Why are teachers the new piñatas? Why do politicians make teachers a kind of enemy to be attacked so much?
If you believe what you read, teachers are lazy, coarse, left-wing ideologues hellbent on indoctrinating innocent kids. What bunk.
As a retired teacher, I look at my profession and I wonder about its future. And before you try to portray me as some kind of teacher apologist, let me make something clear: We need to fire bad teachers and reward the good ones. For years I’ve believed that tenure too often is an excuse some administrators use to avoid firing incompetent teachers. And too often some unions have gone to ridiculous extremes to protect the incompetent.
In my perfect world, I’d eliminate tenure — as long as there were employee protections against vindictive or incompetent administrators.
So I’m not someone who has a kneejerk reaction to criticism of education. Some of it is deserved.
But what about the attacks today?
Let’s start with an inconvenient fact: We are not going to attract what some believe are the best and brightest to the profession when currently almost half of all new teachers leave their careers within five years for something else. Salaries are part of the reason, but another compelling factor surfaces when those teachers are surveyed: A lack of support, within the school and from parents.
Some administrators have the gall to tell teachers that if kids fail, it’s solely the teachers’ fault. Even if those kids fail multiple classes. Or hardly show up for school. Or show up not having enough sleep or not having done their homework.
Teachers — and not just the new ones — have become increasingly frustrated at the apparent indifference many parents have towards their children’s educations. Not all, not most, but many. Of course, there are great parents, too, parents who take an active role in their kids’ education, hold their kids accountable. Increasingly, though, they seem to be a distinct minority.
And too often, new teachers receive little guidance in their first years. Sure, some districts will give lip service to mentoring programs, but again, too often new teachers are given a textbook, the curriculum guides and shown their rooms. After that, they’re mostly on their own.
Good luck retaining new teachers under those conditions.
And teachers are called lazy, too, the old “nine months of work followed by three months of vacation” argument. True, there is a summer vacation, though it’s far from the three months some envision. But most teachers prepare for the next year in the summertime, working on new curriculum or attending workshops.
Are there lazy teachers? You bet. And they frustrate the heck out of the rest. But most teachers work hard, during the school day, before and after. In my experience, the best teachers are at school early, work all day, and then work into the night. Each day. And on weekends, too.
For those who believe teaching is some kind of walk in the park, I’d ask them to teach for a week. Just a week. And then tell me how easy it is. The physical and mental exhaustion new teachers experience is something you can’t understand until you’ve tried it.
So enough with the “lazy teachers” with a cushy job claim. It’s bogus. And it needs to stop.
As do the attacks by the Legislature. Some try to create the mirage that school districts are at the mercy of the all-powerful teachers’ unions.
Not in Arizona, a right-to-work state that does not require binding arbitration. A school district doesn’t even have to negotiate with a union if it chooses. And if it does choose to do so, it can stop those negotiations at its pleasure.
So those who try to conjure up union bosses twisting districts’ arms to do what the bosses want are creating a useful illusion, useful for their ends.
A final point: Arizona’s about to change the fundamental content of schools, from kindergarten through high school. We are one of the states that have adopted the Common Core standards in math and English (and later, other areas). It’s a great idea in that it’ll give our country a common set of standards for our kids to attain. And the standards are more rigorous, rigor our schools need.
But this is yet another demand on teachers, a change they have to make on the fly, even as they and their kids are held accountable to the current AIMS standards. Imagine understanding, coordinating, preparing for, and incorporating the new standards even as your students are tested on the old standards. Yet that is what teachers in Arizona currently face.
Even as the Legislature creates a new evaluation system no one yet understands because, in typical legislative behavior, the system is vague and they don’t involve teachers in the process.
But soon, teachers know, yet another “new and improved” evaluation system will be used to judge their quality.
Yes, education needs to improve. We do need more great teachers. But the incessant attacks on educators only makes the serious problems even worse. It’s time for them to stop.
Mike McClellan is a Gilbert resident and former English teacher at Dobson High School in Mesa.
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k33j88 posted at 11:40 pm on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
As a former die-hard liberal, indoctrinated into all that is good and rightgeous about the progressive agenda, I know all too well when an individual has become diluted. Knowledge is good, however, implementation of the progressive thought process warps the mind, preventing a wholesome and complete interpretation. Garbage in---garbage out. I cannot reasonably expect those already biased to understand. This is the result of liberalism, destroying what has served this nation so well and replacing it with---with---it breaks my heart.
Rich posted at 7:33 pm on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
Wow, you have nothing to say, and are determined to get the last word. So I'll add to the conversation and maybe you'll pick up a gem or two. Then have it.
