Topics

Trying to determine my topic for this weeks discussions was actually more difficult than I expected. I kept tossing ideas back and forth, but I just couldn't really decide on something that I liked. I originally thought I would want to write something on grades, because personally I hate them, but then I thought that we covered that topic in a round about kind of way before. I wanted to pick something more controversial, something that I knew I could get people to really talk about.

The first person I spoke to was my co-op. She was actually the one who suggested that I should write about tenure. She said, "tenure is good if it does what it's supposed to do. It was established to allow teachers to have some freedom: freedom to push issues or to do further research in their classrooms. However, this isn't what always happens. Instead tenure has allowed many teachers to become lazy and to slack off in their teaching." After speaking with my co-op I realized that I actually didn't know a lot about tenure for teachers, so I decided to do some research. I found that " Most of America's public school teachers (58 percent) believe tenure protects teachers from district politics, favoritism, and the threat of losing their jobs to newcomers who would earn less, according to a new survey, titled Stand By Me, from Public Agenda, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research organization. Yet a majority (58 percent) of teachers also admit that being awarded tenure does not necessarily mean such teachers have worked hard and proved themselves to be very good at what they do. One union official admitted to defending tenured teachers "who shouldn't even be pumping gas."(School Reform News, 2003)

I found this very interesting. I remember having a professor in high school who was a horrible teacher. He probably should have retired 5 years before I had him, but yet he was still there teaching. I was so frustrated with him that I even complained to my principal and they did actually re-evaluate him. However because of the law, there was little that they could do.
"How expensive is it? A 1994 study by the New York State School Boards Association found that dismissing a tenured teacher in that state takes an average of 455 days and costs $177,000. If the teacher appeals, costs can approach twice that amount. Preparations for the required due process hearings take as long as six months, during which time suspended teachers in states such as Connecticut receive full salary. In addition, there are costs for substitute teachers and costs for the hearings. The process often ends with the school district either paying off or transferring the bad teacher. Like the fox guarding the henhouse, the unions have taken over attempts to reform the tenure system. Their solution is an experimental "peer review" process that involves teachers evaluating teachers instead of principals evaluating teachers to determine who is incompetent." ("Why Bad Teachers Aren't Fired", 1998)

So because I decided to make my topic tenure in education, I decided I would get the principals perspective on tenure, this time as a teacher and not a student. I spoke with on of the vice-principals in my high school. He took a while to think about what he was going to say and then he simply said, "I believe tenure is absolutely necessary in education." I thought that this was really interesting, especially coming from an administrators perspective. I asked him why and he said, "Think of it like this, as a teacher you see, on an average, 125 'clients' a day, and one of them is bound to not be pleased with you. If there wasn't something there to protect you (or teachers in general) the turnover rate of teachers would be ridiculously high!" He said, "of course there are downsides, as there are with anything, and there are teachers who become lazy, but there are things that can be done." I was really surprised at his view. I told him about my high school situation and he asked me how many "bad teachers" I may have had while in high school. I said maybe about 6, and he said, "out of how many?!" I understood his point. He then said, "I'd rather err on the side of teachers being good. I think without tenure in education, it would actually harm more good teachers than, without it bad."

I wanted another perspective, so I went and spoke to the art teacher again. She said, "well that is an issue! I believe there are issues, however, I think a lot of it also has to do with the teacher's personality. See me, I'm one who tends to want to stay neutral. However, honestly, in my department, I would have to say that the teachers that are going through the tenure process right now who actually deserve it, probably won't get it. Because of their personalities and their teaching ideas, they're not getting along with the supervisors and administrators, and they're they ones doing the evaluations. If you really think about it, the government are the one's who are regulating and running education, but what do they know about education?! We are never going to be able to fix education while the government is still running the show."

I guess were back again. All of the issues seem to come back to the government, and this idea of education being "schooled-up". I would say that out of anything I learned through this entire experience, you need to pick and choose your battles, and to pace yourself so that you don't become burnt out! I'm the type of person who wants to solve every problem and answer every question. However, I've realized that a teacher's work is never done, and that you really need to do you're research and to fight for what you believe in. And to always remember that we are teaching kids. That's what education is all about, and that's our job!