I know, it’s a weird title for an unschooling website. It’s a weird subject for an unschooling mom to be writing about. But, having taught in public schools for ten years, it’s a piece I feel compelled to write.
Like members of every other profession, teachers span the spectrum from outstanding to completely incompetent. As a student, I experienced all kinds. And as a teacher myself, I worked alongside all kinds. But, at least in my own experience, the excellent teachers outnumbered the lousy teachers big-time.
As an unschooling mom and advocate, I have a lot of issues with our education system. I’ve written plenty about why I think unschooling is a far better choice. But I’ve never written a piece disparaging the dedicated professionals who spend ten months a year trying to help their students excel. Teachers get enough flak from public school supporters. I know. I was on the receiving end for a long time.
In my opinion, teachers have become a convenient scapegoat for a system that is irreparably broken. To force teachers to work within the confines of that system practically ensures that they will remain the ones shouldering most of the blame for our children’s lackluster performance. But it’s an unfair judgement. Our kids aren’t failing because our teachers aren’t doing their jobs.
I was privileged to work alongside men and women who were in it for all the right reasons. They loved and respected children. They were brilliant, innovative, creative and tireless. They fought for their students’ rights, arrived early, stayed late, and spent large amounts of their summer vacation and their own money fine-tuning their craft. And they did it all for an insultingly low salary.
I saw, up close and personal, the frustration so many of them experienced having to force themselves to fit in an ever smaller, more rigid box. As high-stakes testing and state standards took center stage, there was almost no room left for the spontaneous, the creative, and the just-plain-fun kinds of stuff. The stuff, in short, that students probably benefited from the most. Add to this outrageous teacher-student ratios, chronic underfunding, outdated philosophy and methodology, and the myriad of other challenges teachers face, and it’s truly amazing to me that any of them are willing to stick around. Believe me, the so-called 30 hour work weeks and paid vacations really don’t make up for it.
So, why am I writing a piece praising teachers on an unschooling website? Here’s why. As unschoolers, it’s all too easy for us to judge. It’s too easy to paint all schools, and all teachers, with the same unflattering brush. But there’s more to the story.There’s always more to the story.
Are there problems? Yep – big ones. Are there some rotten teachers out there? For sure. But there are also teachers who are changing lives. Who are the best part of a child’s day. Who are truly inspiring.
The reality is, most kids in this country won’t be unschooled. As flawed as our system is, I’m thankful that there are loving, gifted people who are willing to work within it to touch those little lives.
And every once in a while, I think it’s nice to say so. Even on an unschooling website.
The problem is that teachers aren’t ALLOWED to do their jobs. But remember, parents who see a child go off to school to be educated and come back with hours of homework don’t see that. They don’t see the tick-box culture, they don’t see the lack of time for teachers to communicate, they don’t see if the teachers arrived early or stayed late. What they see is a child going off to be educated and then coming back with education that in their eyes, should have already been accomplished. And I don’t blame kids and their parents battling over it with each other and/or school, either.
Can you imagine delegating something to your secretary than having to do it yourself? (parents) Can you imagine being told that you/ your parents aren’t qualifed to teach you/yourself and yet they’re expected to do just that when time is run out?
I know that, when I was a kid, I didn’t see why I should learn to manage my time better if teachers, who were supposed to be the adults and therefore know better, got to shrug off their responsibilities by declaring whatever they never got around to as homework. It’s not like we were ever shown the tick-boxes or anything. All I saw was them being lazy. I was a smart kid though; if someone had taken five minutes to tell me what it was about – I’m pretty sure that would have reduced the battles by about 60%.
I find the definition of hard work to be very broad. Take nurses for example. A nurse will often work a 12 hour shift working through her lunch. Never take the breaks allotted. Walk fast everywhere. Stand on her feet until vericose veins set in. She will work nights, weekends and holidays. She will deal with biohazards, death and dying. …. That is hard work.
Schools get 8 hours a day to educate our children. 40 hours per week. Teachers have time. Lots of it. In our area class sizes are 15 to 1 or 2. We have “grandparent helpers” who assist as well as student teachers and teachers aids. We still end up with 5 to 8 hours of homework each week for our 3rd grader with encouragement to put in more time. Our elementary school is blessed to be in a middle class town and is forever receiving some state award for this or that and yet they can’t seem to educate our children in their 40 hours per week. …… Our kids bring home coloring projects on which they did 10 math problems at school. The coloring must have taken 30 minutes. Meanwhile they send home 20 more problems.
Some teachers do use their time effectively…. instead of doing lengthy coloring and crafts, they teach. One teacher I saw was drilling times tables in the lunch line and had the kids laughing and joking all about it. I have found her to be the only one using that time.
The second grade teacher mentioned one day that she still had this project to do and that one and they, as a class, were behind schedule. They were all crafty prpjects …..she sent the math and printing practice as well as extra reading time home while she made snowmen out of paper plate and cotton balls. Real nice.