You know the story of Gatsby? A young best selling author marries his second choice Deb. Is an American celebrity, lives it writing magazine stories and working on his second book, his second act. When act two, The Beautiful and the Damned, bombed, he owed his agent (Harold Ober), his editor (Maxwell Perkins) and Scribner's. His wife, who would be institutionalized the last eighteen years of her life would feed him cocktails so he wouldn't write and he would pay attention to her (reference George Jean Nathan, Gertrude Stein, Max Ernst, and a year later Hemingway). For one of the most talented writers who ever lived, it got down to his soul, his psyche, and that is Gatsby. If you understand it, it is rather like standing in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and letting four walls wash madness all over you. And the kids in your class Mike who understood it, probably could care less about what you said, and about as much about Fitzgerald's style as they would about Van Gogh's brush strokes. Hence they probably didn't do well, just carry the scar. Pseudo-intellectuals are dangerous, and I've shown you how Gatsby gets used. Now, you can have the last word, I just want my candy.
Mike McClellan posted at 4:51 pm on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
When folks begin to credentialize, you can be sure of one thing: They have nothing to add to the conversation.
Rich posted at 2:14 pm on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
Mike,
Great critical thinking. It's not 'Tom and Daisy' it's B of A. Same analogy, different name.
I've written papers in a doctorate program on Fitzgerald. He was a very talented drunk who destroyed most of the people around him. All Gatsby taps into is an adolescent rebellion and his own fascination with debutantes. This 'great novel' stuff is nonsense. Gatsby is used as indoctrination. All art connects with us, Picasso no less, nor more than Fttzgerald. The connection is emotional, not rational, and individual. Hemingway, Steinbeck, along with Fitzgerald are often used this way, as are Conrad and many others. It is simply people twisting art into shapes they want to impress on children. Gatsby was never really a success until it was used that way. This Side of Paradise was the only successful novel of his lifetime. The rest rather sad anachronisms by their publication date.
We tend to deify artists, and often when we don't immediately, they suffer fates like those of Carravagio or Van Gogh, or even Fitzgerald, who drank himself to death at forty-four. What they portray is a bit of madness we share, gratuitous creations of things, we are the only known things in the universe that do that. To twist children with that connection is indoctrination, to take their creation and twist it to your own ends. Not that it is uncommon, those who can do, those who can't...?
Of course, on Christianity, showing my age, when I went to school we had 'released time' once a week to go to classes at our own churches and or temples. The thing that sticks in my mind was actually the kids who went to Hebrew school. But then I am apparently a bit older than you. I guess the 'retirement' thing tripped me up. I still work. Should have taken a government job I guess.
Mike McClellan posted at 9:23 am on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
First, as to Rich's Gatsby analogy to somehow prove socialism exists in Arizona classrooms, that the teacher could use Gatsby to indoctrinate the kids into thinking that the government should tax those careless wealthy people:
His analogy is off the mark; if anything, the analogy to today would be more along the lines of the "vast carelessness" of the financial services industry, how so many of them actually made money -- and plenty -- on losses incurred by investors who were told that the investments they made were solid. Told by the careless financial services people who knew many of those investments were junk. The same people who then "retreated into their wealth" after the "car crash" of our economy.
And if Rich indeed is looking for an analogy to today, he should reread the novel more carefully to find the many ways it connects to us all. And always will, since like all great novels -- new and old -- Fitzgerald taps into the eternal within us.
Nice try, Rich.
As to k33, he defends gross generalizations by making more of them. k33, since you work in a school district, you should be able to cite the systemic socialism in that district.
So please cite some specifics. You might be right, as far as I know. But without specifics, you are just making claims.
But here's where I get confused about the socialism of public schools -- in the last 36 years of public schools, the presence of Christianity has actually increased in our schools. How so? Take a look at all the Christian-related clubs in Arizona's (and America's) junior high and high schools. Until about 5 years ago, the school where I taught had 3 active Christian clubs; it still has two. And that is the norm for most schools these days. And that's not even including the period each day many LDS kids have to take seminary.
Almost 50 years ago -- when I was in high school -- there were no Christian clubs. So if education has become increasingly socialist, why is there so much more of a visible Christian presence in high schools? Seems contradictory.
