This week a devoted and beloved teacher will close the door of her classroom for the very last time. I know what you are thinking - this happens every day in schools across our district, across our state, and across our nation. It is always sad, and it is always a loss. But this teacher’s exit is personal to me. I admire this teacher. Her students admire her. Her students’ parents and her coworkers admire her. She is my friend, and a friend to some of you who are reading this. If she isn’t your friend, she most likely would be if your paths ever crossed.
This week a school is losing someone who has been a dedicated teacher, an enthusiastic educational leader, an inspiring mentor, and an exemplary role model. She is a professional expert who lovingly instills her knowledge and skills with children who will soon determine our future. Like many teachers, she is also a wife and mother who has had to sacrifice far too many hours of family time to complete mandatory tasks, which are unnecessary and unrelated to student learning. There is stress, frustration, and guilt associated with being a silent, subservient, rule-following employee, and one who is constantly disrespected, undervalued, and not appreciated. She felt it. I have felt it. Too many teachers feel it every day. Too many are leaving because of it.
This week when this amazing teacher joins the mass exodus of teachers leaving the profession, know it is not primarily because of the insultingly inadequate salary. Rather, it is because of the unbearable working conditions. If we want schools to improve, we have to improve teachers’ working conditions. Teachers’ working conditions determine students’ learning conditions. Too many who make the policies and laws that regulate public education, have never been a teacher, and have never asked the opinion of a teacher. Too many have no knowledge of what is truly needed to ensure greatness for every student, every teacher, and every public school.
Administrators and policy makers have convinced teachers, and indeed our society, that to be a teacher who speaks out or stands up to reject the harsh climate and intolerable working conditions is to be a “bad” teacher. “Good” teachers are expected to open their wallets to buy essential classroom items, even though the district can, and should, purchase them. “Good” teachers are expected to be assaulted and accept that when they report it, the child will be returned to their class without learning that actions have consequences. “Good” teachers are expected to attend or facilitate after-hour school functions without pay. “Good” teachers are expected to forfeit valuable planning time to complete meaningless tasks, such as data collection. “Good” teachers are expected to be compliant when they are directed to alter grades or falsify FTE rolls. “Good” teachers are expected to take other teachers’ students when another teacher is absent because the district fails to provide adequate substitutes. “Good” teachers are expected to raise students’ test scores, while following the robotic lessons that administrators require them to follow, preventing them from advancing student achievement with their individual and creative lessons. “Good” teachers are expected to accept the unfair evaluation and merit pay systems and welcome subjective observers who disrupt and impede learning. “Good” teachers are expected to take blame for every failure and follow every direction, even though they know there is a better method. “Good” teachers are expected to be selfless to the point of becoming depressed and ill. “Good” teachers have been told that teaching is a “calling”, and if they truly love the children they must willingly tolerate intolerable working conditions, low wages, and poor benefits. To disagree would be to be a “bad” teacher. What other profession treats employees in this way?
This week another teacher said, “enough is enough”, and she is walking away from the profession that she loves, but no longer recognizes. Her students, her school, and the district will suffer the loss. If you believe, as I do, that public schools are the cornerstone of our society and must not just be preserved, but strengthened, speak up to demand that teachers have a voice in decisions that impact students, teachers and public education. Speak up to demand that teachers be respected and treated as the experts and professionals they are. Speak up at PTA and school board meetings. Speak up to your legislators. Speak up also where it will count the most – speak up at the ballot box. Speak up to stop the exodus of great teachers.
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