pay. It ain’t great but it isn’t bad. However, it has taken me more than thirty years to achieve a substantial salary–one over $75,000, with masters degree and lots of additional coursework. I do have a nice benefit package that offsets a salary lower than that of folks with comparable jobs, education, and experience outside of teaching. This is not what keeps me up at night.
Teachbad and his followers are more apt to bitch about what we call working conditions, the unending downpour of commands and directives from on-high, the interference by those whose teaching experience pales by comparison to ours, and the silly and pointless efforts to RE-FORM education without really changing the things that we know matter (deep in our hearts and guts) and impact our students and their learning experiences. God bless teachers.
“I am saddened to see teachers going after teachers here. It ain’t us–it’s them. Ms. Miller: I get your point and surely there are teachers complaining about salary. BUT, what has really taken all teachers down to the depths of despair is the ways in which we are castigated again and again by folks from outside of the profession that I love and value, no matter how much crap keeps coming my way.”
I could not agree more……..I had other comments for Ms. Miller, but I didn’t want to be ugly toward a fellow teacher……..Some people just don’t “get it.”
They pay us 95000$ per year after 10 years of service but the taxes and the administrators suck. No guns in the schools though. Well not very often anyways. If I could wipe ass I would have gone into health care. At least that job is secure, pays o/t and has a future. Declining enrollment coupled with teachers who come back after retirement is killing young teachers oppourtunity. Student loan debt is off the charts and the bankers smile.
As far as teachers being paid fairly, I think that depends on how long you’ve been teaching and where you teach. Some states and some cities/suburbs pay teachers quite well. In some rural areas teachers are some of the highest earning in the area. But generally for new teachers we are talking about somewhere between 20,000 and 35,000 to start. Some districts pay more up front to attract people, other districts have a high end so that after 15 years or so you are doing pretty well.
I also think that teaching is reasonable pay if you are single without children. If you are married and have children, the picture changes. Teachers also have to go back to school and are constantly paying for workshops and continuing education out of their own pockets. Teachers also pay a lot of money out of their own pockets for their classrooms. Some districts may pay for the little prizes they give to students, but, in my experience teachers are paying for all that stuff out of their own pockets. I think elementary teachers in poor areas really end up paying quite a bit, something nearer possibly above 100.00 a month for their students and classrooms.
To all the teachers out there, if you have made it through this long winded post, I just have to say, the great majority of parents and students appreciate what you are doing for our kids. The older I get I am just amazed at the selflessness and optimism that teachers possess. You are real heroes. Thank-you.
I’m single, childless and a teacher in South Texas. Illegal immigrants, through SSI (when qualified), CHIPS, healthcare, income-based housing and Welfare earn more than I do (GROSS) with 8 years experience, incentive-based pay and a master’s degree… Not to mention that extra 50 bucks a month in Special Ed stipends. I “attend” work 185 days a year, but I actually work WAY more, especially with data collection and SPED paperwork/IEP prep. Sometimes I cry when I think of the time/effort I put in and the return (or lack thereof) that I get. Sure I have time “off”, but I use that to contact parents, compose newsletters, and SLEEP off the emotional drain of teaching special ed, and the hours I spend in prayer pleading with God to keep little Suzy safe from her mother’s boyfriend, questioning my beliefs when the only kids I see are VERY special, and asking for restraint so that I don’t get up and go murder a parent who “forgets” to pick up her child with mental retardation and/or to change his diaper at least once over a weekend (Child protective services and I are very tight). My only consolation is that I AM good at my job, I care about my students and am a voice for them, and maybe sainthood will suit me. Glutton for punishment, maybe, but I’m still naïve and ideological (even after my evaluations by an administrator who thinks “autistic” means that the child draws well). Perhaps the Lord will reward me, if I don’t tell my principal to stick it first!!
David Brooks Discusses Link Between Success and Love and I Did Too
So I heard David Brooks of all people on NPR saying how somebody figured out this link between positive relationships and success. I was making dinner at the time and pretending to listen to my child’s long explanation of a Taylor Swift video at the same time so I don’t have the specifics, but David Brooks sounded pretty happy he had found this “missing link”.
