As the zero-tax absolutist, and anti-referendum zealots (who are willing to outright lie about property tax Armageddon) continue to control the levers of government, it is worth considering what outcome we hope to achieve by underfunding and running public education into the ground in America. What lurks around the corner for a country that has declared the classroom teacher a menace to society?
Here is a glimpse of that future. This is from Huffington Post, but it could be from wherever a teacher is talking about their life choices.
Nothing I have ever done has brought me as much joy as I have received from teaching children how to write the past 14 years. Helping young writers grow and mature has been richly rewarding and I would not trade my experiences for anything.
That being said, if I were 18 years old and deciding how I want to spend my adult years, the last thing I would want to become is a classroom teacher.
Classroom teachers, especially those who are just out of college and entering the profession, are more stressed and less valued than at any previous time in our history.
They have to listen to a long list of politicians who belittle their ability, blame them for every student whose grades do not reach arbitrary standards, and want to take away every fringe benefit they have — everything from the possibility of achieving tenure to receiving a decent pension.
Read the whole thing, but here is something that might resonate here as some local politcos turn on the PR machine to drag Christina School District through the mud over standardized test scores.
During the coming week in Missouri, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill which would eliminate teacher tenure, tie 33 percent of our pay to standardized test scores (and a lesser, unspecified percentage for those who teach untested subjects) and permit such innovations as “student surveys” to become a part of the evaluation process.
Each year, I allow my students to critique me and offer suggestions for my class. I learn a lot from those evaluations and have implemented some of the suggestions the students have made. But there is no way that eighth graders’ opinions should be a part of deciding whether I continue to be employed.