Focus on the Teacher

This will be a big ol' vent fest...and maybe you'll be disappointed in me for some of the things I'm going to say, but I can't hold it in anymore...my husband (whom I usually vent to) is asleep. If my hip weren't so touch-and-go right now I'd be pounding this out on the roads instead, but the keyboard will have to do for now.

I'm working on a piece for Voice of San Diego and it's difficult for me to refrain from getting soap boxy...but the beauty of having my own blog is that I can live in a soapbox if I so choose.

Two separate issues running through my mind involve 1. teacher pay and 2. the so-called "great" teachers who inspire films like Dead Poet's Society or Dangerous Minds.

The first thing I'd like to vent about is how every year our class sizes get bigger--and while YES this is bad for the students, it's also bad for the teacher. But I can't talk about the needs of the teacher in Voice because the public doesn't care about that... the public mentality is: Get over it, that's what you have summer vacation for, and We all have tough jobs so what? Well public, you get what you pay for. And I am going to say publicly what teachers are afraid to admit to anyone but their colleagues: I do the minimum amount of work to be effective and competent.

I am a damn good teacher: I can create meaningful assignments and simulations in less time than the average teacher (that's so arrogant, but I'm being honest), and I can grade essays just as effectively as the average teacher--in half the time as well. My point is not to toot my own horn, it's simply to demonstrate that it's a good thing I'm fast and effective, because I do not and will not kill myself doing uncompensated work that gets little to no respect from the community and less than that from the district. (And I'm certainly not going to miss an episode of "Cougartown" over it.)

A school in New York opened this September that pays 125,000 dollars for its teachers. Of course, these are highly qualified teachers getting these jobs, but if it became common practice that only the "best of the best" make this amount, then I guarantee you teacher bitterness would decrease. (I could go into merit pay right now, but that's a vent for another day.) The way it is now, larger classes mean more paperwork to take home. It means more stressful classroom management issues. Larger classes mean that some teachers have so many extra students it's like teaching a 6th class-- with no added compensation for the time and effort that goes into this.

However, these issues would not be so bad if they were compensated. Then, at least, we would be getting paid for our work. Teachers already work beyond their contract time. Somehow the public believes that when the final bell rings at 3:00 pm teachers are off duty: careless and fancy-free. This is simply wrong... I don't want to go into all the details of how much time teachers spend preparing lesson plans, grading papers, making phones calls or writing emails to parents, counselors and administrators during their "off duty" hours...because I know you will believe me when I say we put in more hours than we should. And for anyone who says, "At least you have summers off," my response is-- first, most of us have already put in enough hours during the school year to compensate for the time off and second, that break is the only thread holding our sanity in place. I'd bet a year's paycheck that if breaks were taken away, DUI's would increase, assaults and "drunk in public" violations would increase, and spousal abuse would skyrocket. I'm not being funny.

The other issue that crossed my mind--and I think I might write something about this for Voice--is that great teachers are no longer in the classroom (quite the oxymoron, wouldn't you say?).

Take for example the Freedom Writers teacher, Erin Gruwell. She isn't in the classroom anymore. As soon as she was able to, she high-tailed it out of the classroom and into a program that trains teachers in her methods. I always find it amazing how this same life choice applies to nearly every "teacher" who presents at our teacher workshops. They all "used to be great" teachers; however, they've all traded the classroom for the conference room. And the cherry on top is, that the methods they teach can't be maintained--that's why they aren't doing them anymore. The amount of energy it requires is impossible--and is one of the reasons Erin Gruwell's marriage failed. Yet, these quitters try to inspire us jaded teachers on the brink. For many of us, it only fuels the bitter flame.

Anyone else want to vent about their job? I'd love to hear about it!