IMPress Polly
01-13-2016, 06:46 AM
Yes yes, from unfair student dress codes (in which we have no say) to rebelliousness among teens to the stagnant economy and your personal lack of social mobility, teachers are the cause of all the nation's problems. It's all our fault. There. Now that your complaints about my job have been articulated, I think most of you can give me a break and the rest of us can move on to a more serious discussion of the issues our education system has.
A recent, major nationwide survey of teachers (http://neatoday.org/2016/01/11/teacher-autonomy-in-the-classroom/) found, unsurprisingly, that we feel increasingly micromanaged thanks to a number of different factors ranging from our increasingly ridiculous regime of standardized testing, around which, more and more, everything revolves (testing is necessary, but we definitely over-test in this country by a lot) to the movement toward school privatization (vouchers, charter schools, etc.), which tends to give administrators more control, given that private schools are rarely unionized. Lack of classroom autonomy is so extreme in many cases that educators are actually given scripts. Now isn't that interesting? I mean how we get blamed for everything despite often having so little control over either school policy or what will be taught in our classrooms or how it will be taught. Isn't that interesting? We get blamed for everything by everyone, from students to parents to administrators to government officials to corporate America chomping at the bits to run everything including our schools and seemingly everyone else on Earth (it can feel like you're under siege sometimes), and yet often aren't even treated (or generally paid) like a professional. And they wonder why we have a teacher shortage in this country! The line I sometimes want to offer is that one stereotypically offered by store clerks: "Look, I don't set policy, I just work here."
But what if we did set policy?
That's the premise of a new movement going on in American education: teacher-led schools. Here's an article that guides you through an example of such an elementary school in Maine, where educators split their time between instruction and administration (http://neatoday.org/2015/12/02/teacher-led-school-educators-decide-best-students/). It showcases, among other things, how differently the students are treated. I would encourage you to read it. I think you'll immediately notice some significant differences between this and the way your typical day at elementary school probably went when you attended. And you may like them. Of course, different teacher-led schools operate differently (i.e. the details differ from case to case), but I give you this article as a snapshot of the different attitude and atmosphere that schools feature when teachers have actual control both over classroom decision-making and school policy (which are intimately related things, I think you'll find).
Personally, I think this is a great idea! Of course that may be taken as self-interested of me, but I mean it sincerely. No one cares more about the education and general empowerment of the next generation than educators! It's why we do what we do! I just wish that people would have more faith in us and trust us enough to run schools like the example highlighted above more generally rather than scapegoating us for all the country's problems.
What do you think? After reading the linked article showcasing an example of how teacher-led schools can work, do you think it's a good idea? Should there be more of these?
A recent, major nationwide survey of teachers (http://neatoday.org/2016/01/11/teacher-autonomy-in-the-classroom/) found, unsurprisingly, that we feel increasingly micromanaged thanks to a number of different factors ranging from our increasingly ridiculous regime of standardized testing, around which, more and more, everything revolves (testing is necessary, but we definitely over-test in this country by a lot) to the movement toward school privatization (vouchers, charter schools, etc.), which tends to give administrators more control, given that private schools are rarely unionized. Lack of classroom autonomy is so extreme in many cases that educators are actually given scripts. Now isn't that interesting? I mean how we get blamed for everything despite often having so little control over either school policy or what will be taught in our classrooms or how it will be taught. Isn't that interesting? We get blamed for everything by everyone, from students to parents to administrators to government officials to corporate America chomping at the bits to run everything including our schools and seemingly everyone else on Earth (it can feel like you're under siege sometimes), and yet often aren't even treated (or generally paid) like a professional. And they wonder why we have a teacher shortage in this country! The line I sometimes want to offer is that one stereotypically offered by store clerks: "Look, I don't set policy, I just work here."
But what if we did set policy?
That's the premise of a new movement going on in American education: teacher-led schools. Here's an article that guides you through an example of such an elementary school in Maine, where educators split their time between instruction and administration (http://neatoday.org/2015/12/02/teacher-led-school-educators-decide-best-students/). It showcases, among other things, how differently the students are treated. I would encourage you to read it. I think you'll immediately notice some significant differences between this and the way your typical day at elementary school probably went when you attended. And you may like them. Of course, different teacher-led schools operate differently (i.e. the details differ from case to case), but I give you this article as a snapshot of the different attitude and atmosphere that schools feature when teachers have actual control both over classroom decision-making and school policy (which are intimately related things, I think you'll find).
Personally, I think this is a great idea! Of course that may be taken as self-interested of me, but I mean it sincerely. No one cares more about the education and general empowerment of the next generation than educators! It's why we do what we do! I just wish that people would have more faith in us and trust us enough to run schools like the example highlighted above more generally rather than scapegoating us for all the country's problems.
What do you think? After reading the linked article showcasing an example of how teacher-led schools can work, do you think it's a good idea? Should there be more of these?