There must be a light under the bushel!

RANT

I apologize for the irate work rant that follows, but it's gotta happen.

Texas is in the midst of a struggle between teachers and politicians. Although some of my republican friends would strongly argue that I am a democrat, in actuality, I'm not. I'm a moderate. I think extremes in politics are flawed. However, a fair accusation is that I am not happy with the current political atmosphere, on a state or national level (I guess I live in the wrong state!). I do find that I'm more comfortable with democratic presidents, probably in large part because of my job. Republicans can fuck up the education system in the blink of an eye, the whole time believing their argument is rational about how education needs to be run as a business.

Why the hell are politcians actively involved in setting policy when they have no background in education? Yes, some of them are parents, but do you see parents telling doctors how to do their jobs? There's a reason for that...they are not trained as doctors! Education is its own monster; generally speaking, people outside of education simply do not understand the dynamics of the field. It's not like the business world and never should be. The second you turn schools into businesses, you'll get a subpar class of teachers, but that's what current policies are trying for. You want us to be robots? You've just tied our hands; we can't use our strengths to the best of our abilities because we have to follow some script, which means we can't do our best for your children.

One group, the Texas Public Policy Foundation says that "schools have no real incentive nor requirement to meet state goals for student performance." (She's not talking about a paycheck here. She goes on to explain that we are not held accountable enough). This woman, the president of the foundation, apparently has no clue about job integrity, a characteristic you'll find in any school you walk in to. I'm not saying every teacher has it, but a hell a lot of them do. My "incentive" is to see kids grow and succeed. It's the reason I became a teacher; it's the reason I work in a job that has a mediocre salary; it's the reason I enjoy going to work every day. This woman also argues that poorer schools are spending more money on education to no avail; they are still performing lower than richer schools. Just how much did she pay attention in her economics classes or even her sociology classes? It's not like these kids are getting computers at home or parents who check their homework every night. Is she that stupid to think that teachers can turn a whole school 180 degrees in spite of socioeconomic disadvantages? The website also reports that "Texas teachers are not underpaid." The barometer they used? If you adjust the cost of living to other states, then we match up with the national average. No mention was made of teachers being underpaid nationally. And, did you know there's no teacher shortage? Schools hired the number of teachers they set out to hire, ergo... Stupid people! I have 37 kids in one class, an AP class at that, and nope, we didn't set out to hire any new teachers, so according to this organization, there's no problem. 20 literary papers throughout the year per student (that's not including all other assignments), 10 minutes per paper to grade, and that's just ONE of my classes; you do the math. You think I could use a little help? Wouldn't you like me to have more time to spend one-on-one with your kid? This woman acts like this argument is about the teacher. Every teacher in my department wants to do the best by each student and gets frustrated because of high numbers. Sure the discipline also becomes more of a problem because teachers are spread thinner. It's a little harder to manage 37 kids than 22 (the ideal number of students per class).

The current bill being debated will also decrease teacher retirement salaries and increase the minimum age of retirement to 60. All kinds of other crazy shit that I won't go into is also included. But, I just have to wonder, what kind of ignorant prick thinks that slamming teachers is what's needed to improve education?

And don't get my started on the "No Child Left Behind" crap. It's a great catch phrase for the general public, but it hurts every one of your children. The philosophy sounds great, but the practice will go down in history as one of the greatest disasters the education system has seen. We will spend the next decade trying to reverse the damages this policy has caused. Teachers have become swamped with paperwork, education has become focused on standardized tests rather than instruction, the schools are being punished rather than improved, and standards have been reduced so as not to leave out the slowest child rather than raised to make children perform at a higher level. All of education does not need reforming; we need a bill that addresses the specific needs of the students who need improvement instead of throwing out all the good with the bad. Why is this such a difficult concept to understand?

I understand that education is important to everyone. It will always be a hot button in politics. Policymakers will always try to make laws sound good to parents as they focus on the changes they deem necessary, but a word of caution: Listen to the teachers. They truly did not choose the profession for personal gain. They aren't looking for ways to move up in office. They aren't looking for any kind of promotions. They aren't looking for money to help finance campaigns. They are looking to make sure your child gets a good education. I'm not saying that all politicians only work for personal gain; I am saying that not many teachers do, and the teachers can give a much truer perspective on what's needed in the education system.

END RANT

P.S. I do want to acknowledge the politicians who have been so supportive of teachers and who listened to our positions. We owe them a huge THANK YOU!