"The future of the world is in my classroom today, a future with the potential for good or bad... Several future presidents are learning from me today; so are the great writers of the next decades, and so are all the so-called ordinary people who will make the decisions in a democracy. I must never forget these same young people could be the thieves and murderers of the future. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day, lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow."
--Ivan Welton Fitzwater
Teaching is the most noble profession on earth, and the most undervalued in the United States of America. During National Teacher Appreciation Week many
public school teachers find themselves under attack and being
treated like they are the enemy of the state. Some might say the
attack on public school teachers is sexist, since
the majority of teachers are women.
Although the majority of public school teachers are white women, the majority of public school students are black/brown/poor. The real problem in education aren't the teachers, unions, or a lack of testing and parental involvement,
it's the poverty.
In my local system, trained, certified public school teachers are being
replaced by untrained, non certified teachers, in predominately African American Schools.
Why?
Using the logic of the Huntsville City Board of Education, University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban should only use his youngest, most inexperienced players when his team plays a Top Ten opponent.
Anyone who pays attention to education knows that the most persistently poor-performing schools are those in impoverished neighborhoods. For example, there are nine schools in the Huntsville system where more than 90 percent of students receive free-reduced lunches. According to an analysis by the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, none of these schools have reading and math scores where all grades (three through eight) are equal to or above state average.
By comparison, of the five schools where all grades are above state average, free-reduced lunches range from 4 to 25 percent.
But in spite of this, the Board of Education plans to hire 110 Teach for America teachers over the next three years and put them in schools in poor neighborhoods. These are recent college graduates, most of whom got degrees in something other than education and will receive a five-week crash course in how to teach before being sent off to work in the city’s most challenging schools.
I don’t believe this is the way Coach Saban thinks.
It's not the way Coach Saban thinks, Coach Saban want to
WIN. That's why we pay him the big bucks. Maybe if we
funded public schools like we fund our state college football programs our public school students could be winners too. It
pays to be a State University Football coach in Alabama. Public School Teachers,
not so much.
If you want to appreciate public school teachers,
Occupy your local School Board meetings. We elect
Public School Boards who hire/fire the
Superintendents, who hire/fire the
Principals, who hire/fire the
teachers, and grant
tenure.
Educators are the Hope of the Republic. The Only Hope.
Two of
Today's Must Reads are from my tenure at
Left in Alabama before I got the boot for being uppity, be sure and read the comments.
Please, Black Parents Get Involved
Teaching vs Educating
Occupy Education
