Teachers have always been devalued in the United States, but in the past months the pace and intensity of the attacks have escalated sharply. Spurred by the June 2 deadline for the second round of Race to the Top, states have raced to fire more teachers, tie pay and evaluation to student test scores, close or reconstitute more schools, and disempower teachers' unions and teaching as a profession-trampling teachers, students, and communities in the process.
What lies behind this unprecedented assault on teachers? And, even more important, what can we do about it? We believe that these attacks are part of an effort to dismantle public education and that we need an effective, collaborative strategy to combat it.I was teaching first grade at a high poverty school back in the mid-nineties, when a lot of these so-called reforms started coming down the pike. The changes we were being asked to make at that time were distressing. We were being told to give up what I considered to be developmentally appropriate practices in the name of meeting the "standards and benchmarks." It was so distressing that I fled first grade for a Pre-K program, and even considered leaving teaching altogether.
That was 15 years ago. Since then I have taught both first grade and kindergarten (sometimes both at the same time, which is just crazy-making.) And while I am still very concerned about teaching in a developmentally appropriate way, I have also made my peace with the increased emphasis on academic achievement -- as long as it is done effectively. Over the last couple of years my district, and particularly my school, has been looking very closely at targeted interventions to give kids the basic skills they need, and I think we are slowly seeing what is known as "the achievement gap" close. And I feel good about it because it is good for the kids and their families. I understand that some of my teaching practices from the past were good for the kids that were going to succeed anyway, but less so for the kids that struggled.
How does this relate to teacher bashing? Every teacher I know who is working in so-called failing schools is committed to seeing all of their students succeed. We work hard and are willing to partner with parents to see our schools become the best that they can be for all students. Oh yeah, and we are the teachers' union.
I would like to see the people who bash teachers, who want to weaken the unions that represent us (and tangentially the students and families) spend a week doing my job. Just one week. I'll bet they couldn't even finish it out, much less actually teach anything. The article is correct to point out that it is patently unfair to single out teachers.
It would be nice if Newsweek were suddenly worried about how race and class affect student success. But these diatribes against teachers are not based in a commitment to equity.
No, if closing the achievement gap were the goal, we would see demands for adequate, equitable resources and funding for every student in every school-demands, for example, for quality early childhood education programs, full-time librarians, robust arts and physical education programs, mandated caps on class size, and enough time for teachers to prepare and collaborate. We would also see a renewed commitment to affirmative action in university admissions; a drive to recruit and nurture teachers of color; a commitment to ensure that students come to school ready to learn because their families have housing, food, medical care, and jobs; and an end to zero tolerance discipline policies that criminalize youth.
But if these attacks on teachers aren't about ending the systemic racism that continues to undermine our education system, what is the goal? With forces as seemingly disparate as the Obama administration, the Walton Foundation, the late Milton Friedman, and the New York Times all pushing the same ideas, this is a complicated question, but there are at least two major goals: destroy the power of the teachers' unions, and turn the public school system from a public trust into a new market for corporate development. From the time of Reagan, who used his "welfare queen" stories to scapegoat the poor as a basis on which to destroy the welfare system, this has been a tried-and-true approach to privatization: use visceral anecdotes to whip up hysteria that a system is "broken," argue that only market competition can fix the situation, and then sell off pieces of the public sector to private corporations. This time, teachers are the scapegoats.What can you do? It is as easy as speaking up the next time your co-worker or ill-informed brother-in-law starts bashing teachers and public education. Ask them if maybe they'd like companies like BP, Blackwater, or Halliburton to be running their children's schools.
Read the article in its entirety here.
