I should know better...

[Veronica]

I was reading comments about the ruling yesterday in CA regarding teacher tenure. Teachers have such a cushy job, only work 6 hours a day, can be horrible at the job, but won't get fired, have lots of vacation time... Teachers are entirely to blame for the poor performance of students. There can't possibly be any other reason why the poor and minorities don't do well in school.

People are idiots.

Veronica

[SheFly]

Sigh. Never, ever read the comments. I appreciate the work you do, V, and I don't even have children! You have a hard job.

(and kudos to everyone else here who is a teacher!)

SheFly

[Catrin]

Indeed, you do a great job Veronica and don't let those comments get to you. We seem to have become a society of "blame someone else", which makes your job, which is already quite challenging, harder.

Yes, many kudos to all of the teachers here!

[Veronica]

I'm just not sure how "they" think doing away with tenure will fix the problem. I'm a darn good teacher. I have parents and students telling me that all the time. I have college graduates coming back to visit me. But there's no way I would choose to teach at some of our more difficult schools. I need to have the students or the parents (ideally both) supporting the student's education. Every year I have one or two students who don't prioritize education and whose parents don't either for lots of reasons. It's frustrating and demoralizing because no matter what I do, I can't "fix" them. It takes a really special person to take on a class where that's the majority. You can't force a teacher into that situation.

I find the argument inconsistent also. Tenure is bad because when lay offs come the new, dynamic teachers get let go first. However, tenure is also bad because the new, inexperienced teachers are at the neediest schools. So, are the new teachers dynamically inexperienced?

Veronica

[salsabike]

I'm just not sure how "they" think doing away with tenure will fix the problem. I'm a darn good teacher. I have parents and students telling me that all the time. I have college graduates coming back to visit me. But there's no way I would choose to teach at some of our more difficult schools. I need to have the students or the parents (ideally both) supporting the student's education. Every year I have one or two students who don't prioritize education and whose parents don't either for lots of reasons. It's frustrating and demoralizing because no matter what I do, I can't "fix" them. It takes a really special person to take on a class where that's the majority. You can't force a teacher into that situation.

I find the argument inconsistent also. Tenure is bad because when lay offs come the new, dynamic teachers get let go first. However, tenure is also bad because the new, inexperienced teachers are at the neediest schools. So, are the new teachers dynamically inexperienced?

Veronica

Well said. And I try VERY hard to never read the comments. Commenters are the lunatic fringe, not a good representative sample. I know you know that. The benefit/cost ratio of reading news story comments is REALLY REALLY terrible. :-P

[malkin]

Hey V--I know what you mean!
I work in pre-k for a school district, and not even the rest of the district thinks that we are 'real' educators--even though there are years and years of data showing better outcomes for our kids!

[daniel19056]

ooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh