A thank-you letter to Chicago teachers from some Georgia colleagues
I have published two pieces by the Teaching Georgia Writing Collective, which is a group of educators, parents and citizens who engage in public writing and public teaching about education in Georgia. The group had its impetus in Athens and includes UGA professors.
The collective defines its goals as: 1) empowering educators to reclaim their workplace and professionalism, 2) empowering families to stand up for their children and shape the institutions their children attend each day, 3) empowering children and youth to have control over their education, and 4) enhancing the education of all Georgians.
Here is a third essay from the group:
Dear Chicago Teachers,
The Chicago Teachers Union strike will go down as a significant event in history when educators stood up against the destructive powers of privatization and for workers’ job security and a strong middle-class in the United States. We want to thank you for standing up for yourselves, for your students, for public education, and for every teacher who is faced with constant criticism and attacks on their professional dignity. Your courage to stand up, walk out, and demand national attention inspires us and makes us hopeful that your actions will have a positive impact for the working conditions of all teachers, regardless of whether they have union protection or not.
Thank you for challenging the narrow-minded vision of using high-stakes standardized test scores to evaluate student learning, teacher effectiveness, and school rankings.
Thank you for showing America and the world that most teachers do not agree with the heavy-handed policies that have narrowed curriculum and made school a less interesting and enjoyable place for most kids.
Thank you for fighting for the rights of children, youth and families to have access to fully funded public schools that aren’t destroyed by for-profit charters not held to the same level of scrutiny.
Thank you for demanding rights for laid-off teachers.
Thank you for demonstrating to everyone in our country that working conditions for teachers have been deteriorating since before NCLB and won’t be improved by Race to the Top.
Thank you for reminding workers everywhere that they have a right to stand up for injustices in their workplace.
Thank you for teaching your students – and all of us – an important lesson about democracy, labor, and the vision of public education that is handed to us by “reformers” who rarely know anything about real schools and real kids and real teaching. We should all strive to be as courageous as you.
Sincerely,
Teaching Georgia Writing Collective
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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142 comments Add your comment
bootney farnsworth
September 23rd, 2012
10:03 pm
not too long ago I read a history of China. one one Mao’s big tricks was to demonize educators.
the cultural revolution was a smoke screen for rooting out anyone still capable to think for themselves.
many of the tactics used by Mao’s followers are very similar to the “solutions” offered up by the Franbots.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 23rd, 2012
10:04 pm
Ed Johnson, come on down and see me at 100 Edgewood Avenue downtown and take a good, close look at how we are executing our school’s mission, vision, and values. Attend one of our governing board meetings. Take a look at our books. Read our contract with our for-profit education service provider. Look at our purchasing & procurement processes.
After you do that, I dare you to find a single thing in any of the above that isn’t “doing does business with for-profit corporations to support the purpose, mission, goals, etc. of the public school or district.” Further, I double-dog dare you to find anything specious or fraudulent about any of it.
d
September 23rd, 2012
10:05 pm
@Teacher Reader, is asking that salary keeps up with inflation “greedy”? Inflation is about 3% annually, and I think that’s what Chicago teachers asked for and are receiving in that respect.
Teacher Reader
September 23rd, 2012
10:06 pm
@ bootney Farnsworth, Until teachers demand to teach and stop sitting back and teaching a boxed curriculum or to a stupid poorly written test, they will never have the masses behind them. Teachers need to start demanding to be able to do their job, which is to provide children an education that teaches them basics, excites them into life long learners, and gives them many opportunities to problem solve.
The general public is tired of teachers complaining about their salaries. As a former teacher, I am tired of hearing teachers complain about their salaries. I want to hear teachers complain about not being able to teach. Or about the lack of discipline in our schools. Or teaching to a test. Or other problems that generally affect the quality of education our children are receiving.
If the public heard teachers complaining about things that genuinely put the kids first, they would get behind a pay increase and wouldn’t mind paying higher taxes for a superior product. Right now, the public doesn’t care that teachers work after hours, many of them are are well. They don’t care that they can’t afford their health care insurance, as most families are struggling to get by as well, why should a teacher be any different?
