Living in the Real World

A colleague and I were talking last night and a familiar refrain came up. Now we, as teachers are "living in the real world" where we can be fired at whim like everyone else. Once upon a time, as he said, "you became a teacher, you died a teacher." I remember the resentment of my friends and relatives about this -- what right did I have to the job security I had.

I have a bold question to ask all of you -- the one person and cat who read this blog. Who comprises the economies we speak of? Are we discussing economies which are built by people and which function or are we discussing ones in which other beings exist? I don't know how an all cat economy would exist. I suspect that cats would really fight hard for tenure, but Larry and Bernie are immersed in aviary discussions at the moment, and I don't want to disturb them. Improving their woodpecker imitations, I think, is the goal of the day, so that they might get a better view of the very languid birds who sit on our fire escape between their tree nibbles. It's all about the view, as there is no conquest happening here, thanks to the human peacekeeping squad.

That's how those woodpeckers stay alive, by the way, as Bernie would undoubtedly fly right at them, left on th street. Larry, on the other hand, doesn't have any killer instinct in him now. If he had been left untouched by me -- the Larry I met years ago would certainly have taken out whatever birds remained and he and Bernie would've been a team as they are now, and as he and Henry were on the streets, and a nearly dead pair, too. I got them just in time. Bernie, too was on his last legs, feisty though he was. Cats don't live very long, left to fend on the streets. So, I suspect all those who become pets know that it's better living the way things are now, than in the "real world," artificial as it might be. Bernie looks like a pasha and Larry like a prince. They beam love at me as they breathe.

I don't know many humans who can truly survive an economy as harsh as what they call, the "real world." Most businesses have systems for firing people -- they, at least, give you a warning, a chance to improve, an "action plan" -- I've heard of this at Verizon, and I'm sure it exists in other places. I am sure there are businesses that just fire you without warning, and this is inhumane. When thousands of people are let go immediately, it hurts our economy, and it literally destroys lives. It is akin to killing those people and there should be laws against it and jail punishment for it. You cannot enter into a contract with someone where you will provide them with sustenance if they complete a service and then terminate that contract without warning. You must give people REASONABLE notice. Two weeks is not it. Who are we as human beings that we let other human beings just waste in front of us? What gives us the right to put the death sentence to people because they have failed us? So they failed us? So what? We failed them, to in that we didn't properly prepare them for what was ahead of them. And we didn't select a good fit for the position. So, let's set things up so they can leave in a humane way and so we don't make the same mistake again.

There are also some professions that require stability. One reason it was useful for a teacher to know he or she was coming back the following year was so that she or he could plan ahead for the following year. Also, the teacher could develop skills in a grade level/set of grade levels and become a part of a school. I went to a private school in which some of the teachers had been teaching a certain grade for many years and they really knew their material. At the public school I went to, also, there were some teachers famous for the electives they taught for many years and I couldn't wait to take them. I guess that's not something we want to pass on to our grandchildren.

It takes a long time to develop a course into something worth waiting for -- you can put together a course quickly. But, you won't have the connections between the lessons, the intricate details, the thorough research, the anecdotes, the incidental notes, the amazing ideas, the pictures from your visits to museums that are related -- the life experience that will fill the course and make it great -- that takes time. And frankly, you won't be that great a teacher until you've been teaching for five years or so. Sure, you'll be pretty good. Check back in with yourself in your fifth year. You'll feel the difference.

Or maybe not. Maybe this has all been an illusion. Maybe some doctors are amazing from the start and nothing changes with time. No actor grows. No child develops.

I've always felt that teachers ought to be mentored the first five years and not work alone. But, what do I know.

But, here's another thought about the real world.

