ONE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER'S MANIFESTO

Today, there seems to be no political party in the United States wherein public school teachers have not been maligned and strapped with the responsibility for everything negative about our current public school system.

Students are not blamed.

Students’ parents are not blamed.

The Department of Education is not blamed.

The unions are blamed, but there is such a disconnect between unions and what goes on  99.99% of the time in classrooms, on a day to day basis, I cannot even react to this notion.

Politicians tell teachers if we do not like the profession, and all the current demands, many unrealistic, to...GET OUT.

I want to present a NEW idea for why our current public school system is seemingly "failing": Our present state of public education is a DIRECT reflection of our current modern culture, in several ways.

That is the simple, but complex, truth.

Do parents, today, value their child’s educational experiences, as parents did in the past?

What is going on in public schools is a “systemic” problem.

If you read about a "failing" school, go visit the neighborhood to get an idea of the families it serves.

Then, go in the classrooms, meet the teachers.

Are the educators really NOT doing their BEST to meet the needs of the children they teach?

Now, go and visit the neighborhoods of the schools that are “achieving”. 

What do the differences seem to be?

If a poor child comes to school from a household in a neighborhood full of crime, where both parents do NOT speak English, do not have an education beyond grammar school, BUT those parents, or one parent, focuses on creating an enriching home environment, creating schedules and circumstances which ensure, or at least support, early literacy and daily learning, and where the parent constantly articulates their expectations that their child WILL be a responsible respectful student, that student, barring learning disabilities, WILL have much greater success than children in the SAME neighborhood who have NO such support.

Can you believe this? ...There are studies...(they needed studies?)...that posit that the classroom teacher is the most important factor in helping a child have success in the classroom?

[Silence of the dumbfounded.]

They needed a study to come up with that?

Who ELSE is going to be the primary factor for success in a classroom?...A student? A teacher’s aide (which is almost an “extinct species”)?

Of COURSE a teacher is going to be the greatest influence for a good education in a classroom!

I whole-heartedly agree, but now it’s time the public be made aware of what the American public school educator is truly up against.

We are up against a political bureaucracy which has NO idea what a teacher, at any grade level has to deal with on a day to day basis. But, they make a pretty annual penny/salary (more than most veteran teachers) to give their “advice” and create “policies”, which they strap on the backs of educators to meet their lofty fantasy-land goals, in order to meet the demands and bemoaning of their constituents.

If you have not stepped into a public school classroom in the past ten years, you have NO right to say anything against teachers, as a GROUP ( we all know there are always “outliers” and “bad apples” in any profession). 

Even in the “worst” schools, the public would be pleasantly surprised at the extra hours, personal resources, and effort educators put into their lessons and classrooms.

This must be said.

I was a student in the public school sytem during a time, when a teacher would spend five or ten minutes "teaching" a lesson, and then would spend the rest of the class period at their desk, or, as  I remember applying their Mary Kay lipstick with their pale pink compact, reading the newspaper, grading papers, or simply staring off into the distance (because of the joint they had smoked during their break).

Many politicians and bureaucrats see our schools plummeting and think back to their school days, and because they are not directly involved in education TODAY, use their own memories of teachers, who "taught" under a completely different model and philosophy, as a guide to attach the primary reasons for our nation’s current education woes to educators.

Their political minds-eye fixates on the teacher seated behind a large wood desk doing nothing, and they see the “problem”.

They do not look at the current cultural problems which plague our society, which trickle, sometimes pour, into our public school classrooms:

• children in poverty
• parents and students in gangs
• children born to drug addicts and alcoholics (who will bear, for life, the intellectual scars brought on by their progenitors)
• a broken foster care system
• many children who do not come to school speaking the language of instruction
• less programs to teach “non”-college bound students marketable skills
• legislation and policies which BIND teachers and schools to programs and pedagogical theory which fails students and paralyzes teachers
• violent disrespectful students with NO fear of school prescribed consequences
• parents who DO NOT CARE about the academic progress of their child (no matter what the teacher or principal tries to do to change this attitude)
• a school culture of testing testing testing
• less joy in school (yes, there can be joy in learning)
• parents who do NOT offer early literacy opportunities to their children but WILL sit them in front of the television for hours at a time

The student population at any given school site is a DIRECT reflection of the PARENTS whose children attend a particular school site.

The scores of students and academic progress of children are connected MORE with their home environments, than they are to their teachers.

