Comments on: Teaching children in schools: a sacred trust that demands scrutiny

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:40:00 +0000

“Matthew would you say that discussion about the way that you are compensated is not about you?”

Only tangentially. Obviously it affects me, but it’s more about what is best for my employer and how my pay and performance can be used to help advance my employer’s mission. If I’m not willing to accept the terms required to advance that mission, based on the priorities and budget constraints of the organization, then I should look for work elsewhere.

“Have you ever stopped to think about why teachers feel like they are not respected and trusted?”

Yes.

“What is wrong with the current system that fosters this atmosphere?”

Like I wrote in the post, I do think we can do much more to demonstrate gratitude and respect for teachers, including paying the good ones more, but when the legislature and others debate how to improve the entire system or individual schools I think teachers and administrators often get offended when we are merely attempting to address systemic problems and offer solutions to them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:59:00 +0000

Matthew would you say that discussion about the way that you are compensated is not about you? Regardless, you cannot have a discussion about how to benefit students and exclude the dedicated individuals who interact with them every school day. A teacher’s working conditions are a student’s learning conditions. We should not debate any of the issues you mentioned unless they have an effect on student learning.

Have you ever stopped to think about why teachers feel like they are not respected and trusted? What is wrong with the current system that fosters this atmosphere? We do need reforms, but ones that will foment collaboration among everybody, not ones that will increase the current sense of a lack of professional trust from nearly all policymakers.

By: Iteach

Iteach — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 19:27:00 +0000

Teachers are rightly afraid of adding opinions to the debate, because they will have to deal with whatever happens in school reform and there really are no protections for their speech. A well- orchestrated attack by an administrator or one or two parents will cost them their job! The truly interested parties know that school reform has ceased to be about the children and is now about politics, power, money, and a view of society exemplified the lack of morality, personal ethics and self-serving nature of certain senators who push agendas for themselves and their friends.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:48:00 +0000

They not only feel underappreciated, criticized, and abused. There is an actual atmosphere of hatred among many Utah lawmakers.
Being evaluated and receiving constructive criticism is one thing. Being blamed entirely for the ills affecting today’s children without any consideration given to the roles parents and society play in causing and curing those ills is something entirely different. With the antagonism against teachers in Utah, I am surprised any of them stay in this state.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Teachers, probably more than anyone else, realize that the debate is about “how to provide the best possible education for each individual child.” Were it not so, most would have left the profession years ago–they certainly don’t stay for the pay and working conditions.

Not sure why you imply that teachers are resistant to change. All the teachers I know are very open to change, as long as that change is based on research (not anecdotes) and leads to a quality education for ALL children. Too many proposed reforms do not meet those criteria.