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There’s been a lot said in recent weeks about fixing public education, about righting the sinking ship that is our public schools. But public education is not broken—the system that surrounds public education is. The problems that we find in our schools stem from a much larger system that is woefully out of sync with the needs of students and teachers. The control within the classrooms has been removed from the hands of the teachers—specific curriculum is mandated, irrelevant testing is forced, funding is non-existent, and support is minimal. Those that make the decisions in public education are not in public education. Many have not been in a classroom since they were students and that simply does not equate to them suddenly being experts in the field. I go to the dentist twice a year, but you wouldn’t want me performing a root canal on you, would you? They are the system, but they are not public educators. It seems to me that there is always an attempt to fix public education without any attempt to fix the system.
As in any professional field, there are exemplary teachers and teachers who do not quite meet expectations. Fortunately, I believe there are far more in the first category than the latter. The exemplary ones, the ones that students remember for a lifetime, are the teachers who put the students ahead of themselves. They’re the ones who come in every day with the idea that every child sitting before them throughout the day has the ability to learn, wants to learn, needs to learn, and will learn—they’re the ones who serve as educational guides, mentors, role models, and friends. Broward County is full of teachers like this and many of them are being lost in the system and politics that surround public education.
The greatest reward I can be given as a teacher is to simply be allowed to teach. Let me direct my classroom in the manner that my professionalism and expertise dictates. Allow me the time to reach the students on their level and not simply lump them all together as a single product. Allow me to determine the best methods of conveying information to those in my classroom and the ability to assess those kids in a fashion that is fair and equitable. Allow me to be judged by the long term effect that I have on my students, not the short sighted vision of a politician looking to stay fresh in the minds of voters for the next election cycle. Education is a process and it must be allowed to progress as such. Those are the rewards I seek; those are the rewards most teachers seek. Stop trying to fix public education and focus on fixing the system that surrounds it.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/commentary/fl-outlook-education-shelley-0523-20100523,0,3307468.story
