Senator Osmond recently proposed a bill that would introduce sweeping changes in the way teachers in Utah can be terminated and in the security of their teaching contracts. Then, he set up a series of meetings with educators to hear what they had to say. This is his blog post on what he learned from the experience.
I haven't been teaching long--I'm in my 4th year, but I have already encountered many of these issues. Not only that, but I've kept my ears open. I've worked at two different schools in the same district since I started teaching, and the discussions I've heard around the lunch table and during collaboration about legislation and legislators in our state have nearly always been negative. I watched the drama unfold last year as a social studies teacher at my school got attacked for being "socialist," first by a parent and then by a Utah legislator, for teaching the pros and cons of different economic systems without bias. My mom's been a teacher (in Idaho) since I was five, and I've spent the last twenty-one years listening to what she said about the state and fate of public education.
In my personal, inexperienced opinion, I think Osmond expresses the situation well. The problems he outlines are things I've either seen in my own classroom, felt in my own experience, or heard substantial amounts of anecdotal evidence of around the lunch or collaboration table. I don't know much about Senator Osmond's politics; I hadn't heard much about him prior to this issue, but I do applaud his willingness to listen to the rank and file in public education and then honestly describe what they said.
It's worth a read. It's so worth reading I'll link to it twice.
1 comment:
Seth M 23 Nov 2011
Performance Motivation for Teachers
1. It is my opinion that most of the problems we have in our public schools have been a direct reflection of government legislation, decisions to manage things they can not control.
2. It is important for anyone not just teachers to do what they are paid to do or loose their job. I also believe it is ethically wrong to threaten teachers monetarily when the economy is down and many people are out of work.
3. I believe most good teachers are motivated by the success of learning they see in the students they teach.
The government should not expect a teacher to teach a class that has disruptive individuals that do not want to cooperate. If an individual has not been taught accountability for their actions and legislation mandates the teacher not let him/her fall behind. Three things will happen. The teacher will fail, many students will not progress and Ignorant legislation will blame the teachers.
I know many people reading this can remember their school days and individuals which did not want to be in school but because they had no other choice they rolled on their own agenda, disrupting and preventing the teacher from giving you what you needed to learn.
A big incentive and motivation for teachers in my mind would be to remove the “Bone Heads” that don’t want to be a part of our society.
Create a separate positive track they will accept. First show them where they are headed. “Pay Check equals Accountability”. Hold them to it or expect to support them through our prison systems. If not we will loose many student that do want to learn. Accountability should be learned from parents but we now have a society where many parents have not learned accountability. Accountability needs to be taught with out assuming every body knows. In my opinion there should be no entitlement with out accountability. “Land of the Free” does not mean you don’t have to work for it!
Referring to accountability, if this legislation is only after cutting costs to fix the budget they need to go back to school and read the story of the “Goose that Laid the Golden Egg”. Look to the future!!!
Why Government? Any civil society needs three major attributes that will insure peace and tranquility:
• Individual rights and freedoms with accountability to choose a way of life.
• Government to protect one individual from the other when their rights infringe on the other.
• Good Judgment with tolerance to allow for all differing cultures as infringements arises. Including preservation of ones own culture.
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