Thursday, October 15, 2009

SO Nicholas Kristof, writing in the NYT, wonders if the Democrats in Congress can fend off the teachers' unions in doing the Obama-Duncan educational reforms — like making it easier to fire incompetent teachers. The comments to this column are interesting, too, such as this one:

Jennifer
San Francisco, CA
October 15th, 2009
6:38 am

Why is it that the focus of our failed education system is always the terrible, terrible teachers and our terrible, terrible unions?

I am a good teacher myself, with a long and well-documented history of student success and numerous accolades from private and public institutions. I have always taught in poor communities in public schools. Over the years, my work conditions have included asbestos, cockroach infestations, mice and rats, catastrophic plumbing failures, mold, unheated classrooms...shall I go on? We show children how little we care by the schools to which we send them and their great disrepair.

Each and every year, I spend at least one thousand dollars of my own, not terribly generous salary to provide what my school's budget will not: field trips, healthy snacks, manipulatives, paint, carpets, bug spray and so on. I have advanced degrees from prestigious universities. By providing a strong education, I help to ensure a strong and stable community of critical thinkers and innovators to support our society.

In exchange, I get to hear how we teachers are ruining the schools. I can't speak for all my colleagues, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the one letting students go to schools with no working bathrooms, or that are over twice as full as they should be. I feel certain that we are not the ones cutting school budgets instead of considering equitable and progressive taxation. And I know that Mr. Kristof boasts less than half my brain power and could never, ever do my job as well as I do.

So really, find someone else to blame. Or get a teaching credential yourself and join us in the work. Or donate a significant portion of your salary to projects on Donors Choose. Give up on the teacher-blaming, though.

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