COMMENTARY

DR. DENISE TALIAFERRO BASZILE

THE TRUTH

“A Piece of Our Minds”

Teachers, don’t you absolutely hate it when the stock broker or the car salesman or the accountant or even your own beautician sits next to you and complains about how the problem with public schooling is bad teachers?

Complaints about teachers have  always been somewhat of an issue since many folks buy into the idea that because they have gone to school all their lives, they know what it takes to be a good teacher, and it’s not really all that much. Lately, however, this bad teacher narrative has gone viral. In the last couple of years there has been a rash of magazine and newspaper articles (Newsweek, Time, and the Wall Street Journal among others) reiterating and reinforcing this highly problematic and fundamentally misleading narrative. And let’s not forget the latest and perhaps most powerful performance in this ongoing drama—Waiting for Superman—which brings to light some painful truths about the malfunctioning of public schooling, but pivots just a little too much on the assumption that the primary and most pressing problem in public schooling is bad teachers protected by bad union practices.  As a teacher of teachers, I find that the  most difficult aspects of their assumption for me to swallow are the ways in which this bad teacher narrative is used to push policies that use tyranny or corporate incentive models to scare/ motivate people into good teaching, never mind that it would be good teaching in a fundamentally outdated, if not tragically flawed, system. I am most frustrated with the fact that all of this does, in fact, have many new teachers scared to death, not sure how to stand up for themselves much less for the wellbeing of their students. So I just want to give, in the few paragraphs that follow,  the politicians and the rest of the non-teacher public, a glimpse into our worlds, a piece of our minds, a serious response to the out of control bad teacher narrative, and as such hope you find the some encouragement to talk back or maybe even just the gumption to quietly drop these words in the mailboxes of those who need to hear them.

First, let’s just start with the fact that there are indeed some really bad teachers in the system. I know there are some, because I have seen them and witnessed their devastating impact. So it is indeed a fairly reasonable fact to offer. Doubtless, there are ineffective people in every line of work, and sometimes they are fired and sometimes they are not. And sometimes such people are not only not fired but also rewarded with  unimaginably large material rewards, far greater than we anything we would consider possible even for the most brilliant of teachers, despite the fact that they have a large part of the responsibility for nurturing and developing our most priceless resources—our children.  So conceding that there are bad teachers is no problem, but it doesn’t make sense to do so without thinking about how much of a problem bad teachers really are. In other words are they 100% of the problem or 3% of the problem? I venture to say that there are many, many more good hardworking yet unsupported teachers than there are truly bad ones.

Moreover, who exactly is a bad teacher? Is it the teacher who achieves outstanding test scores but makes a regular habit of calling kids dumb, and instilling fear? Or is it the teacher who is a shining star in the affluent upper middle class school district, but would be a shamefully hopeless failure in the urban school where 90% of the children are on free and reduced lunch? Or is it the teacher who has come and given her all, who has built good relationships with parents, who has extended herself beyond reason to her struggling students, who has high expectations for her students, but has not been able to get the majority of her six graders (many of whom who have been passed along in previous grades) to pass the tests? Or is it the teacher who came in with untold energy and inspiration, but with each passing year the bureaucratic bottom line has stolen more and more of her spirit, her drive, her effectiveness?  Such questions ought to draw our attention to the fact that when we talk about teacher quality in political/public conversation we are almost always tying that to test scores. While no sane person would argue against the importance of teacher accountability, an astute one should surely want to know how accountability is being measured and to what extent that measure reflects teacher quality. When teacher quality and effectiveness are determined solely by test scores, then we are sure to lose just as many good teachers as we are to retain truly bad ones.

Secondly, another way that this bad teacher narrative operates is to create an either/or situation: Either you are against the union which protects bad teachers or you are for the union and  support  retaining bad teachers. While we should certainly invest no energy in pretending that union practices that protect truly bad, ineffective teachers are acceptable under any circumstances, we should also realize the potential consequences of having no union at all, especially given that our society has the Hollywood inspired impression  that a good teacher should be willing to lay down her life, cut off her right arm and sell a kidney to ensure that all 36 six of her very different students learn the same thing, in the same way, all at the very same time, despite whatever else might be going on in their lives.  And thanks to movies like Dangerous Minds, Freedom Writers, and The Ron Clark Story that celebrate the untold sacrifices of middle class White teachers for the wellbeing of the poor Black and Brown kids, this reality is far more problematic for teachers of color, who get no such recognition for the tireless work they do in their own communities. It might be wise to consider fighting for reform of union practices rather than obliterating teacher unions all together. Such a maneuver might encourage the system to further exploit teachers unchecked.

Third, the bad teacher narrative gives the public the perception that bad teachers are  the major problem with public schooling. However, it is just one more narrative in the line of many that tries to convince the public that it is one thing or another that is causing the decline in public schooling. The significant improvement that we say we are committed to will not be the result of fixing a problem or two, here or there. We have to imagine a much more holistic approach, confronting the core idea of public schooling and then asking of every aspect whether it lines up with our goals, with our hopes for public schooling or whether it just maintains a system without serious quality checks?  The bad teacher narrative, or the bad parents narrative, or the unteachable, poor kid narrative is a scapegoat, one that obscures the extent to which the public school system and its massive bureaucracy concerned first and foremost with the bottom line and not necessarily or unwaveringly with the education of our children is not in need of reform, but in need of revolutionary rebuilding. Just think about it, if we were truly committed to public schooling for the common good, then our first order of business would be to equalize funding across the entire system, where all buildings were safe, vibrant and conducive to inspiring learning. We would not be satisfied until all schools had the same basic up to date resources, until all schools offered the same base line salary, or until those teachers working in much more difficult environments were compensated accordingly. Of course, we all know that money can’t solve all problems, but please let’s not pretend that it is of no importance at all. It just might be a good place to start.

One final point that often does not get teased out in this conversation is the one regarding the effectiveness of teacher education programs. Now I certainly would agree that I think there are some serious issues with teacher education programs, whole programs that don’t prepare teachers in the way that they need to be prepared to take on, especially, diverse urban school environments. As someone who has worked inside such programs, it is important to note that what is being done in these programs is often not what teacher-educators choose to do; it is what the state mandates them to do.  The focus is largely on methods mastery, with very little attention to other imperative skills that are just as, if not more, important than content mastery. These might include the ability to build effective relationships with students, parents and colleagues. It might include knowing something about the cultural and historical circumstances of the population of children you are likely to be teaching. Given that we are indeed, whether we recognize it or not, a multilingual nation, it might include learning a language other than standard American English. It might include opportunities to build solidarity with various stakeholders in the community where one might be teaching.  It might include understanding youth culture and the ways their lives outside of school and home might impact the learning process. Given that we are a media saturated society, it might also include some focus on understanding how media engagement impacts learning and how we might start valuing and teaching critical reading skills that extend beyond books and take on television, movies, internet, and other media texts.  All of these get nixed or simply never see the light of day, not even in our wildest dreams, unless teacher educators manage to shove them in between the 20 methods or methods like courses required by accrediting bodies empowered by state legislators, many of whom make decisions and then demands based on the results they want to see, not based on any significant understanding of the circumstances at hand.

So in closing, fellow teachers, new teachers especially, don’t settle for being talked about or talked to as if you don’t know the problems, possibilities, and the contradictions between the work we are required to do and that which we are in the depths of our souls called to do.  Your voice, our voices, must be heard in this  conversation whose impact will surely come back– not only on us but all stakeholders–with a vengeance, if it simply goes unchecked or if we leave it up to the union rep.  to fight our battles for us.