You have a public school teacher in your midst, but don’t worry I am a conservative. I wore my McCain shirt to our first staff meeting. I think I’ll fit in better here than I did that day. Allow me to paint an insider’s picture for you of what I see everyday.

I teach in the suburbs of Detroit, a nice area. Detroit schools are in trouble but we are doing a little better. The biggest problem is student apathy. We as teachers do feel that a lot of that is out of our hands as they bring the attitudes they learn from home with them to school. We do our best but some teachers do get burnt out. The job description is to teach but we end up taking steps towards a parenting role and it adds a lot more to your plate. I am a Christian so I do feel that my job serves as a ministry at times. At times I’m looking out for the student’s over all well being rather than just their education. It can become draining. When I look at the successful students now and over the years I see a reoccurring theme; positive people involved in their lives. I’d say parents come first, then for me is was a spiritual guide like a youth minister, who actually was my best friend’s dad, then a coach/mentor/repeat teacher (some one they see multiple years) then finally the one time teacher. If each one of these relationships for a student is positive then student is in good shape. If student’s have most of those relationships they are doing ok. Some of the students we see don’t have the first two and then hopefully one of the last two is a positive person.

I don’t think many teachers think like I do. From what I see they are quick to blame others. I want to be clear we teachers have a role. We do have responsibility to reach these youth but we sometimes do have different qualities of students we are trying to reach.

Think of all the foul mouth coaches around. Many times these people have more access to the student than the parents and certainly a one time teacher. Coaches see students for multiple hours a day and over multiple years some times. Here’s another concern I have. About 75% of all church attending students that go on to college quit going to church. So even the students most people would not be concerned about fall away from what their family taught them.

Do the unions create an atmosphere of complacently? I think so. When I go to staff meetings, the back rows fill up first, usually by the same foul mouth coaches I spoke of earlier. What incentive do they have to even give the impression that they want to improve? Once a teacher is granted his/her tenure in my state the principal does not even observe his/her teaching any more. Their evaluations are all done via collaborative paper work. Does that happen in other industries? I wouldn’t know but I assume it doesn’t. I know of teachers that hand out worksheets and then sit in front of their computers the majority of the hour, not reaching these students at all. The principals, their bosses, are aware of this but are powerless to do anything about it, because of the strength of the union.

The union is very helpful to us teachers but we need to start looking around and acknowledge that we shouldn’t be kept high and dry when everybody around us is falling apart. We need more accountability, whether by the public or by investors like a business. We shouldn’t expect people to pay for a poor product but we should be rewarded for producing a good one.

Recently a superintendant in Washington DC proposed to double teacher’s salaries if they dropped out of the union. I would do that. I pray for that to happen. Teachers should be paid a base flat salary they can live off of and then earn the rest, like a bonus. These bonuses could be determined by extra hours put in, grades, student polls, parent polls, peer polls and then of course the principal’s review. I do want to add that consistency in staff is important and for the sake of the student it should be addressed in any new termination program. If schools had high turn over, it’s be worse that it is now. You want to keep teachers and if it means the district reaching out to them in times of professional or personal struggle it should. The district needs to incorporate that into the contracts.

There are research based initiatives the schools could implement for the students’ benefit. I’ve done some research in this area. First the schools are starting to acknowledge different learning styles and they are coining the phrase “authentic assessment” which is good. That basically means allowing students multiple ways to demonstrate that they know the material. Next the schools should acknowledge that the genders learn differently. I teach a technology course which is predominately male. I cater to that gender. There are also natural sleep cycles students have that the school day is not build around.

In my state the graduation requirement just became increasingly rigid. There is a big concern about the drop out rate rising and elective teachers losing their jobs. A lot of students enjoy school for the choices elective offer and we might be taking that away. You can leave choices and still produce good students. Isn’t that kind of how our free market works? As teachers we must take a basic skill test to enter the education program in college. Then to earn our certificate we must pass our subject area test and complete the university program. Now why can we not take that model and apply it to the schools, similar to other countries? For example, we could offer a basic diploma for completing your four years with no exit test. Then we could offer exit tests for college prep students and technical/engineering students. We are giving the students the choice instead of forcing all of them to all meet these new tough standards.

I enjoy my job but I do feel there is a community of apathy where I work. I’d say about 10 – 15% of both students and staff are apathetic. As many of you wrote and to which I agree, competition should help scare lazy teachers straight and attract motivated individuals to the profession. To be honest I feel called to this career by God but I don’t know why some of the other people around me are doing it.