On Saturday we got our Netflix and this time it was "Waiting for Superman" which you all should know is a documentary that focuses on education. This is in the same vein as "An Inconvenient Truth" but for the education system in America. Or at least that's what everyone is saying about it. So, what to say about this movie? It's really hard to come up with how to respond to it, since the subject is really complex. I think I'll take a few of the main topics and expand on what I have to say about them. I imagine this will be a long post, so good luck to us both... and be aware, there will be test at the end!
My first comment I'll have to make is that while I am a certified teacher, I came first from business. I worked for five years in retail management, four years prior to that simply in retail as a sales associate. Then for four years I worked in human resources, and a final year in store operations. Because of this I have a long experience working in areas that some people call "the real world". I don't like to use that term because everything is "the real world". Being a teacher is no less real than being an admin, an HR rep, a merchandiser, a marketer, or a factory worker. We all go to work, we all have a job to do, etc.
At the same time, there is something I've noticed about those teachers who have never had any other career except teaching. Teachers like that seem to not recognize what the rest of the world is doing, and what is expected in the rest of the world. They see some things as huge attacks on them, when it is standard practice at many corporations. One example I use is the idea of "staying late." Anyone who is salary knows that there's no such thing as overtime.
Teachers are salary, and so when I seem them whine, complain, and act as if they've been asked to eat moldy cheese that has been sitting on the basketball court in the play ground for the last three months, I want to scream. I worked as an admin, which is far less important than a teacher, and sometimes during the "busy season" I had to work late to get done what needed to get done. There was no over time, and there really wasn't an opt out. Furthermore, I knew it was expected and therefore didn't complain and knew that I had certain flexibilities in my work that allowed for trade offs for the extra work. Teachers are salary. If they have to stay late for a meeting with a parent, or some sort of staff meeting, or some minor thing, they should just shut up and do it.
That is only an example, but the point is some people in our profession need to be PROFESSIONALS! If you want to be treated in a professional manner, then you need to act in such a manner. I'm not saying that schools need to necessarily operate as a business would, but the teachers should act in a way befitting of their profession and up the level. Some schools do this, some don't. Some teachers do this, some don't. It's not a "all teachers are like this" kind of a statement, but many are and need to realize how everyone else operates.
It's a public relations issue, and when you're seen as someone who complains about things you have to do, when 90% of everyone else ALREADY does that, then you need to be quite. Furthermore, as I mentioned with being salary and getting some flexibility etc., teachers also get perks such as lower cost of health care, marginally better pension plans, and extended amounts of time off. These things are part of the compensation package, so while they may not get paid a ton, they get other perks that help balance that out. That's how it works in the corporate world, so teachers, remember that most people only get two weeks off a year... you get that at christmas alone, then an additional week in the spring, numerous 3 day weekends, snow days, and summers off. So, stop bitching about staff meetings, parent meetings, or having to take work home. At the same time, fight back at anyone who says you're over paid or who belittles the job we do.
Alright, now on to the subjects of the movie!
Charter Schools
This movie follows a number of kids as they try to get into charter schools. I'm glad that the movie points this out, but I think a lot of people miss the fact that only about one in five charter schools are super effective. Charter schools are not the magic bullet that will solve the problem the educational system has. However, they do offer a service that gives people options when they have no good options. I'm generally a person who will go around the system if it doesn't work. If all I get are road blocks, then obviously we need a new road. It's the capitalist way, isn't it? Competition? Right now there is a charter school going up in our district. The school is scared about it, but if they didn't have an abysmal 25% at proficiency in writing (as an example), then perhaps they wouldn't have anything to be worried about and there would be no "customers" for the new charter school to cater to.
Much like the rest of the schools in America, there are good ones and there are bad ones. I think this documentary focuses on the good ones, and that's great. I hope that schools around the country are looking at charters (and ALL good schools) and figuring out what works. At the same time I hope that people aren't being misled into believing that charter schools are really any different from public schools in general. If you have a good one, go for it. Just remember not all of them are good, and a good one doesn't mean that your local school is necessarily bad.
Tenure
Overall, the idea of tenure is something I'm in favor of. I think that in a system where you need to teach some controversial subjects (i.e. those who have to teach some science matters, geo-political issues, etc.) and some may want to silence those who have opposing view points. I think that it is important to ensure that good teachers are safe to do what's best. That being said, I have to agree with the film that the institution of tenure is being mishandled. Simply being present for a set amount of time is not a condition that someone should be given job protection. Proving that you are deserving of tenure, is a reason to receive it.
I think, much like universities, the tenure process should be difficult and require a lot of teachers. If we are bestowing the honor of safety in teaching, you should live up to it. A great teacher who is constantly working to better themselves, who connects to students, who doesn't hand them a worksheet and tell them to go, who doesn't read notes from a desk, who doesn't do just enough to get by deserves tenure.
