Teacher, Teacher, I Declare

Madame M:

A wonderful tour, visual and otherwise, through the delights of your “turf.”

School has started back up.  This becomes the time of year for politicians, many of them running for election or re-election, to lay blame for America’s abysmal education system entirely at teachers’ feet.  In fact, Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former press secretary, and Campbell Brown, former CNN anchor, have teamed up to “declare war on teacher tenure” (and by inference, war on the teachers unions—and their teachers—that support it).

Leaving aside for the moment the general plutocratic campaign of annihilation against unions in general, of which this is a part, citizens should be aware of a few things:

War has been declared against a group of people that labor under:  high-pressure; constantly increasing demands (although sometimes they merely get shifted, mostly the priorities just get added on to); low pay; little respect (probably the lowest in the developed world—maybe the entire world); little appreciation; often disconnected students; frequently absent or coddling/meddlesome parents; administrators that are too commonly abusive, selfish, incompetent, or serving of outside interests; excessive sports or outside activities emphasis; school funding that is wildly erratic and utterly inconsistent; regularly hostile legislators; and increasingly ideological or outside interest school boards.  All this (and more), and yet with many of the society’s problems—that society can’t or won’t address—laid at the teachers’ feet with the insistent demand of  “fix it!” and oh, yeah, become entirely responsible for those kids’ outcomes, including the quality of those kids’ future jobs.  

And you, Mr. (but usually Ms.) Teacher, your continuance in your chosen profession—forget about reward—will be almost entirely dependent on student “performance” and even how the student feels about you.

Nearly every year, you, teacher, will have to absorb another education “initiative” that is almost certainly fated to derail or be supplanted, with countless extra hours (that the public rarely sees) spent on it to comply or else. 

And after all of the above—plus a great deal more that isn’t listed—the public and their supposed representatives will hurl vitriol at any attempt to defend yourself, wail that the best and brightest don’t go into teaching, scream that you (not the factors above) are to blame for the poor teachers among you, say that schools are failing because of your union and what is needed is privatization (funded privately, of course, and that will markedly increase the already high inequality), and say that you, the little teacher, are entirely responsible for the whole mess.

A disconnected, un-communal society that will neither face reality nor hold itself responsible wants to hold the least powerful responsible.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating:  As David Byrne, Talking Heads lead singer, once remarked, “If this makes sense, STOP MAKING SENSE.”