Now that I have told all my current students of my decision to retire, word has begun to spread through the school. Somehow not all the faculty has as yet heard, but the administrators have, and so have the counselors. Two of the administrators were in the building when I arrived and the principal arrived as a vice-principal the same year I did. Only one of the counselors has been there as long as I have, but I have worked closely with several of them, so I told them as soon as I had informed my department chair.
Some people want to know why, some offer their own surmises - which are often fairly much on target - but most just offer me congratulations.
I am the 6th senior faculty members leaving this year, after 7 left last year. At least 3 more have already made clear that they will leave after next year.
And my thoughts? For that you have to continue beneath the squiggle.
First, why did I tell my students? After all, my missing the first two periods when we return from break on April 10 might well have been assumed to be for a medical appointment. Except there is this - as a teacher I am always as honest as I can be with my students, which is why I am able to be somewhat more demanding with them, most of all expecting honesty from them, including when they do not have their work.
Further, my demeanor is already different, with the decision having been made. Some people both in school and that I know outside of school have already noted it. My students would probably want to know why, and with them I will not dissemble.
That does not mean I share everything. I will not, for example, share some of my disappointments in the leadership within the school, although since a few of my students regularly read whatever I write, at least a few will encounter the words I have just written.
My preliminary explorations have made clear to me that I am unlikely to get a teaching job in an independent school, although I will continue to explore possibilities. The last paperwork I need to reinstate my DC certificate just arrived, but I am not certain that is a path I want to pursue right now, as much as DC Public Schools might want to have me. There are only a handful of DC schools in which I would be interested in teaching, that is, that I know I would enjoy being there. I am unwilling to sign an open contract and get assigned someplace where I cannot teach in a fashion I know works.
Yesterday I stopped by the Department of Education. Outside was an effort that will go through the weekend and Monday, titled "Occupy the Department of Education." The organizers have permits, there will be speeches, and teach-ins, and perhaps even some guerrilla theater. I know a number of the people who were there, and some more who will show over the weekend from last summer's Save Our Schools March. What was interesting is that during the two hours I was there a number of the Teacher Ambassador Fellows came out to talk with us. One tried to persuade us that there are good people in the Department, which I do not doubt, but even she could not convince the more knowledgeable of us about the quality of some of the programs being put forth by the Department. Even one currently being developed with the assistance of some very important people external to the Department is being undercut by the way certain staff are attempting to write the report on the effort.
I hope I will be proven wrong, but I am ever more inclined to believe that we have already lost a lot that is important about American public education, and the blame for that falls squarely on the current national administration. What is relevant for this site - a website dedicated to electing more and better Democrats - is that the Republicans are increasingly well-positioned to wrap the blame for school "reform" around the necks of the Democrats.
Of greater importance to me, and to some of the other senior educators I know who are leaving, is that we can no longer in honesty advocate for people to become public school teachers, not with what is happening in education. And especially not with what is happening to what should be the profession of teaching.
The single most influential voice on education and teaching is a man who neither attended a public school nor ever taught, and that is Bill Gates with his billions.
Other voices that are far too influential are those who have been certified by the MSM as "reformers" - the likes of Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, for example. When Wendy Kopp, who is not herself an educator, has more influence over educational policy than do National Teachers of the Year and State Teachers of the Year, how then do we get the voices of teachers heard? Teacher Ambassadors are listened to within the Department of Education, but their impact seems to be largely around the edges of policies that have already been decided. Two Ambassadors I just met Sunday were urging me to become an Ambassador, but the only reason the Department would ever have considered selecting me is to silence my voice as a critic: if on the inside I would lose the independence I currently have when I write on educational policy.
You might well ask what all this has to do with "thoughts on retiring." It is pertinent.
I continue to see myself as a teacher. So do others, as is clear from the comments to this diary from earlier this week. I was actually somewhat surprised by the response, because I thought I was being somewhat tongue in cheek with the title, but people took it seriously. I therefore accept the seriousness of their responses.
When I first broached the possibility of retiring from my school at the end of this year to someone I greatly respect, Parker Palmer, he told me that he saw me as a teacher, but that perhaps I needed to explore other ways of teaching, ones that did not have me classroom based, and/or working primarily with adolescents.
Now that i have made the decision not to return to my school, it becomes somewhat easier for me to explore other options.
Some of those I had been considering are no longer open to me. I was awarded neither admission to a doctoral program I considered nor the fellowship I sought to write a book on teacher voice in educational policy. I can still do the book, and perhaps the publisher who was interested in it will be willing to offer an advance to cover some of the expenses I would incur.
I can also if opportunities seem to make sense encourage friends to help me explore them. In the past when someone mentioned something interesting, I had to point out that (a) it was not clear if I were going to retire, at least not yet, and (b) remind them that even if I did I could not leave my classroom until the end of the school year.
There is still one unknown, but that should be resolved shortly. Our last day with students in June 8, and the final day for teachers is the following Monday, June 11. As of now I could miss both. If the panel I have suggested for NN12 is accepted, it will be in the morning of June 8. That panel is What Progressives Can Do to Save Public Education, and my panelists, who like me are still waiting to hear, are Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Ravitch.
As of now I am scheduled to return to Washington to fly out the next day to Salt Lake City to read (grade) the Free Response Questions of the AP US Government & Politics Exam. Since I will not officially retire until July 1, I am still eligible to fulfill that responsibility. The $1,800 above expenses it pays would also be welcome. But that would mean I would not be available for a new opportunity until June 18 or 19 - I would still have to officially sign out from my school, turning in keys and equipment.
Also, if the panel is accepted, a part of me would want to stay for more of NN12.
So even in the short term much remains undefined.
In the next few days I will be very busy. I have at least two book reviews I need to write. I will be filing applications for a couple of independent school teaching jobs (I have not totally surrendered the idea of continuing in a classroom) and possibly also for a job in labor which may or may not still exist, but for which my skill set seems a remarkably good fit. In the days before i return to school I am meeting with several friends holding public office to discuss possibilities, not necessarily with them, but where they might be able to help me find a suitable opportunity.
And of course I still have my individual responsibilities, including filing our federal and state taxes!
I can now begin to look back upon my 16+ years in the public school classrooms of three different schools in two different states under 5 different principals.
I think I am a far better person for the experience.
An experience that has given, and will continue to give, my life meaning and value.
Each time I encounter a former student I feel some degree of satisfaction that I have done something of value, something that lasts beyond the time the student spends in my classroom.
Whatever else I may be doing for income next year - since I did not have the winning ticket for the $640,000,000 prize - it will be shaped in large part by my experiences as a teacher.
There is this standard that still applies to anything I might do. How will this opportunity mean I am giving back to others, helping influence society in a positive way?
Consider those words. They are a major part of why I became a teacher, leaving other more remunerative and less demanding employment as a local government civil servant dealing with computers back in 1994 when I went off to get trained as a teacher.
I have made a decision to leave my classroom, in a school which would have been happy to have me continue as long as I wanted, which gave me great latitude in how I approached my teaching.
That decision is made.
Now I explore what other things I can still do with my energy, my passion, and whatever skills I may be able to offer on behalf of others.
Because I will have a pension and Social Security, I have less need to define opportunities by the level of compensation, which gives me greater latitude to consider opportunities of service that do not pay so well.
One part of my life is coming to an end.
What's next? As of yet I do not know, but I look forward to the exploration.
Peace.