Teachers have lost sight of the children and appear laser focused on themselves, and until the reverse happens, the public won’t get behind the unions or the teachers that complain and say that they are for the children when their actions clearly show something else.
bootney farnsworth
September 23rd, 2012
10:10 pm
@ d
I would have settled for seeing the freezes applied equally to everyone. at GPC while we were told no raises for the 4th (5th) straight year, management was still traveling, getting raises, promoting unnecessary personal social agendas
its interesting to me how anyone else pushes for a raise, they are being good capitalists. us-greedy.
Teacher Reader
September 23rd, 2012
10:11 pm
@ d, the city of Chicago is broke, like many municipalities, and you can’t get blood from a stone. It would be cheaper for the city to close all of the schools and turn them into Charter schools, making the teachers use the charter school salary scale, often much less than that of CPS. Many Americans have had to take pay cuts to keep a job, and would love to have a 1% pay increase, or even the security of a tenure teacher. The day before election day, many hard working engineers and workers for Lockheed Martin will get a pink slip. Where will they go to get a job? Who will hire them? I am sure that if you talked to these individuals that they would gladly do without a raise to keep their job. Teachers really don’t understand the economy and what many others are going through to keep a roof over their head and food on the table. I have no sympathy, as $80,000 goes a long way in Chicago even with a family.
bootney farnsworth
September 23rd, 2012
10:20 pm
@ teacher reader
you make valid points, but your points have another side to them.
-I don’t know about Chi, but here we have taken pay cuts.
-most educational professionals do NOT have tenure.
-if the people at Lockheed KNOW they are gonna be laid off, they need to be job hunting full speed. and like many of the rest of us, they may have to take a less prestigious, lower paying job.
-teachers, like the rest of the work, have their own bills to pay
to claim anyone who have lived thru the last five years doesn’t understand the economy is either a rank troll or rank ignorant. maybe a mix of both.
bootney farnsworth
September 23rd, 2012
10:24 pm
@ teacher
ok, you fall in the troll category.
if you haven’t heard us yelling about the constraints and policies which interfere with teaching, its simply because you haven’t bothered to hear it.
and for the record, I don’t give a damn about the masses. the masses didn’t want the American Revolution. they did, however, lynch Leo Frank. brutally put, the masses have done squat for me-I reciprocate.
Teacher Reader
September 23rd, 2012
10:39 pm
Bootney, you sound like a bitter old man.
As a teacher, I want children to receive a better education than they currently are. I spoke up and was called a trouble maker in DeKalb. I left, because I couldn’t teach my students the way that I wanted my child to be taught and am not two faced to send my son to private school and teach in public.
Many non-government workers who are employed are happy to have a job. Workers that have been laid off have only found jobs that are well below their skill level.
Public school teachers are well paid. They make more than the going rate that a non-government job would provide them. Why do private school teachers make significantly less and provide children with a much superior product? It’s not because children are rich, it’s because these teachers teach and don’t teach to a test.
As a former public school teacher, it would take significant improvements for my child to attend any public school, because I understand the purpose of public schools is really to create useful idiots and I want much more for my child.
I’m no troll. I want our public schools to be giving our children a better product, and am tired of hearing teachers wanting to be called professionals, yet fail to act professional or demand to deliver a better product.
I understand the ills of education, but all that I hear from teachers, is that their pay isn’t enough or fair, but then turn around and say that they are for the kids. That is just BS!
