Blog Post #14 - Teaching Can Be a Profession

For this blog post, we were asked to read an article by Joel Klein titled Teaching Our Children Can Be a Profession. In this article, Mr. Klein points out several factors holding teachers back from reaching their fullest potential as professionals. He also sites previous teachers union leader, Albert Shanker and some of his thoughts. The following is a brief synopsis of each issue and his proposed solution.

Lack of Education

In my opinion, this is true of the teaching profession today. Many people opt to pursue a career in elementary education because it is "an easy degree." While the course work may not be extremely challenging (especially for someone who excelled in school or who spends a lot of time around children), it is certainly a job to be taken seriously. Klein specifically points out the lack of knowledge in the areas of teaching math and reading. These are areas in which students most frequently struggle, and the problem is that, most likely, the teacher also struggled during his or her early education. This is why Klein suggests that we recruit our educators from the top third of graduates ensuring that each one has a firm grasp of the subject matter at hand. This sounds ideal until you think about it. I can remember as a student I always found it easier to help or be helped by my peers - someone who struggled and then figured it out. Many times, those people have a better way of explaining concepts. They can speak more on your level and break things down more easily. I think Klein hit the nail on the head in the beginning by saying we need to focus more on HOW to teach these hard-to-grasp concepts to our students.

Ease of Becoming a Teacher

Klein also points out that our society has made it too easy to become a teacher. This has positive and negative effects. Right now, anyone who has obtained a bachelor's degree is eligible to teach. It's that easy. How many times have you heard someone say something like, "I don't know what I'll do when I retire. Maybe I'll just teach." or "I can always use my history/art/English degree to teach if nothing else."? Why is this profession constantly viewed as an escape route or backup plan? I'll tell you why. The degree is not incredibly challenging. The perks (nights, weekends, holidays, and summers) are enticing. If you can just stick it out for ten years, you are virtually invincible. And finally, retirement comes much earlier. You only have to give 25 years of service, regardless of age, in order to retire with the state of Alabama. The main things pushing people away from education is working with children and the pay. It's tough to find a solution because many highly-qualified people will choose another profession looking for more money. However, finding the money to increase teacher pay is a whole new problem.

Seniority-based Reward System

I touched on this in the previous section. Once teachers have become vested, meaning they have contributed ten years of service, they are almost untouchable. They can do the bare minimum and receive no lasting consequences. It is virtually impossible to fire a vested teacher. Klein suggests a performance-based reward system rather than a seniority-based one. Shanker goes a step further.  "He proposed that teachers establish their own board to police the profession, establishing standards and providing mechanisms for removing incompetent teachers. Teachers would also be subjected to merit-based career ladders and would be
promoted based on specialty exams." I think this is an excellent idea. Teachers should be rewarded or reprimanded, hired or fired based on one thing only: how they perform their job. I'm not saying a teacher with failing students should be fired. There are other ways to evaluate job performance. Parent, student, and even coworker surveys would be a start. Principals could even look at how well students perform in the next grade to evaluate their preparedness.

In conclusion, if we as teachers want to be regarded as true professionals, we need to act like professionals, taking pride in all we do. As Klein said, excellence should be our guide. In achieving school admission, in our personal coursework, and in the way we run our classrooms, there should always be one common thread: excellence. The change has to start with us.