People who know me understand that I have hot buttons that set me off when it comes to certain topics of education. That would actually encompass a huge number of topics including the rights of teachers. As I scanned the news channels last week, I came upon a story covering a teacher strike in one of the urban districts of the U.S. The reporter covering the event kept repeating and repeating a single line during his coverage that just set me off. “These teachers care more about their jobs than they do about the kids”.
What is it that enables people to vilify teachers for placing the security of their families before the demands of their job? Of course the security of a teacher’s family must come before the demands of the job. Doesn’t everyone value their family and want to insure their safety and security as a first consideration in life?
The fact is that here are many teachers who grapple with this very issue throughout their career. Teaching is a noble profession that does require sacrifice on the part of each educator to do right by his or her students. It is that self-sacrifice and “teacher’s guilt” that has enabled some districts to take advantage of teachers in regard to labor issues since the beginning of public education.
As a generalization most teachers do not market themselves well. They do not expound upon their accomplishments. They view that as flaunting one’s self, and that is frowned upon by teachers. They do not like it when any teacher publicly claims credit for accomplishments. They consider it as bragging or showboating. Most teachers are humbled by public recognition. By and large teachers do what they do, not just because the public expects it, but it is they who expect it of themselves. That is their strength and their weakness. It is that very feature in teachers that enables a reporter to repeatedly state: “These teachers care more about their jobs than they do about the kids”. That question tears at the teacher more than it resonates with the public.
People have been convinced that the American Education system is failing our country. Too often we try to simplify complicated issues. There are many, many reasons why our education system needs improvement. An objective analysis of the issues is warranted and should be done. Tax reformers, politicians, and business people looking to profit in an education market however often obscure that needed objectivity. To sell the snake oil, they simplify the problem, and target a simple solution, the teacher. It is a travesty that the very group that is maintaining the best of a system, which is in need of repair, while being maligned and even corrupted by the interference of non-educators, has come under attack. Teacher morale is the lowest it has ever been. Teachers are leaving the profession and youngsters are hesitant to enter it. This will only add to the problem.
Teachers need to take back the discussion of education that has been hijacked by so many non-educators. They need to shout out their accomplishments. Administrators need to lead, as well as call out the praises of their teachers. Superintendents need to claim their leadership positions in education to stand against mandates being imposed that are detrimental to education and educators. We must have our leaders connect and collaborate on the needs and solutions for education and not have them dictated to educators by non-educators who are unaware. Public Education is very much in jeopardy if left to the politicians and profiteers. Timidity is not a virtue in a modern educator.
My Island View 
Your closing paragraph says it all. Thank you for contributing such a powerful voice for educators.
Tom: Thank you for this! This is a big hot button for me, and you nailed it. Yes — “Timidity is not a virtue in a modern educator.” – I am sure you have seen Matt Damon with his Mom unload on this topic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UBX6LSfbUY – All the best, Mark engagedteaching.org
Thank you thank you thank you thank you!
Teaching, like acting, art, or some areas of science is undervalued, because the primary motivation for entering the field is not financial. We are borderline, thus a teachers strike seems more credible than say an artists strike. Having said that, the argument to make is that you get what you pay for, and that the valuation society puts on it, in terms of a wage packet, is a measure of how much it values it as a key component of what makes our society.
It is time for teachers to actively engage the argument. Your silence will not save you. The time has come to pick a side. Where, as an educator do you stand? Those speaking the harshest, mean to profit off of the backs of children. They are loathsome brutes to a person.
Can we expand an idea here? Working from the fact that teacher-bashing drives morale down, pushes many educators out, and sicourages new teachers from entering the profession, the ultimate result is a more malleable group (in the ideal case of the money-making-reformers) that is willing to do whatever it takes to appease those making policy.
Suddenly, you do, actually, have a bunch of teachers in the profession who really are just trying to get a paycheck…in which case the accusation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Accuse teachers of seeking an easy paycheck in the tenure system, thereby berating and disgusting many who aren’t, and you’re left with the pliable few who are.
Is this, then, the counterargument to make? It is a common psychological problem, “projection”. When next we are harangued as lazy hangers-on looking only for a paycheck at the cost of our children’s future, perhaps the proper response is, “You wish to impose a system of your own design onto a group of trained professionals, so it sounds like you’re actually describing your ideal teacher-employee. I say this because I, as an educator, am concerned about your focus on the teacher, instead of the children.”
Oh, I’m sure someone else could be more eloquent, and I’ve probably missed out half the arguments, but I think there’s something there.
I couldn’t agree more with Tom and Robby (@angwe). We are experiencing the same phenomenon in Ontario, Canada. Someone once said we get the government we deserve, so perhaps we as a society get the educational system we deserve? I am interested in studying this sociological phenomenon for my masters thesis – what is it about the profession of teaching that makes it such an easy target for criticism and denigration? Is it that it has been traditionally female (and therefore less valued) profession? Is it because everyone thinks they’re an expert on school having attended one? I am interested in looking into the underlying causes of the phenomenon, but I also really appreciate the call to action from Tom – educators need to change and through these changes, affect society and our culture.
Does anyone have suggestions for who I should be reading to continue my studies?
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Nailed it. There is a really good chance that the vast majority of what is right in education today is done by teachers IN SPITE of the system as it exists. We are experts at working within the cracks of a system, working with leftovers, working for free, and finding work-arounds. If we keep working like this in silent desperation, we are part of the problem, too.
Thanks for this lucid call to action, Tom!
1. There is no accident in this situation… it is not a simple eroding of values or society. The attack on public education is a concentrated and coordinated attempt to drive public funding to private enterprise aka vouchers/charters. It’s atomic weapon was the first time they set up a plan where ALL students regardless of how long they had been in a country or how challenged they were academically would be held to an arbitrary measurement number.
2. This is why teachers MUST blog, why they MUST make their classes transparent and show the results of their hard work.
Thank you Tom for writing this.