What I Didn't Get to Say!

Last night, Central Dallas Ministries hosted a screening of the "Waiting for Superman" documentary that I referred to in earlier posts. After the film, there was a "town hall forum" discussion and I had the opportunity to be one of the panelists. I was a little nervous about this because first of all, I am much more comfortable blogging my thoughts than speaking them in front of large groups of people (especially a large group of professionals, business leaders, other seasoned educators...not kids!!), and second of all, do I even know what I am talking about?? At the same time, this is a topic that I am always eager to discuss so I was happy to be a part. Other panelists included a former school board trustee, an elementary principal, a non-profit education leader, a parent, the president of Dallas AFT (teacher's union), the founder of a successful charter school network, and myself. Unfortunately, time ran out after only a few questions to the panel and I felt that the surface was hardly scratched.

I think the point of the panel and discussion forums such as these is to really start a conversation about...what are we going to DO?? Not just keep talking about what's wrong and what needs to change, but HOW are we going to change it? What are the practical steps we need to take as people sincerely concerned about equitable, quality public education in America? However, the discussion never seems to quite get to those practical steps. To be honest, I found myself quite irritated during the discussion by the AFT president. The first question we were asked was just about our general reaction to the film. She, quite predictably, started channeling Randi Weingarten and the same spiel that the unions have been arguing since the film came out....that she is saddened that there wasn't one successful traditional public school or public school teacher featured in the film, that she is upset about the beating that public schools are taking from this movie, that there are so many great teachers working their hearts out everywhere, that there are some great schools in DISD, blah, blah, blah. OKAY!! We get that!! We know there are good teachers and good schools out there. WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT THEM!!! But if everyone is doing such a good job, then why is America ranked 25th in math and 21st in science out of 30 developed countries? Why do we only have a national average of proficiency in reading and math that is less than 30%?? That's a wake-up call, people! We can sit around and get defensive and talk about how good hearted and hard working teachers are and how much they sacrifice all day, but no one has the power to change those statistics more than teachers, so they HAVE to be the target of this conversation! So the union representatives can keep defending their teachers if they want to, but that's not going to change those frightening numbers that you see above. Yes, there are GREAT teachers!! No one is bashing them or discrediting the work they do!! But for every good teacher, there are six or seven mediocre ones and maybe two or three truly bad ones. (I'm just going off what I see in the schools I've been in.) For every great teacher who brings success to 30 students, there are 80 more slipping through the cracks in the rooms down the hall. So that's part of what this conversation is about. To me, if you are truly a great teacher, you know this. You have to acknowledge this. You have to be outraged that your colleagues are not giving the same effort you are and that all your hard work one year might be flushed down the toilet with a lazy, half-hearted, complacent, incompetent, whatever the case may be (fill in the blank here) teacher the next year.

At the same time that teachers are worked to death and underpaid, we are spoiled. We are spoiled because we are in pretty much the only career in the world where we really don't have to achieve any results at all to keep our jobs. We are rarely observed, rarely evaluated, and rarely disciplined. We are rarely fired. There are rarely any real consequences or real accountability for not doing a good job. Sometimes I hear things like "you're going to get written up for that." I've been in education almost six years and am still mystified by that. Okay, written up? What does that mean? And what happens? Well, apparently nothing. There are no consequences!!! Maybe that's why discipline is such a problem in our schools. How can we deliver an appropriate system of expectations, accountability, and consequences for students when there are none for ourselves?

We are spoiled because we think we actually earn three months off in the summer. We think we are not obligated to work past 3:30pm and get outraged if we are asked to do so. (Lots of teachers DO put in lots of their own time past the contracted hours, even bad ones do, but what career doesn't have to work long hours to get results?? Yet teachers have the loudest voices about how hard and how long we have to work). I wonder how many teachers could go into the corporate world or the business world and survive. We are walking around out here like we're the victims, like we're the only ones putting in long hours out here in America. Like we're the only ones not getting appreciated and paid well. Yes, teaching is TOUGH!! It is exhausting, mentally and physically and financially draining. We do have to deal with unimaginable challenges and we do have the pressures of unimaginable responsibilities on our shoulders. But that is the nature of what we do. That is what teaching is. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!! This victim mentality is getting us nowhere.

I want to write more about the actual movie itself, but I have a day off from school today and about a zillion things to do...so this post will be continued....