JMJ posted at 8:29 am on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
"Take a stroll down any public school hallway, keep an open mind, utilize your "critical thinking skills", and keep an objective viewpoint. Diversity, political correctness, muti-culturism, these are but just a few of the tools necesary to promote the progressive agenda. Community activisim, separation of church/state, and collectivism are all apparent in the writings of these public educated children."
k33j88, Just curious. What would your 'solution' to this very normal, in my view, scenario encompass? Non-diversity? Political incorrectness [see my posts, above, they are anything but PC to the faint of heart, and I am proud to have a brain and state the obvious about what really is lacking in our public schools--namely, leadership]; unobjective viewpoints; community inactivism [a common denominator in a complacent society, seriously, unless people join, en masse, protests that provide no solutions, just grou- think and sound bites and camera-shots on the 6 o'clock news, especially lately...,]; non-separation of church/state...? I think these opposite of all of your points to support a "progressive" agenda...? What's your opposite? A Taliban-like [substitute Judeo/Christian] agenda wherein students are only given one sided viewpoints that conform only to one slice of a non-multicultural society?'
There is plenty wrong with public education, but censorship and tailoring a curriculum to leave out great literature and multiple viewpoints is not the answer. Is math too progressive, too? No worries. Our kids are not math-whizzes--who needs math to Bible-thump?
Why are you teaching in a public school?
Of course, the Bible will not be taught in public schools. The seminaries that abut all public school campuses in the East Valley so that it's easy to just cross the lawn to be indoctrinated during school time is there for all the PC, 'right-thinking, choose the right' students. But, JROTC is also available for some of the students who actually will join our military and try to save us from...the other taliban.
Not that there's anything wrong with our current war. Which all three of my kid and their friends are fighting or have fought so you can be free to walk down a hallway and judge the progressive agenda.
Progressive and liberal are easy tags for anyone to apply--what is your solution? People are way more complex thinkers, and dumbing down the curriculum and narrowing viewpoints that are presented are how "we" get the crummy system we have, currently, which is run by a bunch of PC people who play the game, are not qualified and end up ruining a good thing.
Did I miss your point?
k33j88 posted at 7:06 am on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
Please accept my apologies for not completing my sentences. I meant to say that the biased teachings are apparent in the arts and sciences as well. Thank you.
k33j88 posted at 7:02 am on Sat, Mar 31, 2012.
Gross generalizations? I see in your post that you're retired. First and foremost, let me be clear. Teachers, policemen, firefighters, and yes, veterans all have contributed greatly and deserve the respect and admiration for their unselfish deeds and acts. There are exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking, they are MY heroes. Let's touch on the topic of socialism. Being currently employed by the Arizona school district, I see this on a daily basis. Acadamia is rife with the liberal teachings that have been the basis of molding our young impressionable minds. Progressive(liberal) thought has/is played a major role these past few decades. Take a stroll down any public school hallway, keep an open mind, utilize your "critical thinking skills", and keep an objective viewpoint. Diversity, political correctness, muti-culturism, these are but just a few of the tools necesary to promote the progressive agenda. Community activisim, separation of church/state, and collectivism are all apparent in the writings of these public educated children. Take some time, Mike, and delve into the writings of some of these indoctrinated minds. These trends are obvious to the trained mind. artwork as well.
Rich posted at 9:49 pm on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
Aren't we a bunch of Catholic school kids. Of course you sort of expect that here. Public educations haven't produced a whole lot of literate people. However, I looked at this to answer Mike.
Let's talk F. Scott, Mike. I mean something that isn't quite so obvious as teaching A Farewell to Arms, and The Grapes of Wrath, all the while encouraging 'critical thinking'. F. Scott is a bit more interesting especially Gatsby. Let's look “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess …” The rich? And who was Daisy's adulterous lover? A criminal? A man who so wanted to be like Tom and Daisy he used his ill-gotten gains to re-create himself? And could only get as far as the other side of the bay? Now kiddies, let's critical think this a bit. Oh, you understand Fitzgerald? Aren't you smart. Adultery is fine if it's a classic love story. Gatsby is classic tragedy, isn't it? Think critically now kiddies. This is the rich and the nouveau riche, of course to be the second you have to cut a few corners. Wouldn't it be better if the government took all the money from all the careless rich like Tom and Daisy? The nouveau riche, who cut corners? Of course it would, you are so good at thinking critically.
Just in one book S - S - S.
JMJ posted at 8:33 pm on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
Leon, your mental illness is showing.
I went to Catholic School and so did you. Are you a complete loon? Pedophilia, buddy. The Catholic Church. Need I say more? My grandchildren are in a Catholic School System, now, and I still worry about them being priest bait, but it's not in Phoenix, where the good [?] former Bishopric [LOL, I LOVE THAT WORD] ignored the abuse of children and reassigned the criminal priests to other parishes to abuse another day.
Don't even go there, buddy, about teachers. In my years as a educator, pedophilia came up, but not at the hands of teachers. It was caregivers who abused the children, not the teachers.