d
September 23rd, 2012
10:39 pm
@Teaxher Reader, I did not get into this profession to become wealthy, but at the same time, I don’t intend to enter the poor house because of it. We have reduced the number of teachers in classrooms around this country, and both students and the teachers left behind suffer. Classrooms aren’t able to handle this number of students. How can science teachers really do labs with 40 kids? How can English teachers really grade 180 essays the way they should be? Who suffers? Not superintendents who make more than the governor and state superintendent combined or the one who will get about $320,000 from TRS annually when he finally retires. I, on the other hand, will state my salary case bluntly. I still show up, I still do my best, but there’s a lot I can’t do when I can barely move around the classroom or buy supplies for interesting activities. I am in my 8th year teaching. I make $300 more than a brand new teacher who walked in the door this year with my same credentials. I earn about 3 or 4% less than I did in 2008-2009 before furloughs started. Inflation since then has been about 8%. My benefits are nearly 30% higher, my TRS contribution has increased. DCSD has not provided any retirement or social security payments to me ever. Am I frustrated, absolutely. Have I changed jobs? No. There is something more important to me. It’s the student who was on his own at graduation and didn’t have any appropriate clothes for graduation day thanking me for helping him get the appropriate attire. It’s the student who drove me crazy when he was in my room knocking on my door to tell me he did better than most of his peers in a college level economics course because of the foundation I provided to him in high school economics. It’s the students who come to me and say they want for me to write them a recommendation to my alma mater because they come to appreciate how I developed there. How long can one be expected to keep this up when money is being wasted by central offices, funding out of state corporations for work that can be done locally and inject much needed money into the local economy?
RAMZAD
September 23rd, 2012
10:53 pm
This is all well and good,
however, parents are asking for results. Our communities are asking for results and the country is asking for results from the public education process. The notion that somehow the society is being cheeky to ask that teacher advancement be tied to student performance is patently offensive
to all those who have a child in public schoosl- teachers included.
An engineer whose bridges get people killed would be out of bridge building business in short order. I make no distinction for teachers whose students can’t read…excuses of poverty or crime or whatever be damned. If they show up educate them. They are not there because they like riding the great yellow bus.
This war, yes; war, is not over. Privatization of public education is an option that we as voters, parents, employers, and citizens can not ignore, should not ignore and will not ignore.
Departments of education are supposed to be in the education business not in feathering the
nests of people who are proving time and time again not to be doing even a good job of educating our young people.
Ed Johnson
September 23rd, 2012
10:54 pm
Dr. Monica Henson, at one moment you generalize then the next moment you get defensively specific. Yours is an interesting behavior.
Kindly schedule a day and time for me to visit 100 Edgewood Ave sometimes after mid-December. I will be much unavailable until then. Please e-mail your invitation to me at edwjohnson@aol.com with a cc to edjohnson@qisincorp.com.
Teacher Reader
September 23rd, 2012
10:58 pm
@ D, if you care so much about the children, why aren’t you speaking out? Why are you staying quiet? I don’t want to hear that you are quiet to keep your job. If teachers really wanted to give students a better product and spoke out, parents would stand behind you. Parents won’t stand behind you if all they hear are teachers complaining about what they aren’t making as far as salaries.
TRS has increased, because you were never putting in enough to begin with. Look at how much you put in and what you’ll take out, and the two numbers don’t add up. Pension funds can’t stay at such low levels of contribution and give such high out put and remain in effect for everyone. Hopefully the stock market won’t go belly up, so that you have a pension, as your pension money is tied to the stock market and how well it does.
If you don’t like your salary, aren’t willing to speak up to make education more focused on teaching to the children and providing a quality education, than you really need to get out of the classroom. Charter schools are the way of the future, as is school choice. Parents don’t care how much you get paid, they care about the quality of education their children receive. Right now, my taxes are paying for a much better product than the children are receiving and the teachers sit quiet and only speak out about their poor salaries.
The public doesn’t care if you can pay your bills. Do you care if we can pay ours, with the tax increases? We want a top notch product first, and then we can talk about raising our taxes and paying more. I understand that administrators salaries keep going up, but again, why do you and other teachers who “care about the kids” remain silent?
We don’t care that you effected one child’s life. We want our children’s life to be effected by quality instruction. So often our children are effected negatively by teachers or only have one or two good teachers for the time that we are in public schools.
As a former teacher, I find your arguments BS, and hope that teachers who say that they care about the children start acting like they do.
d
September 23rd, 2012
11:03 pm
@Teacher Reader, who says I haven’t and won’t continue to do so. My current moniker here dates to times before I had the protection of fair dismissal, but believe me, I have spoken many times about these sues and will continue to do so.
