Teacher Tenure – What Will That Really Solve?

     Personally, I do not identify with this sudden fixation with dismissing teachers.  I bring to mind ten years ago when we were the most underpaid, underappreciated profession around.  Now we have a monetary disaster and without hesitation teachers are liable.  Instantly we have turned out to be overpaid, too difficult to dismiss, gluttonous and self-seeking.  

     Now I will be the first to acknowledge that the National Education Association (NEA) is gluttonous and self-seeking, and I will also affix power hungry to that inventory, but they are NOT teachers.  They, allegedly, represent us in negotiations, but subsequently they are not representative of teachers or education for that matter, in any way.  Personally, I am fed up with media, administrators, parents and leadership speaking about teachers and the NEA as if they are the one and the same.

     Please read this next sentence meticulously; Teacher’s are not educations dilemma… the mind-set towards teachers is.

     The approach the media, administrators, parents and community leaders utilize in referring to teachers (intentional or not), leaves little speculation as to why student achievement is so low.  YOU have given children the ideal explanation for failure.  I cannot begin to enlighten you as to the countless occasions I have had a student inform me that, I or some other teacher sucks.  They continue by declaring, “My mom even said so,” or “I even heard it on TV (or radio) how terrible you teachers are.”

     I understand that most of you do not intentionally do this, but it IS the consequence of the continuous badgering.  Listening to the TV or radio personalities talk about the importance of being able to terminate poor teachers, like they can even describe what a poor teacher is, breaks my heart.  And to genuinely believe that taking away teacher tenure will help fix education is probably the biggest insult yet.

     One last point; if teachers do lose their tenure; if you sincerely believe that teaching will not turn out to be a personality game or that Conservative Christian teachers will not be the first to go, you are mournfully misguided.  I am a perfect example of this, considering they mindlessly attempted to terminate me, in vain I might attach. 

     I WILL assure you of this - I will be the first to vanish.  And subsequent to me, I personally am familiar with no less than twenty to thirty teachers that are loathed by the school district that will follow me quite abruptly.  My church alone has an additional teacher tactlessly going through arbitration, with no other rationale except his faith.

     Yet again I say with the utmost magnitude; Teachers are not educations dilemma… the mind-set towards teachers is.

Jim Blockey

Teacher/Author  “Teachers… It Ain’t Your Fault”