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Come on, teachers -- just fix it all, can't you?
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“Teachers Have It Easy” was the sarcastic title of a book a few years ago about the weighty expectations burdening educators – and the skimpy material rewards they reap in return.
The unrealistic but pervasive notion that teachers can fix all the ills of society – and should be blamed and punished if they don’t – tosses a huge obstacle in front of efforts to genuinely improve public education. Often that idea is promoted by folks who spend no time in diverse classrooms or around high-need children.
Oakland’s Perimeter Primate commentator posts this week about a teacher who shares that idea, though – “TMAO” (as in “Teaching My A** Off”) of the Teaching in the 408 blog. TMAO, a veteran of the Teach for America program, writes:
The Perimeter Primate responds with observations about parenting differences between privileged families and high-need families:
The Perimeter Primate notes that TMAO – whose blog I have read and admired for years – has just abruptly quit teaching, and that Teach for America expects only a two-year commitment of its members before they move on to their “real” careers.
The details about cultural parenting differences between enriched, privileged families and deprived, needy families – based on the work of sociologists and commentators such as Annette Lareau and Richard Rothstein – may open some eyes.
The unrealistic but pervasive notion that teachers can fix all the ills of society – and should be blamed and punished if they don’t – tosses a huge obstacle in front of efforts to genuinely improve public education. Often that idea is promoted by folks who spend no time in diverse classrooms or around high-need children.
Oakland’s Perimeter Primate commentator posts this week about a teacher who shares that idea, though – “TMAO” (as in “Teaching My A** Off”) of the Teaching in the 408 blog. TMAO, a veteran of the Teach for America program, writes:
We must reject the ideology of the ‘achievement gap’ that absolves adults of their responsibility and implies student culpability in continued under-performance. The student achievement gap is merely the effect of a much larger and more debilitating chasm: The Educator Achievement Gap. We must erase the distance between the type of teachers we are, and the type of teachers they need us to be.
The Perimeter Primate responds with observations about parenting differences between privileged families and high-need families:
… there are many factors (both internal and external to school) that contribute to a child's ability to learn. Teachers are just one essential nutrient, one portion of what a child needs. It is a naïve and grandiose belief on the part of new young teachers that they alone are capable of, and responsible for, eliminating educational inequity. This mindset might be invigorating for a while, but it eventually becomes a heavy and painful burden that wears at physical and mental health.
The Perimeter Primate notes that TMAO – whose blog I have read and admired for years – has just abruptly quit teaching, and that Teach for America expects only a two-year commitment of its members before they move on to their “real” careers.
The details about cultural parenting differences between enriched, privileged families and deprived, needy families – based on the work of sociologists and commentators such as Annette Lareau and Richard Rothstein – may open some eyes.
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