I am about to do a bad, bad thing. But I have given this "thing" much thought, and I truly believe that when we choose to be quiet, it is like we accept an issue and, perhaps, even agree with it. For example, when a person stands by and watches as someone is mistreated or bullied and does nothing or says nothing to stop it... Is that not just as bad?
So to get to this bad, bad thing: I am tired of being too quiet in my opinions about the current status of our education system, the treatment of teachers and students, and "No Child Left Behind." As a teacher, it might just be best to shut my mouth and be grateful that I still have a job at this point, for I know many others are not so blessed. However, we in the education world are being pushed around, mistreated and bullied. Who will stand up for us if we do not?
"No Child Left Behind," more aptly named "Too Many Teachers Left Behind," is to be revamped, according to President Obama. He has been very broad in what changes are to take place, but the general push throughout the United States recently has been to HOLD TEACHERS ACCOUNTABLE. In fact, Florida has taken steps to change teacher tenure to be more performance-based rather than based on years of service. Pay raises will also be based on performance. Many other states are following suit.
I believe in high teacher performance. To put it in "kid terms"...our nation's education system sucks! We are so far behind. How can we be a "world power" when we are so low in reading and mathematics? The solution to this massive problem, which is impossible to "solve" in a few short years, as NCLB specified, is what is hotly debated. There are many solutions (standardized testing cannot be one of them), but the factors that have attributed to this problem have to be properly addressed first. And they aren't.
Teacher performance. Ahhh...yes, there are some really poor teachers out there. Too many people become teachers because they feel it is noble and comes with great hours and a summer break. (Joke is on them, I suppose.) Once in the job, there is nothing better so they stay. This is an issue. The question is: how do you judge teacher performance? Test scores, yell out politicians and even parents! Test scores. The filthiest two word combination I know. So...a good teacher teaches students how to pass a test? But not the true curriculum? The love of books? How to use math "in the real world" when problems don't always come with four bubble choices? Or the nation's history? The scientific reasoning behind phenomena around us every day? We don't teach kids how to become truly successful members of society with knowledge and abilities that go beyond tearing the seal on a test, sharpening a #2 pencil and using "strategies." I get it.
What is another factor? In fact, what is the NUMBER ONE FACTOR? (Here is where the trouble starts.) PARENTS!!!! I have listened to and read numerous debates, articles and news clips about our failing education system. There is one factor never mentioned. PARENTS. I was always taught that education begins and ends in the home. School is a supplement to that education. My parents were my first teachers (and always will be). Why does my daughter know how to read? We taught her how. We were reading to her, teaching her, showing her new things, experimenting, playing, and exploring long before Kindergarten. Am I super mom? Have you met me?! I'm certainly not. And yes, I worked a full-time job and had my share of drama and issues, but it doesn't take a wonder woman or a super man to be a parent. It takes some time, patience and love. It takes saying no to "me" and yes to "us."
Too many parents live in the world of me, me, me. They can't care less about their children...where they are, who they play with, do they have homework, are they bullies, are they being bullied? They care about the club, drugs, alcohol, sex, welfare, the newest television shows, their friends, what THEY want. The children get put on the backburner. And we teachers try to pick up pieces from a damaging disaster that can only be repaired in the home. No one is calling these parents out. But they will sure as heck throw blame on "bad teachers" who can't "teach" a kiddo how to pass a test. It is a shame. No one wants to truly be responsible.
By all means, I should be considered a bad teacher. I struggle to get my students to pass the standardized test before them. I struggle to get them to do their work in class and out! I struggle to get them to write their name on their papers, bring materials to class. I struggle most of all in getting them to care. I'm just their teacher, after all. I'm not mom or dad. I'm not the one who they really need the love, attention, and committment from in order to be successful. They know this. And so do teachers everywhere who have classrooms full of kids who have potential...but no home support. If these teachers are like me, their hearts are breaking from the pain they see in these children each day, and their backs are breaking from the responsibility and stress being stacked on their shoulders more and more each year.
I'm tired of excuses...from parents, the government, from society as a whole. "It isn't their fault." Responsibility is key, but no one wants to be responsible. I AM responsible to my children and to my students. I will continue to do my part, but for those who bash teachers, know we do so much more than what teachers did when you were students. Times have changed, yet not for the better.
And I will be responsible as an American...I will stand up for what is right and the Christian values this country was founded on. That foundation is a crumbling mess, but it is not too late to repair it! Start by taking responsibility!!!
