Unit 2 Post

The readings and video this week brought out a lot of interesting questions about how society influences and structures schools.   In the video, Only a Teacher: Episode 2, many common issues sill debated today were explored.  Everything from teachers as a role model, teacher’s rights, salary, unions and seniority was explored.  I especially enjoyed watching the video this week.  These issues are still part of pretty heated discussions today and I have strong opinions on them. 

Looking at some of the comparisons with views of women as teachers brought an interesting parallel.  The law that allowed women to be let go prior to 1915 if they became secretly married, became pregnant or even wore pants seems somewhat extreme today, but I have seen how these former laws have turned into expectations in today’s society, except perhaps the regulation on pants.  When I was student teaching, a teacher only slightly older than myself, became pregnant and was not married.  While legally nothing could be done to her job-wise, she was definitely looked down upon for an occurrence that would not be mentioned in other professions.  This idea that teacher’s lives should be held under a microscope is unique to the profession.  Few professions would empower people to judge others personal lives so critically.

I was most interested in watching the section on teacher’s rights.  This is an important topic to me, in light of so much legislative action occurring recently.  The attack on teacher pay, seniority and tenure has been swift and devastating.  I agree with some that tenure saves some teachers who no longer cares about their students or tries to effectively teach them.  Any teacher can most likely name at least one of these people in their own building.  This occurs in any field, but laws are not passed for other professions to deny similar rights.  I witnessed this year a horrible teacher be removed from the classroom, with due process, within a school year.  He was given ample reviews, assistance and all of the rights that should be given to allow him to improve.  By making it ‘easier’ to remove ‘bad’ teachers, lawmakers allow unfair review processes to be used.  The series of Michigan House Bills 4625, 4626, 4627, and 4628, allows teachers to be fired after two bad reviews, which can occur on consecutive days, dismantles collective bargaining rights and effectively eliminates teacher tenure.  This full on assault on all things to do with educators has little to do with education and more to do with politics and the continual cost-saving being done at the expense of middle class workers. 

One of the most interesting debates I’ve seen in the realm of teacher’s rights in the last few years has been about salary.   As I’ve added in the additional resources, political pundits weigh in on $250,000 a year being ‘close to poverty’ yet $50,000, which is much more than beginning teachers are paid, is too much.  This notion that teachers ‘work for the taxpayer’ and thus can be criticized as such, is ridiculous.  As most other teachers, I went into the profession knowing that the salary for teachers were not fantastic, but to hear it criticized as such is infuriating. 

The other portion of the reading this week focused on the changing educational views following the common school era.  Having read quite a bit about Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois differing views on African Americans post-slavery I had read some of the arguments made about education.  Dubois describes the post-slavery problems with education as, “the larger problem of Negro education sprang up the more practical question of work, the inevitable exonomic quandary that faces a people in the transition from slavery to freedom, and especially those who make that change amid hate and prejudice, lawlessness and ruthless competition (DuBois, 42).”  The view in the south that African Americans and poor whites should not be educated was an understatement, but African Americans in particular understood that education was important.  This view that education is the key to success in any field was a view that was reiterated often in Dubois’ articles.  The respectful attitude that is portrayed toward teachers in the articles is in somewhat contrast to what is often heard today.

Works Cited

DuBois, W.E.B. (1907a). Of Booker T. Washington and others. In W.E.B. DuBois, The souls of black folk (pp. 30-42). Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.

DuBois, W.E.B. (1907d). Of the Training of Black Men. In W.E.B. DuBois, The souls of black folk (pp. 62- 76). Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.

Washington, B.T. (1974). 1895 Atlanta compromise speech. In L.R. Harlan (Ed.), The Booker T. Washington papers, vol. 3 (pp.583-587). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Additional Resources

http://robinoula.com/modern-education/fox-news-teachers-are-greedy-and-250000-is-practically-poverty/