I don't even know why I am bothering to answer you. Go find your Prozac.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 6:06 pm on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
All I know is that when I was going to Grammer School and High School that when mothers (yes, they were know as mothers back then and proud to be called that too) went through their school-age children's clothes.........they weren't looking for .......FORENSIC EVIDENCE.
Moms didn't have to put their children's underwear through a ....BODY FLUID....check like they have to do........because of.....TODAY'S TEACHER SEXUAL ABUSE.
Moms didn't have to check out Johnnie's or Jill's neck to see if there were any.....ADULT-SIZED......HICKEY'S (LOVE BITES).
Parents didn't have to.....MONITOR....their children's phone calls, notebooks back then like the parents of Today have to....MONITOR....emails and twits and tweeter and phone messages to see if their ..........TEACHERS....are sending them...."LOVE MESSAGES"...or making .............ASIGNATIONS....to meet some where for.....S.E.X.
So excuse me for not jumping on the.....POOR-PICKED-ON-ME....TEACHER BANDWAGON !!!
JMJ posted at 4:26 pm on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
Leon, I am just curious as to what your profession was during your life's work.
You use isolated incidents of people who clearly should not be in a profession where kids are the whole reason for teachers [who really do care] to be in a classroom in the first place. I have known only three fingers of a handful of hundreds of teachers who should not have been teachers, but those three were nothing like the ones in the article about Florida.
Please let me know what your profession was [I am assuming you're retired because you're always commenting on everything all the time, 24/7].
Get a life, Leon.
Of those three fingers on that handful of teachers in the wrong profession that I knew, the middle one would also be for you, Leon.
Mike McClellan posted at 10:02 am on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
k33 also perpetuates another gross generalization -- "The 3 "R's" have been replaced by the 3 "S'es"----socialism, self-esteem, sexuality. "
He's right, of course, about the self-esteem movement. And that movement, unfortunately, has been a part of all of our culture, not just isolated in schools.
But as to "socialism and sexuality" -- I'd ask k33 to provide evidence of either in Arizona schools. That is, there is no systemic teaching of either socialism or "sexuality" (whatever he means by that) in Arizona schools.
He could cite the Raza program in Tucson, and I'd agree that there was clear left-wing indoctrination in that program. But even that one was not district-wide.
So beyond that one isolated program, what would k33 cite as "socialism" in Arizona schools?
Mike McClellan posted at 9:58 am on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
The answer to Leon's "question" -- "HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF ARIZONA TEACHERS HAVE BEEN SENT TO PRISON LATELY FOR HAVING SEX WITH 12-17 YEAR OLD STUDENTS?" -- is "A handful."
In fact, I'll betcha there are more guys named "Leon" in America's prisons serving time for sex crimes than there are teachers.
Wanna take the bet, Leon?
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:28 am on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
Just read another....."TEACHER ABUSE"....story on Yahoo.
Florida special needs student with cerebral palsy was coming home from school depressed. A neighborhood playmate told his mother that he was being harassed in school. She put a voice-activated tape recorder in his wheelchair bag and listened in shock and disgust as her son's teacher and teaching assistant berated him for "drooling all over the paper". The boy was only spoken to by the teacher and the teaching assistant to yell at him and never spoken to again the rest of the day. The teacher and teaching assistant were put on "administrative leave (still getting paid)" and then brought back (by their teachers union) to teach again a day later. The parents of the other students rose up and demanded the School Board put them back on administrative leave over the objections of the teacher's union rep and the school priniciple...............SO MUCH FOR OUR WONDERFUL, DEDICATED AND LOVING TEACHERS.
SPEAKING OF "LOVING" TEACHERS......HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF ARIZONA TEACHERS HAVE BEEN SENT TO PRISON LATELY FOR HAVING SEX WITH 12-17 YEAR OLD STUDENTS..........AND IT'S NOT JUST THE YOUNG GIRLS WHO SUFFERED THIS ABUSE BY MALE TEACHERS...........BUT FEMALE TEACHERS ARE IN THE NEWS ALL THE TIME TOO........HAVING SEX WITH YOUNG TEEN-AGE MALE STUDENTS IN THE CLASSROOM OR THEIR CAR AFTER SCHOOL.
DO THESE ......"CHILD MOLESTING TEACHERS"...GET FIRED......HECK NO..........THEY ARE PUT ON..........."PAID ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE"...FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS UNTIL THEY ARE LED AWAY TO PRISON.
PARENTS NOT ONLY HAVE TO ASK ....LITTLE JOHNNIE AND LITTLE JILL...HOW THEY DID IN SCHOOL THAT DAY............BUT PARENTS HAVE TO ASK.......LITTLE JOHNNIE AND LITTLE JILL......WERE THEY ....SEXUALLY ABUSED BY THEIR TEACHERS............EVERYDAY NOW TOO !!!!
k33j88 posted at 7:40 am on Fri, Mar 30, 2012.