Ron F.
September 23rd, 2012
11:10 pm
“You see, I never made excuses for my students. I taught them were they were and kept on going. I knew that being one of two or three white teachers in an all black school, I had to prove myself. I taught my students the way that I would want my child to be taught. ”
You might be surprised by how many teachers in Georgia are trying to do exactly that. The problem is, even if you teach a child “where he is” the ultimate measure of success is the standardized test score. Even in your years as a public school teacher, you had to answer to some form of that. Teaching a child where he is should be the ultimate plan for any teacher, and surely you didn’t magically get them all to proficiency in a year. I think unlike you, there are many who have stayed in the profession who are still trying to get past that point. I think you’d be surprised at how many there are in many places. What bothers me in your posts here is the continued blaming of teachers. We’re not all like what you think. Your experience doesn’t reflect the entire profession.
I don’t think anyone here is making excuses for the kids. It’s reality, as you surely know, that they have lives outside our building that greatly influence who they are and what they become, either positively or negatively. I teach every child as if he/she were my own, but how can I keep them from joining gangs or becoming criminals? Some of those I’ve worked the hardest with over the years are now in the prison system. One I recall graduated and within two weeks was arrested for armed robbery. The school isn’t responsible for that. That’s not an excuse- it’s reality. Education reform is one side of the equation, and a VERY important one. I agree with you that it’s a broken system, but we have to see the other side of that equation- the communities the produce the children. Both sides have to be fighting and held just as accountable if we’re ever going to really “fix” anything.
d
September 23rd, 2012
11:12 pm
And, @teacher reader, if pay doesn’t start going up, who are you going to expect to teach children at any school, public, private or whatever. Basic supply and demand will keep the highly qualified people from ever entering the field and will drive the experienced out. Do you honestly think if there weren’t a minimum wage, anyone would pay the cashier at McDonalds $7.25 an hour? Does that job require that much education? Of course not, but mine does. If you want highly qualified people in front of any classroom, you have to pay based on the human capital that person has developed. Do you think new teachers will enter the field in 2020 if pay is still at 2007 levels? So forgive my BS argument, But I can fight for both children and myself and still be a great teacher.
Dekalbite@bootney
September 23rd, 2012
11:12 pm
“what a stupid, stupid, stupid , stupid letter.
to pretend the Chicago strike was anything other than them using the leverage they had to force monetary and workplace concessions is just plain ignorant. Chicago didn’t give a damn about anything beyond their own borders or they’d still be out.”
Here are two concessions they fought for:
Reasonable class sizes
The right to write their own lesson plans
Anyone who has taught in a classroom knows that these components are critical in the learning process.
Ron F.
September 23rd, 2012
11:14 pm
RAMZAD: Are you ready to become one of the new and improved teachers in the state run charter schools system that is coming? Are you willing to get in there and make a difference or just sit back and offer more opinions of who’s to blame? Get in there and do the job and show us how to do it better. If you succeed, you can make a fortune off the books and professional development conferences once you prove your expert level of ability.
Ron F.
September 23rd, 2012
11:16 pm
“many of the tactics used by Mao’s followers are very similar to the “solutions” offered up by the Franbots”
Sad, but true. What’s the saying about those who don’t know history being doomed to repeat it?
Teacher Reader
September 23rd, 2012
11:27 pm
@ d, private schools pay significantly less and manage to hire quality individuals just fine. I’m really not concerned about raising teacher pay, until quality comes up.
If you understood how to show growth, you’d know that you take a look at the child’s scores from the previous year and see how much growth they made at the end of the next year. It’s a very simple calculation to do, and EVERY child should show growth. Trouble is that we keep passing kids on with no expectations, and that is a very different problem. In Chicago, students were automatically held back for missing a certain number of days of school. Also, students were held accountable for their test scores and kept back in 3rd, 5th, and 8th grade when their scores didn’t make the cut off. When is the last time that has happened in DCSS?
Teachers should be concerned about the profession of teaching and speak out time and time again. Go to board meetings, get to the media and talk about quality of education and not teacher pay.