So, “good” I thought, “maybe we can get off of this idea that school success hinges on every teacher writing “SWBAT…” or better yet, “BTEOTCSWBAT” before the objective on the overhead, chalkboard, Smartboard or Promethean board or whatever and then READING it aloud. The peculiar code like letters mean “By the end of today’s class the student will be able to…” I can’t remember if I am supposed to have the “O” in there. “o well” ha-ha or LOL.
I once worked in a wealthy area that had a small group of “disadvantaged” students. I taught the poor kids in a special class section. As usual, there were kids that had never been to school consistently mixed in with students whose parents were college educated.
So, one of these kids from a small village whose parents didn’t really read or write was totally overwhelmed with the whole culture shock, brain overload that comes with changing your language, country and whole life in a short period of time. Since I spoke his language, he would often tell me, “Teacher, you are the only one at this school who makes sense.” I thought that was funny, it was because he couldn’t understand the other teachers.
He thought they didn’t make sense. Hilarious. Except that this district also had one of these top down, jargon filled “systems” that are completely foreign to somebody from outside the system and completely incomprehensible to people from “rural villages in developing countries”, to broadly generalize.
So, besides teaching the language I was supposed to be teaching, I found myself translating and explaining all the district jargon. The whole “By the end of today’s class the student will…” idea. It is just that worldwide, it is not really accepted that by the end of today’s class you will totally understand the material, unless it is actually possible to learn it in one day. In other, less enlightened places , you could still say, “You might not get this today, but by the end of the week this is going to be easy for you”. In my district there are a whole bunch of things wrong with that statement. You have to learn it by the end of the class and when you learn it, it is not because “it was easy”, it was because the student had put forth “effective effort”, etc. etc.
One kid blew me away with his cluelessness. He would get up and leave class without taking his papers with him. He just let them fly up and then the papers would be sitting there on the floor. So, I called his dad and instead of giving him the list of things I thought should be improved I just said ” He is really respectful, but when he leaves class he lets the papers fly around and so if I want to grade them, I have to pick them up off the floor.” Well, from then on, the kid kept his folder very neat and was careful about assignments. But, he started to do other things. One thing he did was to bring in sunflower seeds and start spitting the shells onto the floor. I brought him the garbage can and said “You’re not supposed to do that inside.” I am telling you this so that you don’t think this is one of those, “I made parent contact and everything went beautifully after that” stories.
This class had one group of recent immigrants who spoke their language fluently and one group of what they call “heritage learners” or people who have grown up here, maybe whose parents who are born here, but they don’t really know the other language, they understand it well, but don’t have a true grasp of reading, writing or grammar. But their English is usually excellent. Maybe they are even “A” students.
So, I got evaluated in this class with my rural, leaning toward illiterate kids and my A students from upper class families. The supervisor just saw all the kids as one group of kids, all from the same ethnic group. She didn’t know the language I was teaching in or what was going on as far as the complexities of different reading levels, academic skills, language skills, social “class” level, gang affiliation, etc. etc. To her I think she just saw “ESOL” students.
She gave me a bad review. She thought they were out of control, because every time a new word comes up everybody starts to discuss what it means in their own country of origin. (I’m using “country of origin” loosely here, the kids are all Americans, but they are pretty much a dual language group)
I started getting upset at the bad evaluations because I knew the complexities were huge and that I was killing myself to teach that class. There was also this whole social work component of the class, that anybody who teaches in a poor area would understand. What was bizarre about that job was that it was only when all those kids got together in one class and were able to speak their own language that all the drug, gang, poverty issues came up. So I was constantly dealing with parents, counselors and administrators for one portion of the class while trying to provide a sort of AP prep class for the class in general. You need an example of “issues”? One day a girl said, “Look” and pointed to her tongue that she had just pierced in the bathroom. I know, this was my fault, I should have not given her permission to leave the room. She should have been working on mastering the objective, not piercing her tongue, but, I digress.