Left-wing idealogues? Most, not all, fit nicely into this mold. Our Christian/Judean roots have all but dissappeared from our cirriculum. Statism rules the day. The supposedly "critical thinkers" mantra that the school board embraces is a facade. The 3 "R's" have been replaced by the 3 "S'es"----socialism, self-esteem, sexuality. Lack of support you say? Not to worry---the feds will see that the graduates are molded to accept community activism, embrace liberalism, and learn to reject rugged individualism. Any hint of conservatism will be rejected and deminished through a through thought process. Political correctness, diversity, and a rejection of christian values must rule the day. The liberal agenda will always support these core values by any and all means necessary, grant monies are no object. A perfect example is the "no child left behind" and the "aims" project, not including pre-school programs. All these, and much more, require cash infusions to impose the liberal agendas, which the feds seems to have an endless supply. On top of all this is the "Constitutionality" of the Dept of Education. This is big gov't gone wild----without the mardi gra beads.
concernedcitizen posted at 9:54 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
I agree with Mike and with El Guapo's replies to everyone.
By the way, to clear the record, the # of days of learning in Arizona has increased since a lot of us were in school, there are only 2 months of "summer vacation," not 3. And though I may only work on average 5 hours a week towards my job, the rest of the year I'm spending an average of 2-3 hours per night outside of the 8-9 hours a day I work, plus other school functions that take up at least another 5 hours a month on top of that schedule. The weeks we get off during the year for fall break and spring break are needed so I can catch up on my lesson planning and get a breather in order to be at my best again for the students when they come back.
Teaching is an exhausting, demanding, emotionally-draining job that requires, when done correctly, almost every ounce of energy, thought-process, and stamina you have. My family often gets the leftovers of these things when I get home.
Also, as a teacher, my "cadillac" health insurance is anything but. I don't have dental or vision, we can barely afford health insurance for my wife, but that is $350/month out of pocket for us that we don't have, we just spent $3000 in dental care for her, most of that financed. I have a masters degree and have worked my tail off to get the meager pay I am at right now.
I'm worth a LOT more than what I am paid, and I could make a ton more in the private sector because I'm extremely intelligent, have integrity, work hard, etc. etc. etc. But I teach. Why? Like El Guapo, I teach because I make a difference in the lives of children, children who may have been abused in various ways, children who may have had the best upbringing imaginable, children who come to school and school lunch is the only meal they get in the day, etc. I teach because I care about the future, and I'm willing to give up the "luxuries" of life (like the cadillac insurance, why don't you talk to politicians about that one Leon?? They're the ones that seem to have that, not educators!) in order to help students have a brighter future.
In response to politicians and their lack of knowledge of what is going on in education currently, I'd like to offer the following link that was shown a few months before Huppenthal was elected. It says a lot about who he is to me. I will let you judge for yourself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz4cO3DzPc4
Daddyburger posted at 9:17 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
Mike:
Good article! I usually do not agree with your opinions when they broach a subject outside of education. Many of your points about the current state of affairs in education are quite valid. As a retired middle school principal I can attest to the fact that the teacher's organizations have negotiated policies that make it very difficult to dismiss incompetent teachers. I once told another principal that it would probably be easier to follow a teacher you wanted dismissed and try to catch them doing something illegal rather than taking two or three years to complete an "improvement plan" that you knew would most likely fail to get them dismissed.
I have another take, however, on the reason for a decline in the competence of today's teachers. When I was in school (oh boy, here it comes) the brightest and best educated women became teachers. Growing up I had some terrific women teachers. The brightest and best educated men became doctors, lawyers, engineers, scientists, etc. Women have made great strides in the "professions"--and rightly so. Now women are the equal of men in these areas. With this improved opportunity for women, education has suffered by no longer being able to attract the best minds to education. I could be very wrong about this, but it is my opinion based on experiences as both student and educator.
El Guapo posted at 4:12 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
Mike,
Amen.
Rich,
How do you figure they are overpaid?
Leon,
My "3 months" of summer "vacation" are spent teaching summer school. And, since that is not enough, I also teach evening classes twice a week. Getting "paid for 12 months [and working] for less than 7 months" doesn't mean squat when the salary is below poverty level (even for 7 months).
VofReason
Amen.
All,
Yet, I still teach because I think I could be making a difference for some (even if it's just one). I keep putting up with the "must be nice to have summers off" comments, because I love my job. I can't stand all of the administration and being told how to teach by people that have never been in the classroom, yet I stick with it for them - your children.
