If You Can Read This Thank a Teacher

Every day I hear about great teachers leaving the profession; teachers both younger and older than I am who have inspired me with their creativity, warmth, and high expectations for students. It makes me sad because in order to have a strong institution you must have a certain level of continuity and a strong sense of community.   In my humble (wink, wink) opinion, here is what administrators are doing wrong:

1. Approaching teachers from the standpoint of what they are lacking rather than what they are contributing to the classroom.  If we sought to improve a student's performance by harping on their weaknesses rather than emphasizing their strengths we would be crazy to think that they would be invested in their education.  Why treat teachers any differently?  It makes no sense to require that teachers have a certain level of education and experience-and then treat them like they are a blank slate to be written on with hours of professional development that changes every year.  Or worse like they are something broken that needs to be fixed.  Why not hire people and then trust them to know what they are doing?

2. Attempting to routinize education.  Teaching standards and skills are important, but teachers should be free to choose the content through which to teach those skills.  If teachers are passionate about their subject matter, that passion will translate to their students.  Students may not necessarily love the material, but they learn that curiosity and enthusiasm are an essential part of education.  The current obsession with requiring teachers to document everything so that it can be duplicated by the next person filling the position is not the most effective use of a teacher's time.  Schools should not be factories with teachers treated as replaceable assembly line workers.

3.  Forcing teachers to take on administrative responsibilities in order to make a livable wage.  Most of the good teachers that I know just want to teach.  Unfortunately, they are made to feel as if they aren't professionally ambitious if they aren't interested in running staff meetings.  They are forced to settle for paltry"cost of living increases" if they don't want to read a gaggle of other people's report cards multiple times a year.  Requiring teachers to take on administrative work says that the real value is in education is in becoming an administrator.  Teaching should not be seen as the gateway to becoming an administrator.  Being a teacher is enough.  Excuse the vulgarity, but . . .

4. Attempting to schedule every minute of the school day.  Teaching requires being fully attentive and in the moment for extended periods of time.  Teachers need downtime in order to recharge and be fully present for the next group of students.  Some of my best lessons have been the result of sitting around talking about books and current events while surfing Facebook.  The downtime spent reading, traveling, and visiting museums benefits students in the classroom.

5. Being mean and calling it 'accountability'. I remember last year a student said to me "you guys want us to be happy to be here, but you don't even like being here." A school should be a warm and inviting place to be.  There should be laughter in the hallways that is the result of joy, not mean-spiritedness.   When teachers are made to feel inadequate and unappreciated that cannot happen.  If you walk into a school and the teachers are looking beat down like Barack Obama in his second term there's a problem.  Thank goodness I don't have to color my hair anymore; the grey has magically disappeared.