I left that school and eventually left teaching. I heard later that the new teacher was having “trouble” . What a surprise. I don’t think they will ever have anyone as expert at I was at bridging the culture gap, but, maybe they will, I hope they find someone. Some of you will see me as a “quitter”. I don’t see it that way. I put in my 20 years and now I volunteer in a school. I will probably go back to work when I run out of money. I quit because none of my supervisors ever knew as much as I did and they were always writing things on my evaluations like, “Make sure you engage ALL the students ALL the time”. As a teacher of a non-standardized test subject I was always teaching literacy skills to students of hugely different skill levels without any “support” that an English or Reading teacher in my district got. Which would have all been fine except that it wasn’t ever mentioned on the evaluations. So, I was passing these evaluations, I was never “ineffective”, but these comments were getting on my nerves and I wanted to scream “YOU do it then, Ms. Perfect, who doesn’t even know two languages!”
Anyway, now I have time to blog.
As for that kid who let his papers fly around? One day, four years later, I was at a workshop. I went to a coffeshop/deli for lunch and the kid behind the counter was working hard, giving affable service in English to the “American” customers and charming, down to earth Spanish to his Hispanic customers without blinking an eye. He was about 17. He asked me if I taught at XYZMiddle School. We recognized each other and said the usual “How are you?” I realized I had never even spoken to him in English before, he hadn’t known enough to form a sentence when I had him.
He gave me coffee on the house and when there were no customers came over and sat with me. He told me all about his former classmates and what they were up to. I asked him if he remembered our class and he said, ” I was new then, I didn’t know what I was doing.” I thought that about explained it. He was taking Algebra and getting it because, he said, “My teacher likes me.” So much for “effective effort”.
The only point to this post is that maybe sometimes you are making a difference in someone’s life and you don’t know it. You won’t see it, because usually you don’t run into your success stories back in their old neighborhoods, where you still teach. They aren’t going to tell you, “Hey thanks, Mr. Jones, I work for NASA now” because they are busy and besides they, maybe rightfully, are giving the credit to their “effective effort” instead of to you.
But the whole “She likes me” part is maybe really where we need to focus.
Any reform movement that doesn’t address school environment is a waste of time. I can’t speak for other teachers who have left the profession. I can only speak for myself. Looking back, I needed positive feedback, I was already “holding myself accountable”. I needed a “thanks, nice job.” My students needed, “You can do it” and “I like you” more than they needed me to write”BTEOTCSWBAT” before my objective.
Thank you for your post, Maria. I have thought so many of the thoughts you shared, including half listening to NPR while making dinner, except my son is explaining Led Zeppelin songs.
Speaking in the students’ language is huge, and its import and complexity is routinely missed by policy-makers and administrators. I am fortunate in that I can use and teach “code switching” as part of my curriculum.
The value of relationships in student success cannot be measured with a bubble sheet, but it might be the most important predictor. Here’s a little story of relationship building:
Today, after a day of state writing testing, I had to meet with my after-school tutor group to prepare them for the state reading test. I only knew one girl in the group, a struggling reader who lives in poverty and whose mother is incarcerated, but she comes to school as much as she can. On the way to the tutoring room, three girls were talking about their teachers in snide whispers. “I can hear you, you know,” I joked. The girl I know looked at me sincerely, the glitter on her eye-lids sparking, “I wasn’t being mean. I told them you were nice. At least, you’re nice to me.” Her two buddies quieted down, intrigued that I might be nice. When we settled down in the tutoring room, the first question the group asked was, “Why do we have to practice for a test we just took today?” A reasonable question. “You took writing multiple choice, not reading multiple choice.” The helpless look on these struggling kids’ faces said it all: You have GOT to be kidding…..THERE’S MORE TESTS?!!
I couldn’t bring myself to make them “slash the trash” anymore in one day. We sat around the tutoring table talking about reading, and school, and then one by one, kids asked if they could get some help…with a computer assignment, with World Geography, with printing out a grade report, with organizing a notebook. One boy asked hopefully, “Can I just sit here and read a book?” The girl with the glittery eyes who thinks I’m nice recommended to her friend who hasn’t read a book yet this year that she read something by Nicholas Sparks, so we snuck into the closed library and found The Notebook.