DemocraticDad posted at 2:10 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
I have been an educator since 1971. I fully agree with Mike's original piece as well as his comment on home schooling. What we are experiencing in education is the result of over 30 years of non-educators (people who have NEVER spent a day in a classroom teaching kids) making educational decisions. Arizona is a shining example of this. John Huppenthal, the current Superintendent of Public Instruction, as well as Tom Horne, the prior one, are both non-educators who have NEVER, NEVER, NEVER worked in education. They have NO idea of what really happens in the trenches, yet they make the key decisions concerning what is important in educating the children of Arizona. How LUDICROUS! Would we put someone whose background is sanitation in charge of running a hospital and directing what physicians should, and should not, be doing? The downward spiral will continue until educators are once again those making the decisions about what is most important in educating our children.
VofReason posted at 1:30 pm on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
Administration should be greatly reduced. Support should be contracted out. I think Teachers should get paid what they are worth and have a 401K match for retirement. They should also get benefits similar to the private sector and pay their fair share of it. They should be employed 12 months a year and the out of classroom time should be (paid) training that increases their abilities to teach. Kids that don't do homework, pay attention, follow directions or show up should have to go to tent city. That will set them straight.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:38 am on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
What better example of the........."ENTITLEMENT MENTALITY".....of our local teachers that what one of them said.
"IN THE PAST 4 YEARS IN MESA THE TEACHERS HAVE NOT HAD A RAISE".
Hello,....could we have a...."REALITY CHECK" please ???
IN THE PAST 4 YEARS.........14 MILLION AMERICANS HAVE NOT HAD.......JOBS.........MUCH LESS A RAISE.
JUST WHO DO THESE ..."PART-YEAR TEACHERS".....at......"FULL YEAR SALARIES"...............THINK THEY ARE ??????
JMJ posted at 9:06 am on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
Try NO YEARS IN THE CLASSROOM with a PE background, and knowing the "right" people--wink, wink, wink, wink.
Mesa runs from anyone who actually might make a difference as a leader, and promotes idiots who will just do whatever they're told. These administrators have zilch credibility.
Mesa leadership does a disservice to its students and its teachers. Status quo doesn't cut it. My kids would never be in a Mesa school if they were school-aged, now, and my grandkids are not enrolled in Mesa, either.
What's funny is that Mesa leadership still thinks it's the flagship district in the state. They torpedoed themselves a long, long time ago.
I got out at 80 points for the same reason you're stating: Had I stayed longer, none of my years would have helped my retirement--my income went down, and it was a dimishing returns issue to stay, and then retire at less.
gpinion posted at 8:47 am on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
I came from a large company that had a management structure that may have had its flaws but compared to the school systems admininstration they are a lifetime ahead in the evolution cycle of operating a large organizations.
I believe there is a reason that they are called administrators and not managers. The school system promotes from within to become principals and superintendants. This allow people with no managerial or political experience to become the voice of education for the states. The qualification for these positions is a measly three years in the classroom.
We are all aware of how their voice influences the legislature when they compete with lawyers and politicians to obtain rights and funding for teachers. They are out educated and out classed, and virtually ignored.
Here is a fact for those of you that believe teachers are more than properly compensated.
In the past 4 years in Mesa the teachers have not had a raise. Typical of the industry. However in Mesa those years also do not count in the salary or retirement schedule.
This is unheard of in the industry. When funding once again becomes available industry people will continue with their proper years of service recognized and compensated for. Teachers will have 4 years of on the job service not recognized and never to be compensated for.
Mike I am currently at your High School and will more than likely move on with my two decades of industry experience and leave the teaching to recent college graduates.
Irons1 posted at 6:58 am on Thu, Mar 29, 2012.
There are no unions in Arizona that have any power. There is an association in Mesa and it doesn't even have to make the school board negotiate with them. You people who are constantly complaining about teacher's unions do NOT know the facts. The MEA has very little to no effect on what happens between teachers and the administration. Of course, it is easier to spout the tea party garbage than to bother to see and research the truth, isn't it?
chatmandu002 posted at 9:47 pm on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
Mike,
The teachers are getting the piñata treatment because we are seeing the results of their work at the OWS protests or the failing reports of our public schools. Although the teachers aren't the only reason for this failure, they are the most visible. Especially, when their union's are demanding more pay and benefits from the public coffers.
Mike McClellan posted at 4:42 pm on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
Just one point of clarification vis a vis mnjcpa's comment:
"All you need to do is look at the scores and achievements of home schooled children to see that the Government has corrupted the education model."