In saying this, I am NOT declaring that there are NOT times students will respond to a teacher, for whatever reason, and do better than their home life might dictate, it happens. It has happened to my very own students. But children, who can overcome deplorable home and/or family conditions and achieve in school, are the EXCEPTION, not the rule.

And now, I hear politicians from both parties making teachers THE reason our students are not “the best” in the world.

It is aggravating, to say the least.

Let me list what a few of our GLOBAL competitors have going for their public schools, that America DOES NOT, and it has less to do with the teachers and more to do with the CULTURE of the nations and their families:

• Finland, which continually tops the charts with their high international test scores, made a decision as a NATION, years ago, to be “literacy focused”. They have TWO teachers in a classroom to make sure students who are falling behind get help. If a child is perpetually in trouble, PARENTS will be targeted as the primary adult responsible to get that child in line. If that means changing the child’s diet, the parents will be asked to do it. If a child needs to go to sleep earlier, a parent will be asked to do it. And they do!
• China reports a 99% attendance rate for primary school. Attendance=Learning. In America we have to BRIBE our students and families to have their children COME to school to learn! Schools give out BIKES, candy, extra recesses. It’s ridiculous! In China, university applicants must COMPETE for scholarships. In America, we have dumbed down classes, rudimentary courses for the students who attend college, if they just could not "get it" when they were in public school.  Basically, anyone can get into some college in America. There are some schools in China for special education. In states, like California, children with a range of special education needs(some quite severe), by law, are supposed to attend a mainstream classroom for a certain percentage of time, depending on the child’s condition. In America, funding determines whether or not a teacher receives extra help for those children.This is a CHALLENGE for any teacher who has had a classroom where students range from far FAR below grade level to Advanced. Teachers try their best to have all students access instruction, but it is a struggle. China offers a variety of Vocation and Technical schools. These programs are continually being cut in America, having been targeted in the past as “discriminatory”. Some US education advocates point to these cuts as one of the main reasons our high school dropout rates have SOARED! Chinese schools are not known for being “inclusive”, as American schools are. In China,there are often cleverly crafted obstacles to keep certain children OUT of the system. In America, EVERY child has inclusion in the public school system, and their test scores are included as well.
• Japan purports to have a ZERO illiteracy rate. If this is true, and not hyped up propaganda, I ask myself why? How? Check out the low number of “immigrant” or “second language learners” in the Japanese school system, versus those in America (Note: It can take up to seven years for a child to learn a language well enough to use it conversationally, “academic language” is a completely different matter), and it is easy to see why our country often struggles to produce impressive international test scores and high literacy rates. In Japan, who is responsible for making sure children are focused on their learning, not just in school, but out of school as well? It’s the parents, not the teachers! In addition, the Japanese culture controls the individual, by observing group rules. In America, the children are often in “control”, administration and teachers bend backwards to help a child succeed, even when the child does not WANT to. Japanese parents, as a whole, are VERY involved in the academic success of their children.
• Germany leaves the responsibility and creation of educational policies of their public schools, mostly to the states, not to a far off federal government. There are a variety of public school options, based on the academic levels and future goals of students. America, with the exception of some public charter schools which have their own “themes” and “visions”, has over the years, created a public school system which serves ONE type of learner, those who are “college bound”.  Germany offers a special system of apprenticeship which offers vocational  classes and on-the-job training with companies. And my FAVORITE: Germany’s public schools have teachers take on the responsibility of site administration! There are no administrators with unrealistic demands getting a paycheck to tell teachers either what they already know, or do not believe in. Trust me. If TEACHERS, not principals, were responsible for their onsite administration, unions would not be needed, as often as they are currently needed for protection, by American public school teachers. Many of the problems teachers turn to the union to solve are due to principals who are unreasonable, unbalanced, unsupportive, and sometimes, just down right mean.

When compared to their GLOBAL teaching colleagues, I would say American public school teachers are REMARKABLE. They deal with many obtrusive ineffective policies and negative cultural factors and still literally perform miracles, despite the current complicated reality of their profession.

American public schools ARE in a crisis.

What is the genesis of our present situation?

We are in this position because we are a FREE nation and a "progressive" "liberated" society.

Politicians make choices.

Students make choices.

Parents make choices. 

Many students make positive choices for themselves and their futures, and some parents make WONDERFUL choices for their children.

However, there are MANY parents who make choices which negatively affect the lives and home environments of their children. Our students pay for it.

Because our students pay for it, teachers are paying for it.

We are the scapegoat.

