Stop Blaming Teachers
Is retaining qualified teachers a thing of the past? Sustaining work that valued head and heart used to be important; the foundation of our teaching. We took care to wrap the gifts of our classroom families with love and attention. We used our creative vision to engage students’ souls. We endeavored to give students and families a place to feel welcome. In return, we felt our gifts of teaching mattered—not just to the students in our classrooms, but to the community. It is not this that was wrong.
This love wasn’t enough to make every student a successful reader, granted. But no learning happens without it. Not in a world where safety is never certain. Not for students and not for teachers. I feel much love and respect from my school family and community now. But those individuals are not legislating, and neither are many teachers.
As I commit to understanding what it takes to mend a teacher’s heart (including my own), I am bombarded with stories of teachers losing heart all over the country.
When West Virginia teachers went on strike in 2018 to oppose conservative legislation, I contributed to striking funds, I so wanted to be in solidarity after Wisconsin’s Act 10 debacle. That same group of WV teachers is talking about going back to the picket line. Now my teacher friends in Oakland are striking to oppose a school system that de-values teachers, underfunds and closes neighborhood schools, dismisses the needs of underserved communities, provides limited access to mental and other health services, and caters to special interests and charter schools over public education. This strike coincides with LA (which stands out as a warning), follows Denver Public School’s strike earlier, and the list goes on.
You can’t put kids first if you put teachers last.
–Oakland Education Association
Teachers strike because it is the only way open to them to voice their needs and the needs of the community. Unfortunately, it will be the teachers that are further vilified for it. I expect to see more strikes that will have an adverse effect on the reputation of teachers but honestly I see no other approach–until the teachers themselves have a voice in legislation. This post caught my attention describing why award-winning teachers are no longer in schools because advocating for education outside the schools seems a better use of their gifts. That is where they are taking their teacher’s heart.
I have said before that it is not all about the pay (teacher salaries). Teachers do make more money than some people—no need to point that out. The actual point is that teacher’s pay is not commensurate with other fields requiring similar qualifications.
My first advice is simple. It is the path many qualified workers in other fields would make in a heartbeat: work somewhere else where you feel compensated and valued for your education, experience, and skills. That is of course always an option; it has become a reality for many teachers that find themselves tired of complaining. That creates a void, but it is NOT a teacher “shortage.” It is a decision of hard-working qualified individuals
I and others who have come to understand this option find it extremely empowering; to know teachers can work in many places. Go for it! That decision to leave teaching comes with a heavy heart. Because, although teachers skills generalize to many fields, not just anyone is right to teach and work in schools (regardless of the new claims—this is wrong and false news). If you are called to this craft, know it, and want it, it is a shame to move on because of politics.
Funding does get at the heart of student learning. Teachers are not able to meet the needs students have today with large class sizes. Period! The environments and materials at underfunded schools eat away at the potential to learn and grow.
It’s maddening to see this institution fall by the wayside—which is what is happening without any suitable replacement for many families that rely on public education to rise up. The determination and creativity essential to engage students and families that have lost hope require perseverance and trust over a period of time that sometimes produces only small successes. It takes a lot of heart! Teachers shoulder the blame when those small successes are perceived as failures. In fact, teachers are blamed for the failing system.
“Society sends deeply conflicting messages to students: We tell them nothing in life matters more than education, while we treat the people who educate them as largely interchangeable, disposable parts. This has predictable consequences.”
–Nikole Hannah-Jones
Further maddening is knowing student learning is in your heart–that your core value is linked with promoting the goodness of communities for all, but especially for underserved families and still, you must choose. Choose between your own health and well-being and those who could be served. These choices have consequences.
We don’t want more—we want better.
