Education Week recently ran a commentary by Teach for America corpsmember Kerry Kretchmar. Kretchmar starts out by recalling her first year teaching 32 kids in a rat-infested South Bronx basement. This is exactly the type of call-to-action that attracts young well-educated service-minded people to make a difference in the lives of poor children. It’s a great PSA for TFA. But it’s also the kind of message that we hear far too much of—the overcrowded and unsanitary classrooms and the young teachers-in-training who learn more about life than they bargained for.
It’s a battlefield story, and while most of us who work in education have some of these to share, we would be smart to leave more of these stories to our personal journals. Because the stories are predictable—invariably pointing out the worst sins of public schools while spotlighting the storyteller as a brave and insightful hero. I mean no disrespect to Kerry Kretchmar, or any of us that have written pieces just like hers. But the problem of public education–reforming teaching in particular–is not solved by describing the horrors of teaching in the worst schools, or by convincing individuals to join the cause. It will be solved by changing the conditions of one of the most complex occupations, and the largest public service workforce in the nation– most comparable in size to the U.S. military, so we don’t have to try so hard to convince and compel people to be great teachers.
Kretchmar goes on to promote TFA for its work creating good public school advocates and leaders, whether or not they are teachers. I should acknowledge here that I fully support TFA’s work—it has made and continues to make an undeniable contribution to public education, both as a direct service program and as a pipeline for education leaders of all kinds. But in fairness to the billions we are committing to recruiting and retaining effective teachers, whether or not teachers (particularly those who have proven to be quite good) stay in teaching is actually pretty important (if it weren’t, we’d be pouring money into recruiting and retaining and evaluating education consultants and policy analysts).
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5/11/2012 | Kevin Carey talks to Salon about the government's role in rising student debt.
5/8/2012 | Kevin Carey discusses the problem of rising tuition and student loan interest rates with The Nation. 
5/4/2012 | Stephen Burd talks to Education Week about student loan debt and help from Congress.
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These days teaching does not even qualify as a job….because there are no jobs for teachers. College grads expect to land a job when done with college but if you go to college to become a teacher plan to be unemployed or ;working as a substitute teacher for years and years and years with no benefits, no stability, and never enough income to even have a hope of paying off your student loans or going on a real vacation when you have those summer breaks that teacher’s covet. On those summer breaks you will be hunting for any entry level burger flipping grocery bagging daycare type job that you can get just to make endsmeat while all of the teachers with seniority whose jobs are safe get to enjoy their summers off with no worries. Yeah teaching is a great job….if you can ever land the job. Oh and my credential is in special ed. so I thought I would get a job quickly since the districts are always screaming for special ed. teachers. Ha Ha Ha….they don’t need special ed. teachers eithor!
I think teaching is an honest and a noble profession. However I transitioned to teaching from another occupation, I applied and was accepted in a career transition program at a local university. I worked in an urban school district, I interviewed and received an offer from a principal at a middle school. In the end, I had classroom management issues, most of my students were at least 3 grades behind. All of this made for an awful year. I believe working at this particular middle school is the worst assignment any teacher in this district can be given.
I believe this urban school district should recruit the very best K-5 teachers. Since new knowledge is built from prior knowledge, we have to start with the students in kindergarten by having high expectations with their school work as well with their behavior. It should be mandatory that all school district rules be followed all of the time (Principals must ensure that rules are followed consistently, this will make it easier for teachers and other staff to do their job. Principals must lead ). I know the teacher unions have been around forever, I think they have outlived their usefulness. Tenure for teachers is good concept in theory but is abused in the real world, this concept needs to be re-evaluated (This concept is pro-teacher not pro-student). Finally, the goal of public education is to educate the students today for the world tomorrow and not continue the status-quo.
“We need more than battlefield stories. We need to commit to public education as a quality work place for the long haul. Recruiting teachers is only the start. Retention and teacher growth are the real challenge.”
Sure, but education ‘as a quality work place for the long haul’ is simply inaccurate. Teachers need respect from the administration, as creative people and not simply automatons.
Quality teacher retention is critical because two-year disposable teachers don’t build institutional knowledge or quality school systems. Besides, who can continue to work for very long in an institution that allows five-year-olds to go to school in rat-infested conditions?
It is wonderful that TFA can convince energetic young college graduates to commit to teaching for two years, but if it’s just a revolving door on the way out of an elite college, it’s only a stopgap measure, not a long-term solution.
We need more than battlefield stories. We need to commit to public education as a quality work place for the long haul. Recruiting teachers is only the start. Retention and teacher growth are the real challenge.
Elena,
Teaching is the Best Job on Earth. We need to start promoting more of the positive stories. I agree with what you have stated and I believe all educators have a story to tell whether they are TFA or certified by a university’s college of education. I think at times certain good will programs tend to saturate the “education storytelling market.” Your closing reminds me of a blog entry I wrote in the summer entitled Schools Need Teachers Like Me. I Just Can Stay. (http://kdsl.wordpress.com/2009/08/14/schools-need-teachers-like-me-i-just-can-stay/) I am calling on those educators who choose to teach beyond just awhile to share their positive stories of teaching, learning, and education and share with the world why teaching is the best job on earth.
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