You really don’t get it. I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU MAKE. I CARE THAT MY CHILD AND ALL CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT AND RECEIVE A QUALITY EDUCATION. This isn’t happening and hasn’t happened from what I can tell for some time in many parts of the country. Until the quality of the product comes up, than the pay can increase.
Teachers receive a very nice pension for their service after 30 years. Not many people have this perk. I know, I know, you paid into your pension fund-not nearly enough sir, not nearly enough. This is not your fault, but if you consider yourself smart, than you should be able to do the math and realize that this isn’t sustainable and be concerned about your future, especially if you are young (under 50).
I don’t care what workers in Mc Donalds are paid. I have a choice to pay the price for food there or not. I don’t have a choice in paying my taxes. I work hard for my money, and frankly am tired of sending them to DCSS and seeing the inferior product our children are receiving at even the “good” schools.
I don’t think you understand that the public really does not care about your salary. Until you and other teachers realize that constantly talking about how much you make while saying that you care about the kids but are much less vocal and tenacious about showing how focus on improving the education children receive, you will never have the majority of the public backing you up.
The real issues are the lack of education our children are receiving not the size of a teacher’s pay check. I know many people with a teaching degree but are not able to get a job, who would gladly take your job just to do what they went to school for. That is what you and other teachers need to know. There is no teacher shortage and there are many that are just as qualified as you, to take your place.
Teacher Reader
September 23rd, 2012
11:31 pm
Ron F. There is no teacher shortage in America, and many with a teaching degree would be glad to take your spot or work in a charter school. Having worked in a charter school and in public schools, charter schools offer a much better teaching environment if your true goal is to teach and not complain about how much you do/don’t make.
Also, one doesn’t need a teaching certificate to be a good teacher. One needs to be a life long learner, a quality few teachers possess. One must enjoy learning for learning’s sake and spark that interest in their students.
You, and other teachers, are a dime a dozen. All of the Chicago Teachers could have been fired and the district could have easily found teachers yearning to get their foot in the door to take their place all over America. That is something that a teacher complaining about their salary needs to understand, but it’s a difficult concept to understand when you feel entitled to what you think you deserve.
Ron F.
September 23rd, 2012
11:36 pm
“Until the quality of the product comes up, than the pay can increase.”
If you really ever were a teacher, you’d know how ridiculous and oversimplied that statement is. Makes a nice bumper sticker, but how can the “quality of the product” be so set and determined when the materials to create it are of such varying quality? Teaching never has been or ever will be that simple. Every kids deserves a quality education; they should have the right to that. But does every kid want it? Does every kid choose to be educated and see the absolute necessity of it? No, and there’s no method yet that has reached 100% of them. Once again, you can’t put all the blame on teachers when the communities themselves have so many real, immediate needs. You can’t ignore those needs and problems. Those are not excuses- those are realities. Just as it’s a reality that some schools are just plain bad. Some, not all, but we’ll do away with even the good ones in favor of charters and taxpayer funded vouchers soon enough anyway. And doing away with them all and touting “choice” isn’t the whole solution and you know it.
Ron F.
September 23rd, 2012
11:46 pm
“Also, one doesn’t need a teaching certificate to be a good teacher. One needs to be a life long learner, a quality few teachers possess. One must enjoy learning for learning’s sake and spark that interest in their students.
You, and other teachers, are a dime a dozen.”
Now I know you never were a teacher, or you got some really bad reviews and quit a bitter, disgusted, idealist who probably quit midyear after going off on some kid for asking to go to the bathroom one too many times.
At the rate you and yours are going, a dime a dozen is about all you’ll be able to afford to pay anyway, and you’ll get what you pay for. You have no idea how hard I work or that I work with at-risk kids all day. I have for many years, and will continue to no matter the opinion of anonymous naysayers. I haven’t complained about pay in this thread, as it’s not germane to the discussion anyway. My pay is what it is, and complaining isn’t going to change it. I love teaching, and as you say I share that love for learning with my kids. That alone isn’t enough to reach all of them, and it breaks my heart each time one leaves or I read about another being arrested for whatever crime. I do the absolute best I can, but I’m one human being out of many my kids encounter, and the success of my influence happens when the kids decide it’s more important than what their friends say to them. The world offers a siren song of potentially disastrous promises my communication of a love for learning can’t always overcome.
