As the debate rages on between union busting interest and public employees hard fought fight for collective bargaining, we thought we’d take the argument back to a human level. Teachers are being vilified, demonized and under constant siege for their efforts to maintain a minimum standard for working conditions, a livable wage and adequate benefits to sustain a middle class life.
Whether you are for union representation or not, we think the job itself should be considered before bitching about what a fair compensation package would be to get that job done properly and professionally.
Considering what teachers are asked to accomplish with dwindling resources and a complete breakdown of acceptable social norms, we’re surprised anyone would be willing to enter the totally self-sacrificing and unrewarding profession of public classroom instruction. While it is as American as apple pie to want the best for the least, when it comes to education, it is wise to remain flexible, open-minded and willing to negotiate in good faith.
Americans are demanding teachers to work miracles in classrooms across the country with class sizes exceeding 40 students. Many students are showing up hungry, angry, unmotivated, distracted, drug addicted, sexually active and worse case scenario, armed and dangerous.
The student of today is over stimulated by television and technology and under stimulated by teaching methods that have not changed since the 1960’s. Kids are actually required to schlep around backbreaking backpacks filled with hardcover textbooks they might not even open during the course of the school week. This is so yesterday and has been for a long time.
We are expecting teachers to produce bilingual, mathematic, scientific and artistically trained humanitarians out of street urchins. Because of a continuous decline in the average American’s living standard, public educators are responsible for feeding kids breakfast, lunch and an after school snack.
We expect teachers to take on "mission impossible" when they are working in environments replete with metal detectors, armed guards and drug sniffing dogs. In some communities, the schools look more like jails than places of learning.
Many teachers have been known to dig past the lint in their own pockets looking for pennies to pay for supplies the parents or the state can’t afford to provide. Yet, we have focused like a laser on the "failures" of teachers without fairly acknowledging the mounting challenges placed on their shoulders.
If it is true being a parent is the hardest job in the world, then being a public school teacher has got to be a close second. But even on this point, we vehemently differ, as teaching in 21st century America is an infinitely more difficult task than raising two or three children.
As a parent, we get to drop our kids off in the morning and leave them in the complete care, custody and control of another adult. We get to abdicate our responsibility for our children’s mental and physical health, their nutrition and their safety.
For those running late, there are the afterschool programs our kids can hangout at until they let themselves into empty homes. If time permits during their day, they might actually get to learn something between the bullying, fights, texting, sexting, TV, video games, and Facebook. By the way, those are the good kids!
Worse still, the homes children come from are increasingly incapable of providing the necessary support the American child needs to successfully achieve academic parity with his/her foreign counterpart. Overworked single and two parent households lack the time and energy to participate in their children’s daily lives anymore. The fact that parents lament, they are doing all they can to put food on the table and keep a roof over the families head, the reality remains, it just ain't enough to raise a child and it never was.
Be it school or extracurricular activities, many parents and guardians are simply overwhelmed and looking for a scapegoat when they wake up to realize their 15 year old is illiterate and still counting on fingers and toes. Turning these sow ears into silk purses is a job for none other than Bernard Shaw’s Henry Higgins. And he'd be smart to keep a hidden taser or cattle prod handy.
With employers demanding workers work longer hours for less pay, second and third jobs are needed just to stay financially afloat. As bad as this sounds, these households are still considered better than many others, who have no jobs at all. And, as ugly as it is, we must acknowledge, some parents are just outright scanks and lowlives themselves.
Family stress levels are another major contributor to the performance, or lack thereof, of many students. If American teachers had well behaved, eager, attentive and interested students with home support, even the least capable instructors could turn out a reasonable product. Have some lames overstayed their time in front of chalkboards in American classrooms? Absolutely, but that is nowhere near the norm.
While catchy bumper sticker legislation/programs like “race to the top” or “no child left behind”, are kicking in a few extra federally funded dollars for standardized testing and performance incentives, we say America is missing the point. It is not teachers or the lack of money that is failing America’s future; it is the overall decline of America that is failing America’s future.
Until you fix America, teachers should be compensated liberally. Or, for the "small government extremists" amongst us, they can vote to abolish public education altogether and begin homeschooling their kids themselves.