Very interesting piece (thanks, Brandon) about teacher blaming.
Now, I am going to start this with saying that at times the teachers' unions certainly do not act in the best interests of students or teachers. And that I have worked with people who use their tenure as an excuse to not teach. But those teachers (the lazy "dead wood" are certainly not the ones stepping up with ideas on how to save education. They can't even be bothered to teach. I've been in meetings with them - they aren't spending extra energy trying to fix the system. They're just waiting to retire.
Teachers who are writing letters to the editor, who are serving on committees, and who are trying to make life better for kids are not trying to make their own lives easier. They're trying to help students.
Now, I am going to start this with saying that at times the teachers' unions certainly do not act in the best interests of students or teachers. And that I have worked with people who use their tenure as an excuse to not teach. But those teachers (the lazy "dead wood" are certainly not the ones stepping up with ideas on how to save education. They can't even be bothered to teach. I've been in meetings with them - they aren't spending extra energy trying to fix the system. They're just waiting to retire.
Teachers who are writing letters to the editor, who are serving on committees, and who are trying to make life better for kids are not trying to make their own lives easier. They're trying to help students.
I thought it ironic that our schools were judged inadequate by people who haven’t set foot in them, so I wrote a letter to my local newspaper. Predictably, my letter elicited a deluge of comments in the paper’s online forum. Many remarks came from armchair educators and anti-teacher, anti-public school evangelists quick to discredit anything I had to say under the rationale of “he’s a teacher.” What could a teacher possibly know about education?
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