There are all kinds of professions in the real world and all kinds of people. And some of the people in the real world CANNOT survive in a survival of the fittest kind of profession and teaching was supposed to be one of the places in which such people could thrive. It was supposed to be a place in which a person could develop skills which involved training others and not a lot of back-biting and social skills related to climbing a ladder of any kind. To suddenly throw veteran teachers who have years of experience DOING THE JOB WELL into a snake pit is an act of the purest evil. The kind of person who becomes a teacher is not the kind of person who works on Wall Street. It has nothing to do with intellect, it has to do with temperament. These are not people who want to fight for their jobs. They have already done this by controlling classes of difficult students for 10 to 25 years in some cases. These are people who prove themselves by doing. They come in, go to work, work hard and go unnoticed. They are not showmen. They are very proud, very honest and very frightened. They didn't have time to go to the gym. They wrote tons of courses and they graduated so many success stories that they could talk about but they don't like to brag and they won't. They never wanted to have to ask for another job again. They thought they already earned their job and they can't imagine what they did wrong and somehow they feel they must have done something, no matter how many times you tell them otherwise. And the papers keep hinting that they did something.
They don't know how to speak up for themselves and they never did. That's part of the reason they became teachers because one thing they did know how to do was speak on behalf of others who did not know how to speak up for themselves. It's a great irony of the profession.

I just can't talk about raises

I just wish I wasn't being discriminated against for my salary in the DOE, okay. I can't talk about the raise, anymore. I don't blame anyone. Please, please, please. It's hard to look for a job within the Dept. of Education of NYC and know that the very raise they gave you is now working against you. There's just something insane about it. But, I don't want anyone to hate me. I've been very lucky. Everyone has been very kind. You can just see why it can get to you, after a while, going to interviews with principals of schools who work for the DOE, knowing that they are going to have a hard time affording you, when the DOE set your salary. So, the DOE thought you were worth that money, but they won't help you find a school within which to earn it. This is true for everyone, even my friend who has something like eighteen years of remarkable service with tons of honors. All of the teachers from schools which have been closed, from the one with the orneriest record to the one with the shiniest are being told that there are no permanent places for them -- not officially, but they do not often get interviews, and when they do, they are quickly rejected for cheaper options. They will become long-term substitutes known as Assigned Teacher Reserves, who will continue to be demonized in the press, and then they will -- I WILL -- be fired. The contract expires in October 2009.

The UFT promises they will not allow this to happen. They will put up a fight.

My fear is that New York City will roll right over them.

Here's the UFT story about it
http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/top/job_barriers_atr/

The Audacity of Audacity: In Praise of Elections

I write this piece in the hopes that all of us who have come to think of as the word, "change" itself as an advertising synonym for "new and improved" will wake up and realize that the whole idea of an election is an opportunity for a mini-revolution. In countries which share this twenty-first century with us and also drive cars, have universities and accept the idea of global warming, as, at least, something worth considering, elections do offer the opportunity to elect leaders who will bring something entirely new to their governments. Even in counties where said leaders go back and forth on how much they want to take in public opinion, like Venezuela, their leaders can make strong choices about the economy, education and take them into new directions which actually bring both change and hope. For those of you not so keen on Chavez, you can even look at the Israeli government and, whatever you think of their politics, their elections do reflect changes in poltical mood and, at one time, so much hope it threatened those who were scared to see it, in the form of the late Yitchak Rabin.
Of course, we all know from our elementary school history classes how much our founders fought for the right to free elections and how long it took for everyone in this country to get their respective rights to vote. In practical terms, we still do not all have the rights to vote, and perhaps that should be the biggest election issue of all. There aren't proper voting machines in every county in this country -- perhaps the most revolutionary and practical thing the Democrats or Republicans could do would be to simply BUY ENOUGH VOTING MACHINES so that EVERYONE COULD PROPERLY VOTE. They could save money on all the ads and just get some equipment. Then do some grassroots work informing people how to use the machines and, oh, by the way informing them about the wonderful party and candidate that cared enough about the election to do this. See if the other party wants to cross the dirt roads to get there. There are people in this country who have probably never voted in their lives. Is that how we want to keep it?
People in this country don't vote for a lot of reasons. Some don't vote because they don't think it matters. Maybe they get that impression from the candidates who don't reach out to that many people. They just go on television. That's not reaching out, that's doing what's convenient. I know John Edwards reached out and didn't win. I also know the media didn't want him to win. But, these two candidates have the media on their side. They can make this happen. And in doing so they can really create change. They can create a real American election, for one.

In case you're wondering about our new standards here in NYC....

Check this out
http://avoicecriesout.com/2008/05/30/joel-kleins-brilliant-credit-recovery-program-teaches-kids-a-life-lesson/

Now, I'm a bleeding heart, but I'd go make the kid read a couple of books, do some journals, write some essays, talk to me....Fun, but simulated semester conditions.