Sadly for all, there is no politician in their right mind who would take on “the culture”. They will not make a stand against parent irresponsibility in their speeches. This would be political suicide.

Nor will our school system go back to the time when, if a child was a constant behavior problem, destroying the teaching experience for their teacher and the learning experience of their classmates who WANTed to learn, and even endangering  themselves, their classmates, and teachers, they lost the privilege of attending a public school, or were punished in sometimes "inhumane" but, apparently (given the discipline problems on school campuses today) effective ways: boring humiliating In-House School Suspension, miserable detention, paddling, or public excoriation.

Today, so many of our students have home lives where they are so miserably treated, any “punishment” doled out by their “student-friendly” school administration or teachers is an absolute joke.

The students say, about discipline received at school: “What a joke!”

For many students off-campus suspension means a day at home, usually free from parents, who are typically working, or if a parent is at home, the parent does not want to deal with their child anymore that day than they do on any other. And so, the child gets to spend their time off playing video games, surfing the internet, listening to their iPod, texting friends in class, or...sleeping.

And, what about all the classwork they miss, which could/should affect their ultimate grade or whether or not a student is retained?

Haven't you heard? Classwork is practice work. It is test scores which count for an ultimate grade.

Plus, retaining students is too expensive and "harmful to a student's self esteem". Children are pushed through the system, naughty or nice, ready or not.

And when a student, disciplined with "love" and "inclusion" and "respect", comes back to school, they are emboldened. Their “punishment” having proved to be worth the “crime”.

I am not advocating we go back to corporal punishment or emotionally abusive methods to get students to act in pro-social ways, but I am saying we need to find methods of getting PARENTS to understand the severity of their child’s actions. And find punishments that PUNISH.

Discipline is supposed to train, mold, or correct "mental faculties or moral character".

In fact a disciple is supposedly someone who "embraces the teachings of another".

But, when a child is living in a morally bankrupt lawless household, it is nearly impossible to correct their character in a classroom setting. They do not have adults who support and exemplify what self-discipline looks like on a day to day basis.

Look at our state and federal prisoner-friendly prisons!  The abuser, the wayward, and the criminal-minded are catered to in the hope of rehabilitating the incarcerated. 

This model is being used in many of our public schools. School site punishments resemble these “offender-centered” institutions.

Some school sites are so dangerous, good teachers leave them.

No one seems to know what to do.

Teachers have been more “abused” in the past ten years, than at any other time in history, except perhaps when teachers were taken advantage of in horrific ways in prairie schools and one-room school houses, by students, parents, and administration.

 But, the public does not know.

When was the last time you heard of school age children threatening to kill their teacher, only to be asked back to class the next day? Or throwing a teacher out of a two story school building, breaking most of the bones in their body, only to have the school quietly hire a new teacher a few week later?

When was the last time you heard of a school age child breaking a teacher’s nose (teachers are not allowed to restrain students), vandalizing, stealing, or destroying a teacher's personal property, throwing desks in a crowded classroom, scratching their own skin so they can blame a teacher for the wounds, breaking the bones of a classmate on purpose, only to return to school after one day of suspension?

You will not hear it.

But, you will hear teachers want to have unions in some hope of protecting themselves.

Yes, there needs to be protection from aggressive, abusive, unfair, administration.
But these days, unions are needed to protect a teacher from their STUDENTS.

Children today, are not the children of yesteryear.

Many "children" are uncannily cunning, deceitful...wicked.

And, their anti-social behaviors have NEVER been more coddled or protected.

A school district does not want to get into a battle with parents and a child, by accusing the child of abusing a teacher.

The district would rather bring the fight to the teacher and make the teacher protect themselves. (Yes, the union does get involved at this point.)

It is a disgusting pattern which has become common in districts all across the nation.

Is it any wonder that even teachers who have NO love for the political platforms of their teacher unions are involved with them?

It is to protect themselves individually and professionally from students and parents, as much as unfair treatment from principals and district administration.

When I hear politicians blaming teachers for ALL of education woes, it floors me.

They talk about allowing all children to have the opportunity to receive the BEST education the system has to offer.

They talk about allowing parents to pick schools they feel are the best for their children.

I say do it.

Guess what?

The parents who take the politicians up on the proposition to pick their child’s school site for a “better education” will be the SAME parents who have always been positively involved in the education of their child.

The parents who take no responsibility for their children’s education NOW, will NOT take the time to make changes, even if it is handed to them on a silver platter.

