Sunday, November 06, 2016

What Teachers Want




























There is a disconnect between what teachers want and what education reformers expect.  This disconnect is exacerbated by politicians and their media allies who, along with the education reform movement demonizes teachers every chance they get.

 If you ask the education reformers privately what they want for their child, they would say the following about their child's school:
  •  Low class size
  • Adequate resources
  • An experienced teacher certified in the subject
  • A stable school environment
  • Strong student discipline procedures
  • A thriving learning classroom
Just take a look at all the leading figures in the education reform organizations and their political allies and see what they demand for their own school-age children and you see that is in fact what they have for their children.  However, when it comes to other children, these education reform organizations demand the following:
  • Large class sizes
  • reduced resources
  • cheap and replaceable teachers
  • Weakened student discipline code
  • High-stakes testing and test preparation
  • Inappropriate test-based teacher evaluations
 Add to that how these education reform groups want to divert money to charter schools, private schools, and demand merit pay and you have the makings of the demoralization of the teaching profession. What better way to explain the shortfall in education funding then to blame teachers on the woes of the school system by attacking their pensions, tenure, and teacher due process rights.

What do teachers want?  We want the following:
  •  Low class sizes
  • Teacher autonomy
  • Adequate resources
  • Respect for the teaching profession
  • An enforceable student discipline code
  • Collaborative administration 
  • A strong union that represents their members

What teachers don't want:
  • High-stakes testing
  • Merit pay
  •  Evaluations tied to inappropriate tests
  • "gotcha" Administrators 
Obviously, teachers want what all concerned parents want for their children and that is a peaceful and academically thriving classroom with real student growth not artificial and inappropriate benchmarks that have no real world applications.  Learning should be fun and students should not fear and loathe going to school because of these high-stakes tests.  Is it any wonder that there is a growing teacher shortage nationwide and the "opt out" movement is spreading throughout the country?

Unless, the education reform movement is exposed as a bunch of hypocrites who want their own children to have the same things public school teachers want and not what they claim the rest of us should get, both the teacher shortage and the "opt out" movement will continue to grow. See what teachers want is what parents also want for their children.


17 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can't always get what you want

Anonymous said...

What I want: Parking permits for all NYC teachers who want one just like how things were prior to 2008.

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhh, another simple week with a fake meeting Tuesday/no work Friday. Wow!!!! People on here still complaining? Next week open school/half day Friday followed by a 3 day Thanksgiving week. HAAAAAA!!!!!! Laughing my ass off.

Anonymous said...

Yesss yesss and yesss parking permits

Anonymous said...

It is time to abandon the system. Too much abuse against veteran experienced teachers.

Anonymous said...

There are many bad principals targeting too many good experienced teachers.

Anonymous said...

UFT passed a resolution in June of 2016 to try and restore a sane parking permit solution with the new mayor. Every time a UFT rep shows up at your school, ask about the status of that resolution.

Anonymous said...

Why did they take away our parking permits to start with?? Soooo, let me see....the DOE takes away our:
1. parking permits - so now we have to search for parking in and around our toxic nyc schools and we are forced to deal with alternative side of street parking which is necessary because all the pigs of nyc can just throw their trash anywhere. Seriously, i have seen students just discard their "trash" anywhere like in just drop it anywhere. Trash cans?? Whats that?? In the DR, el salvatore, kenya, jamaica, syria, ghana, russia, spain.... we just put our trash anywhere mon... :-O
2. teachers cafeteria - we no longer have any teachers cafeterias in any of our nyc schools. So now not only can't teachers park anywhere near the schools they work in any longer, we cannot eat anywhere either. No teacher cafeterias exist for teachers to eat so its either brown bag your lunch or... Just try and get a sub in the south bronx and all you will get is a hot hero squished with mayo smeared everywhere....
The way the DOe treats its employees is really amazing and sad. I remember when ALL our schools had a teacher cafeteria and ALL educators received parking permits. However, I also remember midget mike bloomberg who was behind the taking of our parking permits and midget mike bloomberg was also responsible for closing down all the teacher cafeterias. We lived with this midget maniac for 12 school years and his shit stench still emanates today. Come on diblasio earn your reelection bud..vote for hillary 2016 without huma. hello down there in there in the basement....peace out...

Anonymous said...

How is it that these so called "charter" schools argue that their schools are a better option for students when the majority of their teaching staff probably 95-99 percent of them are 1 or two year experienced teachers. These one or two year bozos then leave the job after realizing that they are being used as guinea pigs with a small salary and not much of anything else.....In contrast our public schools have the finest educators this country has to offer!! Think about it where are most of our most experienced and best teachers located in our country?? They are all in public schools!!!! So why would any parent want to sent their kid to a school knowing that their teacher is a one or two year newbie who probably had or has NO mentor and is just thrown into a classroom right out of teaching school?? Its called smoke and mirrors and more likely money. Remember, just follow the money honey and you can unravel the truth.

Anonymous said...

Last year 50 teachers left W.C. Bryant High School because of a toxic and abusive atmosphere.

Anonymous said...

Non-teacher at 5:41

I thought you were too busy lathering up with sunscreen lotion in your mom's basement (summer vacation 'right around the corner' LOL) to complain about teacher complaints?

Anonymous said...

I don't know. I always hear about a teacher shortage, and a part of me wishes it were true so the public and admins would have to feel some pain for destroying a once noble profession, but in the urban areas there seems to be no shortage of applicants.

We got 600 resumes in my renewal school last summer for just about 9 positions. 600! Except for rural areas and small schools in No-wheres-ville, can we really say people are not willing to be teachers?

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I read these replies and can see why people are so down on teachers now or days.

Stay classy San Diego

Anonymous said...

4:17, chalk another one up on my fan club list. Love it! Do you look for my posts? Stalker? Do you stalk your X-wife as well?

Anonymous said...

Just ignore him - he teaches at Bronx Science. No one knows school half days if they're in mom's basement.

Anonymous said...

4:17, I may be alone in my mom's basement but I know so much about how easy teachers have it. Soon somebody will believe me. Please believe me.

Per session, summer school, and a hopscotch from one paid holiday to another. When you don't pay taxes and rent it is beau-coup bucks. Big bank for a cake and cushy gig. I keep explaining this but you guys don't believe me. Too busy complaining - I can't stand complainers. OK, I complain about the complainers. Got me there. Oops.

Ignore 6:48, he tries to make me look silly. Another complainer.

Anonymous said...

Stay away from Bronx Leadership- what a hell hole. PD all day on how to teach the kids and get them to put away their cellphones. All day getting recommendations on how to do it. Take the fucking cellphones, idiots. Stay far away from this disaster of a school.