You should consider coming back once the new charter schools are in place. I’m sure your idealism will fit nicely within their framework. Maybe you’ll become the next Michelle Rhee and start a foundation to promote your bitterness as the next big thing to fix the system. Sure has worked good for her, and her classroom history wasn’t exactly stellar from what I’ve read.
Ron F.
September 23rd, 2012
11:55 pm
Teacher Reader: just so you know, I’m actually grateful to have my taxpayer funded salary, as good or bad as it gets, and that changes year to year since the recession hit. I don’t think I “deserve” anything if my kids aren’t succeeding. I demand the best of myself first and then the kids. I’m not entitled to anything but the privilege to spend my days with some of the most challenging and most wonderful, loving kids you could ask for, despite their behavior some days and puzzling lack of abilities most days. I don’t just go to work to teach, I live to teach. Sadly, I don’t know how much longer that will continue as the pressure to perform builds. More tests, more goals, more tightly controlled curricula, and less and less chance to just get kids thinking and problem solving about things they can relate to and value. But I keep trying and believing the possibilities for my kids while I prepare for the often painful reality of the choices some of them make that ruin their lives. It’s like losing a member of my own family, but sooner or later they have to head out there and make those choices, and a few do.
It’s a calling by the way, not a job, but like any profession you’ll lower quality if you lower pay too much. That’s a tough balance to find.
bootney farnsworth
September 24th, 2012
7:15 am
show of hand of folks who have suspicions teacher reader has actually taught in public school
bootney farnsworth
September 24th, 2012
7:19 am
I love the part where T/R says she doesn’t care how much we make, she wants results.
capitalism 101- you get what you pay for.
mommamonster
September 24th, 2012
8:07 am
Those of you yelling about teachers’ greed please understand that Chicago teachers were forced to “lead” with pay because
(quoted from http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/notebook/2012/09/16/20427/mayor-wants-injunction-stop-strike-union-wants-more-time-consider-deal)
A provision added to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act last year says Chicago teachers can strike only over pay and benefits.
They had NO choice but to cite pay and benefits as their main reasons for striking…I think that’s the way the legislation can automatically garner negative feelings toward teachers even before the stike begins. I wish we teachers in GA had the guts to really use our voices for change…we’re all too scared in this blood-red state to fight for a decent salary and classroom conditions…
mommamonster
September 24th, 2012
8:16 am
*strike
Mortimer Collins
September 24th, 2012
9:01 am
What a load of manure.
RAMZAD
September 24th, 2012
9:30 am
I can see that some of the teachers here are living a professional illusion. How can a young person graduate high school and not be able to build or recognize a decent sentence in the English language? This is a student who has been coming to school day after day. Forget the poverty argument that you all have on repeat play. They show up!
Just how can that be? We are also talking about thousands of cases in one school district who can’t break down an argument and take out the piece that we need to answer a simple question.
In any other profession we would have declared a national emergency or start a war to deal with this problem. Forget math and history and civics. Just teach them to read and write. The teacher profession is a very honorable calling, but it is clear that for too many of you it is just a paycheck to produce illiterates. My respect for public school teachers is disappearing below zero.
Prof
September 24th, 2012
10:34 am
@ Teacher Reader. If Georgian educators don’t know much about the specifics of the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, then you don’t seem to know much about the situation of Georgian K-12 teachers which is quite different. The pay scale here is considerably lower than in Chicago precisely BECAUSE unions are not allowed by the state constitution. And on and on.
From what you write, you have 6 years teaching in one South side Chicago elementary school in the second grade, as nearly the only white teacher in a school and area that is otherwise black. How can you possibly generalize then about all Chicago public schools and all of the teachers within them, unionized or not? Could part of their response to your teaching method be due to your own attitude of superiority toward them. which is shown in several of your posts here?
