Schools are not what they used to be and everyone knows that. But, are teachers at fault as Oprah and others seem to think? Teachers are working under a totally different set of circumstances than in the past. They are putting in 18 hour days, weekends and it just isn’t enough.
Times Have Changed in Education
When many veteran teachers began teaching in small schools, parents had respect for the teachers of their children. When a teacher called from school, parents believed that what the teacher was stating was the truth. Students came to school ready to learn and behaved well or parents would be called and the matter would improve. Today, that is not the case.
Who Is Responsible for Children Getting an Education?
At the present moment, teachers are being held responsible for children coming from dysfunctional homes, poverty, language deficits, and lack of parental involvement. It doesn’t seem to matter what parents don’t provide. Teachers are held responsible for everything. There is a lack of supervision, lack of safety, lack of basic needs. Homework does not return completed. Some students miss 1-2 days out of the school week due to family issues. Some families leave to live in another country for 5 months, where students attend a school that is taught in another language and return in time to take the comprehensive tests that judge teacher performance in English. Many students are in upper elementary classrooms speaking and reading at the pre-kindergarten levels because they recently came to the country.
Some schools have 22-30 languages spoken within their school without translators for all languages. This leaves many parents with no recourse for conferences or good communication with teachers. Some of these parents leave for work at 5 a.m. and return at 7 p.m. after being bussed to a meat processing plant an hour away from home. They have little time to supervise homework or supervise their children and have no cars. Survival comes first, school comes second. But, unless children feel safe, they can not learn. Again, teachers are judged on how well these children do in school.
U.S.A. Dropping in Education?
It is sensational news when someone announces that the U.S.A. is dropping in educational excellence. But, does anyone ask the top nations if they educate all children? Do these other countries mandate educating the mentally and physically disabled? Probably, not. Do they educate all children? Probably, not. Do they educate those that are not college bound the same as other students? Probably, not. Do they educate behavior disorder students for a college bound track? Probably, not. The U.S.A. does. The U.S.A. educates students that do not understand English, new immigrants, and all children with disabilities. All students fall into the K-12 system and are equally offered the same curriculum. Everyone is equal. This is not the norm in other countries placing above the U.S.A. This is a major component why the U.S.A. does not perform the same as other countries. It is comparing apples to oranges.
Top Down Administrations Hold Back Teachers
In many large school districts, the layers of bureaucracy are staggering. Teachers are no longer allowed to use their own judgment in the classrooms. Top down decisions choke creativity. Classes are timed to the minute and principals visit classrooms to make sure everything is taught at the precise moment as scheduled. This precise measuring and timing does not allow teachers to individualize education for students. It is a cookie cutter system ruled with an iron fist. Perhaps, schools should allow teachers to have more freedom in how they teach within their classrooms. After all, teachers know their students better than the many layers of management.
It is easy to point the finger at teacher unions that protect teachers from unfair administrators, false accusations or abusive parents. But, in many schools, teachers are told exactly how to teach, precisely what to teach and when to teach it with little choice or lose their jobs. Conform or quit. Let us not be too quick to throw stones at teachers or their unions. Let’s look at the broken system.
Barbara Pytel - Email me Experience Although I was never particularly fond of going to school as an ELL student, I ironically became a teacher, ...