We did spend 10 of the 75 minutes on test prep. Because that’s what we were supposed to be doing. But, something tells me that when testing time comes around, these kids will care a little more, and will maybe get one or two more answers correct, not because they learned how to highlight key words or slash the trash, but because someone was nice and showed them how to “do school.”
And after reading so many posts and articles about the state of public education, I do want to give a shout out to my rural community public school, which still allows and encourages the teachers to actually teach. We’re allowed to be nice. I hope that continues in the face of testing, testing, testing and measuring a teacher’s worth by scantron.
great story…the last sentence will get me through testing week!
WOW. The last few posts were so powerful and so meaningful to me. Thank you very much. It has been a very tough day. Tough kids and tougher adults. And, it is only Tuesday.
I understand that we’ve run out of money – and taking it from “millionaires” is NOT the answer – but my questions is why it’s always education that gets cut back. Teaching has never been a lucrative profession. I don’t complain about salary and I don’t complain about benefits because I knew what I was getting into. That said, how come we don’t hear about cuts in other public-sector jobs?
Oh, because people with money understand that the only way to get more money is to take it away from other people, and the only ones to take it from are people who will fall for your shill. That’s why the rick were all mad at Bernie Madoff (spelling?) – he pointed out that having money does not make you clever.
KESS (keep em stupid – simple)
Animal Farm
It’s only Tuesday and I’m already exhausted. After reading some of these posts I realize that my school is not nearly as bad as others but I can quickly see it going that way. When I first started at this school as a 2nd year teacher, 7 years ago, it was a pretty even mix of black, white and hispanic. Our kids were generally respectful, came from middle to lower middle class families, and our principal had created an environment where the students knew there would be consequences to their actions. My 2nd year at this school, I live in a county with school choice by the way, a new school opened nearby. The kids at our school called it “white flight.” The superintendent placed the school in an area where it would do the most damage to my school and another local school, in the process creating a “perfect” school.
Despite the opening of the new school and a tough year or two, our population eventually evened out again. Kids realized that if they were a square peg, the new school was a round hole and they didn’t fit. Our school is very accepting of different kids and every student, whether they wear tu-tus to school or are in the band or are skaters, have someplace they fit. Unfortunately, our old principal retired and our new administration is a joke. They are so concerned with the students liking them that they let things slide that should never be tolerated. One of the vice principals actually assigns tutoring as a punishment! The tutoring isn’t even with the teacher who wrote the student up!
The lack of punishment is causing the students to realize, and rightly so, that they run the school. If they are sent out of class, they know nothing much will happen to them. These are students who don’t come from parents who are strong disciplinarians so calling home, if the number even works, is a waste of time. We also have a ton of brand new teachers at our school this year. They are quickly burning out and don’t feel supported by the administrations. One new teacher went to report a child who was wandering the school when he should have been in ISS and had just cussed her out for daring to question why he was in the hallway. When she got to the office, the VP was in with another VP. The teacher told the VP the story and the VP put her hand up in the teacher’s face and, speaking to the other VP, said “As I told Ms. >>> already, I will deal with it when I have time.” The disrespect and the lack of professional behavior is appalling. Here’s my theory, we’re fighting a war and the teachers are your front line. Without us, good luck.
I know this was rambling and covered many topics but it was nice to get some of this out at the end of a long day. I feel like I need to start drinking more.
What a bunch of whiners!
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Kevin. Please elaborate for us. You seem well-informed and smart.
You are SOOOOO right about the EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL!!!! Oh, let’s come in on a Saturday and do a family day for our students and their parents! Come in to set up, and stay to break down…only 6-7 hours or so. Oh yeah, can you bring food and drinks for all the people, too? Oh, of course you’re not being paid! You care about money? I thought you cared about kids?!!!!
I care about kids…but I’m starting not to. I’m starting to think I was dumb to care in the first place b/c I’m only being punished, abused and taken advantage of for caring! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaah I feel better now. Time for a beer.