Frankly, I don’t accept your statements about the Chicago teachers and their union any more than I do the Georgia educators who wrote the “thank-you letter to Chicago teachers.”
Just A Teacher
September 24th, 2012
11:36 am
It seems that there are many people dissatisfied with public education in Georgia. Some people have claimed that teachers here want to maintain the status quo in education. These people want radical change to our education system here. Wouldn’t repealing the laws against collective bargaining for teachers be a radical change. Georgia would then join the ranks of many of the states whose standardized test scores exceed ours.
Once Again
September 24th, 2012
12:40 pm
1) empowering educators to reclaim their workplace and professionalism, 2) empowering families to stand up for their children and shape the institutions their children attend each day, 3) empowering children and youth to have control over their education, and 4) enhancing the education of all Georgians.
There is not a single one of these goals that can ever be achieved until the government socialist monopoly on “education” is ended. While I will certainly agree that turning over the government monopoly to a private company to reap the financial rewards of the existing socialist financing scheme is absolutely wrong, there is no way that parents or children will ever have a sound chance at shaping the instituitons or controlling their education until FULL responsiblity (both for paying and for choosing) is put back into the hands of parents where it rightfully belongs. Even teachers are disenfranchised by the current system as their is no incentive to innovate, there are no rewards for outstanding performance, poor performance is rewarded with more money (both at the teacher and system level), and ultimately these conditions of failure promote ridicule and scorn among the victimized parents and children that is directed at the face of their education – the teachers.
Nobody likes having to face the realities of the competitive marketplace, but only the marketplace delivers the highest quality by providing the external financial and competitive pressures that generate innovation and success. Government never has to worry about those things so they fail without concern.
Whomever this group really is, they have only one concern in mind – their own. They clearly do not care about quality teachers, quality education, or the parents and children. They support the status quo that receives funding through force and fights even simple changes and accountability as if they were the actions of the devil himself.
Parents are finally waking up to this chronic injustice. They are pulling their children from the govenrment institutions. Hopefully many in Chicago will learn from this experience and save their children by getting them out, one way or another. The “victory” in Chicago for the “teachers” was a loss for all americans. On the brighter side however, these unsustainable financial arrangements cannot last, and soon all of these government programs will come crashing down. At that point, those who actually care about their children’s education will hopefully be given the freedom to create a new system that actually addresses their children’s needs without financially victimizing them to benefit others.
Beverly Fraud
September 24th, 2012
1:10 pm
“QSo be careful implying, insinuating, or otherwise suggesting John Q Public is too stupid to know or to learn what’s going on.”
@Ed, John Q. Public might not be too stupid to know what’s going on, but they ARE too ignorant to know what’s going on. WILLFULLY ignorant, seeing as more of them will take the time to know the judges on American Idol than take the time to know the ones that sit on the Supreme Court.
And that’s why teachers need to SHAPE THE DEBATE. They need to counteract the Rhee/Duncan/et al rhetoric with their own easily understood soundbite, just to have a fighting chance to get people to the nuance of it all.
And if a TEACHER can’t put a message in a bite sized chunk, easily understood by the masses…
Dr. Monica Henson
September 24th, 2012
1:45 pm
Mr. Johnson, I’ll email you an invitation today. I look forward to meeting you in person and hope that you will find my behavior acceptable.
I’ll even treat you to lunch.
Thanks for being willing to take a look.