That comment is another canard of those who attack public schools -- only 24 states require any testing of homeschooled students. Arizona isn't one of them. So "evidence" that home schooled kids are somehow superior to public schools just doesn't exist, particularly since most of the states that do require testing don't publish those results.
Any evidence mnjcpa can provide is anecdotal. That's not to say that home schooling as an option is bad -- for some kids, it's probably a better idea. And many of those kids can get a better education than they might in a public school. No argument there.
But please don't make a claim that can't be proven: You will not find any reputable study that makes the claim mnjcpa does.
Cerulean posted at 11:22 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
The internet is so fascinating! I am not familiar with Descartes or Wittgenstein, so all I need do is type in a query and within SECONDS information on each is available. To me, that is super fabulous. That has only been ‘true’ for the second half of my life. What that means for the future of education is yet to be unveiled.
Rich, 1+1 is two, but not always. And Darwin’s theory of the evolution of species on the planet earth and the theories of the beginnings of the known universe are not mutually exclusive.
JMJ, Someone I knew well, retired from MPS thirty years ago and what you speak of is true and has been true for a long time.
JMJ posted at 10:49 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
Leon, AZ has started getting what is pays for, education-wise. You have missed the point, as usual. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 10:22 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
Mike,
"Why are teachers the new pinatas???"
Get paid for 12 months work for less than 7 months out of the year
Let me count the ways;
1. 3 months Summer Vacation
2. 2 weeks Christmas Vacation
3. 1 week Easter Vacation
4. 2 weeks paid Vacation
5. 11 paid Holidays
6. 7-10 days paid sick days
On top of all of the days they get paid.......NOT TO WORK.....how about the "Cadillac Health, Hospitalization, Dental and Vision Benefits"....the "Caviar Retirement Health Benefits for Life".....the "Golden Parachute Pension Plan".
And do our "Los Dorados" ...our ..."Golden Ones".......thank the Arizona Tax-Payer who has none of the above...'BENE-IES".............the answer is a big fat..."N.O.".
THE TEACHERS ARE WHINNING EVERY TIME YOU TURN ON PBS-ASU'S CHANNEL 8 .."HORIZON" and..."HORIZONTE" TV SHOW = no raises in the past 3 years, no extra "bene-ies" in the past 3 years...being forced to pay ...5%...toward their...."GOLDEN PARACHUTE PENSION"......and being held...."ACCOUNTABLE" ...for their proficiency or lack their of.............................WOW.....WHY ARE THE... MEANIES IN THE LEGISLATURE AND THE PTA AND THE PARENTS OF THEIR STUDENTS......"PICKING ON THEM" AND MAKING THEM THE ...........PINATAS DU JOUR ??????
WAAAAAAAH....WAAAAAAH...WAAAAAAH
chuckles3 posted at 8:28 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
Nice post Rich. Mcclellan- I thought it was Wall Street , the Tea Party and evil Conservatives Who want to take away your Birth Control whom were the new pinatas.
I don't see news stories about lazy, incompetent teachers daily-just the above topics.
mnjcpa posted at 7:46 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
All you need to do is look at the scores and achievements of home schooled children to see that the Government has corrupted the education model. My grandchildren won't set foot in a public school so they can be given a fair chance to learn, dream, and innovate and I'm with anyone that wants to completely revamp the system - including eliminating the Dept of Education - and start over with a new model that pays teachers and administrators for performance.
JMJ posted at 12:31 am on Wed, Mar 28, 2012.
When our own former district didn't address graduation rates until recently with the "Mesa Counts on College" program, funded through the Gates Foundation, I see the degradation of education as a top-down problem, in Mesa particularly. The administrators in Mesa are still part of the good ole boy system. The head charlatan picks his friends to take positions for which they are not competent. Our former female head of HR would tell gals to "straighten your hair" and things of that nature to have the "Mesa Look" to be another dumb administrator with the right real estate. Trying to get promoted in Mesa was, and remains, a popularity contest. Puppets, in particular, are welcomed with open arms. Some who played the game were having affairs, and so were just moved to other places to bide their time, do their penance, and get another school back. Cough, Dobson. How does that happen when others haven't had affairs and are overlooked?
Teacher morale is in the crapper, and it's because teachers are being "lead" by unqualified appointees within a corrupt system. People who do and did care, and dedicated too many hours, weekends, summers, "vacations" [what 'vacations'??], are leaving as soon as they hit their 80 points because there's no fighting city hall, or other institutions in Mesa....
So glad my own kids did not go into education. They saw, for years, what it meant in loss of time spent with family, summers spent getting professional development out of state because our own district did not offer meaningful certification hours--the SSRC classes were not exactly professional development, sorry. In America, if you work hard and have the correct credentials and work ethic, you get ahead. Not in Mesa.