And if...IF parents, whose children’s test scores are supposedly low and behaviors are out of control because of their “awful” teachers, take their children to the “better” schools, where students have the best scores, I will await the outcry from my teaching colleagues at those “better” schools, when they have to deal with the challenges their fellow educators have dealt with for years, as they too will be looked down upon by the public and the politicians.

If the education and political bureaucracies find a way to “level the playing field” and give each teacher the EXACT classroom population make-up across a grade level, across the district, across the state and the nation: the same number of students who are proficient, basic, and far below basic in Reading and Math, equal number of students with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) [and who are taking their medication, or not, it would just have to be equal] and emotional disorders, students who refuse to wear their glasses during class, disrupt learning continually and mock the discipline system, students whose home life is a wreck, whose parents do not care about the education of their child(ren), parents who do not get their children to school on time, who do not feed their children, do not check their homework, but DO support their child’s other irresponsible or anti-social anti-learning behaviors, then I WILL submit to the IRRATIONAL demands of politicians and bureaucrats to have my students’ test scores attached to my professional file to somehow “prove” my worth as an effective public school teacher.

Otherwise, America, it is ALL smoke and mirrors.

Is there another profession in America where your entire professional reputation could be decided by what a child (4-19 years of age) does or does NOT decide to do on a test or on classwork?

Is there another profession in America where college educated individuals are not only asked to use the bathroom on an exact schedule but are asked to be super-human...even perfect in each prescribed task throughout their work day?

The new mind-boggling mantra is that a teacher SHOULD be able to motivate and teach EVERY child who comes into their classroom. EVERY child SHOULD be “smarter” (how that is measured effectively, I do not know) when they leave any given classroom.

If there is a public school teacher out there who "doesn't know what that lady is talking about", I know who you are.

All or many of these factors could apply:

You are in a public school in a gated community, and/or your classroom population is relatively homogenous. You are "protected" from the harmful antics of students, parents, and principals, due to connections with family or friends in high administrative places. These connections also allow you to get "score boosting" resources that your grade level colleagues will not get, and which you will not share. In addition, your connections almost always assure your evaluations are stellar. Stellar! Because you really are good, teaching is ALL you do, and there is never a reason to be nervous.You will get high scores, at ALL costs.Your parent population is really involved in the education of their children ( despite their demographics). Your on site administration is positive about all they see you trying to do, which is good and right, on a daily basis, takes care of discipline problems in effective long-term ways, without burdening YOU additionally, and does not bully you or expect from you more and more "things" that  they never did themselves as "good" teachers. You might have no family or friends, or outside-work commitments, and so you are able to go to work an hour before school and stay three hours after work every night. You even come in on weekends. You...you are a phenomena. 

Good for you.

Good. For. You.

My ultimate solution is this.

It would save billions of dollars in state and federal budgets. 

Does that have your attention?

I hear raving reviews about online education programs and software for children. Bill Gates has given millions to such ideas.

Great.

How about this?

Create a “ Teacher-free American Public School System”.

Have a board of bureaucrats pick THE perfect teacher for each grade level and subject (see the above paragraph on the public school teacher out there who "doesn't know what that lady is talking about").

This teacher would have the credentials and the ideal, yet so elusive, “teacher manner”, that so many administrators just can’t seem to inculcate teachers with, no matter how much they try.

 Give these teachers a script. Decorate their studio-classrooms with all the focus walls, standards, and objectives  which are necessary to lift student scores and learning. Put those teachers in front of a video camera (one at a time). Have them teach, every lesson necessary to cover all the curriculum for the grade level or subject area in which they have expertise, which would cover the entire curriculum for a school year. Have created software which connects with their “perfect” teaching.

Now, put this all on the internet.

Establish “public learning centers”.

Plug kids in.

Let them learn to their hearts’ content.

Test them.

Test them ad nauseam. 

Pay those who watch the kids in these centers a decent hourly wage, to make sure kids don’t cheat, ruin equipment, or bully.

Then send the kids home.

Let’s see who comes to “school”.

Let’s see who learns.

I want to see.

What will happen when you remove the human teacher from the classroom?

As a beleaguered teaching professional, I want to know, because I do my best, and STILL I am maligned and misrepresented on a local, state, and NATIONAL level.

After this "great experiment" is tried for a few years, perhaps, when REALITY may once again become the "new vogue", politicians and the general public might rethink their misguided beliefs, and I will take my eight years of post high school education and use it in good-old-fashioned-teacher-run classrooms where I will be appreciated, and I’ll feel good, once again, about the profession to which I dedicated my heart, mind, and soul.