Monica
Dr. Monica Henson
September 24th, 2012
1:49 pm
Oh dear, Mr. Johnson, it looks like you are a computer information systems expert. That may explain your difficulty in following my nonlinear thinking. Please be patient with this old maid schoolteacher. I do think that when you take a look at our school, you’ll be pleased with what you see.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
September 24th, 2012
7:13 pm
@Teacher reader “The general public is tired of teachers complaining about their salaries. As a former teacher, I am tired of hearing teachers complain about their salaries. I want to hear teachers complain about not being able to teach. Or about the lack of discipline in our schools. Or teaching to a test. Or other problems that generally affect the quality of education our children are receiving. ”
I fail to understand how you can make this comment if you have been reading this blog for any length of time. MOST of us complain MUCH MORE about those issues you mentioned, rather than salary. You make is sound soooo easy for teachers to stand up and say…”I will no longer teach to the test! I will no longer spend weeks giving standardized tests! I insist discipline problems be removed from my room!” Yet, if you truly are a former teacher, you have to know it does NOT work that way – especially in a state with no union protection. Do those things bother us? You bet they do! But realistically, we have very little power to change it. I do everything I can within the restrictive confines I am forced to endure, but again, chages of that magnitude need to come from higher up. Perhaps some of this passion being used to push for Charter schools and vouchers by ‘reformers” would be better spent “reforming” some of the problems you mentioned!
And no, many of us are not a “dime a dozen.” I suspect Ron F. is a great educator from his comments on this blog. He is the kind of teacher you should be supporting, not tearing down due to your unhappy experiences in the CPS years ago or because your husband got the short end of the stick in the private sector. I taught in some pretty corrupt, pathetic districts myself. Fortunately, even there I encountered hard working, caring, dedicated teachers. I am sorry you apparently did not, and have drawn conclusions about the entire profession based upon those negative experiences.
“You really don’t get it. I DON’T CARE HOW MUCH YOU MAKE. I CARE THAT MY CHILD AND ALL CHILDREN ARE TAUGHT AND RECEIVE A QUALITY EDUCATION. ”
And therein lies one of the greatest problems in this country. Everyone is in it for himself or herself, and screw everyone else. There is no “We the people…” anymore, or community spirit. No sense of working together or looking out for one another. It has all become about ME, ME, ME! If I can’t pay my bills, I can’t support my students. I can’t buy supplies for those who have parents out of work. (Because, yes, I actually do care whether YOU can pay your bills – surprise!) Every person who falls through the cracks weakens our society. I can’t continue to teach if my salary drops too low. I do have to pay my bills, whether you care or not. So the public loses another good teacher…and since you are so certain most teachers are mediocre at best, I do not understand your statement that good teachers can so easily be replaced. (And yes, I am a good teacher.)
P.S. You might want to brush up on the difference between “effect” and “affect.”
Prof
September 24th, 2012
8:43 pm
Reading back through Teacher Reader’s comments, I notice that his/her style changes from one of commiseration with teachers to that of the same old teacher-bashing that has become so familiar–and dull- on this blog since the out-of-state paid trolls discovered “Get Schooled.” I also notice that he/she has been absent from the discussion since last night at 11:31 pm, and isn’t answering any of the retorts by local teachers.
Ed Johnson
September 24th, 2012
9:04 pm
“Oh dear, Mr. Johnson, it looks like you are a computer information systems expert. That may explain your difficulty in following my nonlinear thinking.”
Dr. Monica Hanson, what nonlinear thinking of yours? Please do point out on this blog an example of your nonlinear thinking since obviously I missed it the first go round.
Believe me, I much esteem nonlinear thinkers, some of the more popular ones being W. Edwards Deming, Russell Ackoff, Donnella Meadows, Donald Wheeler, Alfie Kohn, Peter Senge, Jesus, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other “Systems Thinkers.” I’m sure these folks are known to you, yes?
Anyway, since it seems you’ve bothered to check me out, here’s something more… http://www.edjohnsoninseat9.com. It’s an old school board campaign site.
Looking forward to receiving your invitation to visit.
Dr. Monica Henson
September 24th, 2012
10:22 pm
Invitation sent. Thanks for the link, and I look forward to meeting you!
20/20
September 25th, 2012
1:36 pm
Where is Beverly Hall and when is she going to court to be held accountable for unethical actions along with Kathy Augustine and others????????
20/20
September 25th, 2012
1:48 pm
How many awsuits does Atlanta Public Schools have pending under Erroll Davis? He is clueless and worse than Beverly Hall. He is horrible and costing taxpayers greatly while the dysfuntional board of education stands by doing nothing as before. Enroll needs to good home to rest. That is why he is so gouchy in old age. At least Hall was a knowlegeable educator.