The ESL regs were constantly being revamped, and more and more and more was demanded to stay in a profession that throws out the baby with the bathwater. Now, it's "common core curriculum", which really is a good idea, but don't ask my former "administrator" to prounounce those three words. She has trouble with two syllable, four letter words.
At national education conferences, I was emabarassed to even say I was from Arizona.
"Top tier" college students do not go into education, according to Arizona's latest guru, Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel, who has a stake in the Basis Charters, wherein students are asked to leave if they're not up to snuff. We in the public school trenches do not get to pick and choose our students. We take whomever shows up at the door--even if it's after lunch, day after day after day when school starts at 7:45 a.m. Then, hold us accountable on AIMS for kids who don't even come to school, don't do homework, and whose parents never even show up to meet the teacher--in grade school.
The odds are stacked against teachers on myriad levels. Watching school buses go by in the morning is a sad thing for me--I miss what was good about the profession. Dedicated teachers, parents who cared about their kids' educations, kids who wanted to learn and tried their darndest. I worked hard and enjoyed doing so to do the best job I could.
Education is a sinking ship, any more, and what a laugh--the "union" is not a "union", and it's a toothless dog, all bark and no bite, when the legislature greases the wheels to get rid of teachers with no tenure. There's no guarantees to protect the great ones [forget the crummy ones--I agree, they need to go] because lousy, incompetent, fraudulent administrators will do anything to get rid of someone who really knows the score.
Because, just like on the playground, these appointed imposters take exception to those who show them up.
A house of cards on a foundation of quicksand is what I'd call the leadership in Mesa, particularly. Keep hiring your friends. It's just soooo effective. NOT!
Rich posted at 9:48 pm on Tue, Mar 27, 2012.
Cerulean,
Strange, not really, just logic. Darwin and the Big Bang, both of which we teach high school students are mutually exclusive. We don't know, Half of what I learned in high school, I had to unlearn. We teach people right and wrong, a way of thinking, when we don't know how in the first place. It needs a base, one and one is two. Is it true,? We don't know. Why is it true? Go from Descartes to Wittgenstein and you still don't know. We do need a base, not people teaching the story of a rich girl and her adulterous lover, just because the author was a genius, a Pat Hobby story would do. The idea is that we don't know, but this is where we are, You get to that point and you don't need to kill other people over what you don't know.
Cerulean posted at 9:24 pm on Tue, Mar 27, 2012.
Mike, I applaud your letter.
I hate to say it, but I think it has to do with the fact that teaching is a traditional female role and the religious right of the Republican Party love to attack women. Every single time the State has budget woes, education is the first cut.
The sad part is that many times women do not unite for rights as equal citizens.
Rich, “evolution isn't possible in a devolving system or vice-versa.”
That was a strange thing to say.
mnjcpa posted at 4:53 pm on Tue, Mar 27, 2012.
Wow Rich - that's a perfect commentary of the problems with Big Government education. Right on!
Rich posted at 4:11 pm on Tue, Mar 27, 2012.
Don't think it's just special interest groups. Public education is a rubric for what has happened to modern society and modern government. It's a rather unmanageable, unwieldy and ineffective bureaucracy, with hideous expenses that grows even when you try to trim it back. Like government, like entitlements, like everything else we seem to have done since the second World War. We've 'improved' it to death, until it is worth a good deal less than it once was. Teachers a target? Sure, they are, most often the ones dealing directly with the public. Furthermore they are overpaid, and a great many just frankly incompetent. Until you get into higher education, it isn't a profession, it's an entry level job from which you are supposed to progress. There is no high school subject that cannot be effectively taught after a year of college. And leaving people to do it until retirement is asking for teachers like Mike here, whose students missed modern literature entirely.
These are children who need a firm basis. Some really need a much better education in high school in things they might be good at, we need plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, and increasingly that's a private sector thing. Science and math? Most people only need a basis in it, which they're not getting. Most people grow up now believing in both the Big Bang and evolution, completely ignoring that evolution isn't possible in a devolving system or vice-versa.
If you stick to the basics, teach a solid back ground, teaching is an entry level job for kids. Why do teachers become targets? Because they stay in school, don't progress, stall the progress of society, the arts, the culture, and cost us a fortune.
asuaguila posted at 2:14 pm on Tue, Mar 27, 2012.
You are right on and the result is the objective for the groups that support charters, school vouchers, and home school their kids. The public school system is one of the essential elements that made the United States such a great nation over the last one hundred years. And now special interest groups are tearing it down in less than one generation.