In addition, I think the statistic that most districts don't even try to fire tenured teachers is more of an issue. I mean a good portion of those who tried did succeed. If you don't try you will never succeed, so perhaps actually going through with it would help. If a teacher is just sitting around like what was seen in the undercover video, then take the steps you can take. Perhaps they'll straighten up, or perhaps they'll actually get fired. Furthermore, I don't think the "crazy" steps of observations and a chance to improve are unnecessarily difficult. If a teacher is that bad, then take the time to follow through, meet the dead lines, and finish the process. It may be hard work, but get it done. And if you can't, then perhaps you need to visit their class more and observe and fix. The point is, things can be done.
Failing Schools
The majority of schools we see, of course, are failing. If they weren't failing then why would you be following them? The kids you're seeing are trying to get out of failing schools. The method is lottery into charter schools. In the past there was a push for vouchers so students could pay for private schools. Regardless I think a lot of people hear over and over again that, "Our schools are failing" and therefore think all schools are failing. That's not the case. There are MANY great schools out there, and most likely some near you. Be aware of this, and don't assume that because you keep hearing about failing schools that every school is failing.
That being said, there is a troubling fact that while our student get trounced in testing, they still think they're the best. In fact, in some places suggesting that "America isn't #1" is a form of treason and will get you labeled as one of those socialist-blame-America-first-elites who aren't from the "real America" and are trying to tell you what to do. But unless we admit there is a problem, then we can't fix it. If you don't believe your house is on fire, you're not going to call the fire department. We need to realize that we aren't #1 and be willing to do what it takes to get back there.
This brings some much bigger issues to deal with, the paramount being the total lack, disregard, and sometimes out right hostility toward education. This has many incarnations, from the person who says indignantly that someone is one of those "elite snobs from academia" to the brilliant student labeled a "nerd," a "geek," a "fag," a "bookworm," and even those who criticize their own family members for being "too stuck up" and trying to be "better than they are" because they're getting "out of the trailer park" and getting an education (there are lots of articles about this, and it's appalling). The simple fact is that education is not valued. Notoriety, fame, obsession, and money are the things people strive for.
Anyone who reads the news, watches the news, reads magazines, or is paying attention knows that the top mathematicians go into finance because they'll make more money than if they take a job with NASA. It was a major focus during the financial meltdown because the things that f'ed up the works were these complex, impossible to understand financial instruments thought up by these brilliant people who went into finance rather than science so they could make more money. Kids want to be singers, athletes, movie stars, or anything as long as it's rich. To be honest, if you are asked "If you were rich, what would you do" and your answer isn't what you're doing now, then nine times out of ten, that's the problem. Everything is being clouded by the pull of the all-mighty dollar. We need scientist to go to the moon, or to Mars so they can research and develop things that then get used in our daily life. We need scientists to study the diseases that plague our society to help our civilization, rather than develop a pill that will make an old man's (to quote my gran) ding-a-ling hard simply because it'll make more profit.
The drive toward cash is nothing compared to the outright assault on education and knowledge. People today are rebelling against science. Despite no evidence of a link to vaccines and autism, many aren't getting the vaccines that keep us safe. There are those who say global warming is a hoax despite a nearly unanimous assertion to the contrary by the scientific community. At the lowest level of this is the question that every teacher has heard, and must find an answer for, "why do we have to learn this, when will we ever use it in our lives?" This isn't restricted simply to students, parents will say this as well. The problem is, if we only learned what we needed to get by in our daily lives, we'd still be substance farmers. We don't need cars to survive, we don't need television, radio, trains, planes, the weather channel, movies, the Internet, theatre, art, chemistry, culinary arts, iPhones, Angry Birds, Twitter, Facebook, Harry Potter, or anything else you can think of to survive. We need a place to sleep where things won't eat us, we need things that we can eat, and we need to reproduce. If we simply lived with what was absolutely necessary to survive, we'd still be living in trees with our cousins, the chimps.
The simple fact is, we need to learn to make us what we are. We are a civilization that needs art. We produce things of beauty to express ourselves and relate to others. We need the theatre, television, and books to tell the stories of comedy and drama that inspire us, touch us, and speak to us. We need to study the world around us, send probes into the outer reaches of space, go to the moon, and do all the other things. We do them, as our president said, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. We want to understand our universe, we want to be entertained, we want to live a long, happy, and enjoyable life. We need to study and be educated so we can push the boundaries of human existence and take us to "brave, new worlds". But until we have a society that values education we will fall behind other nations, and we will have failing schools. Eddie Izzard once pointed out that you can't do something great if you really don't want to. The Mona Lisa could never be created by someone who didn't really care, because then it would simply be a big yellow smiley face. If you have people who don't see education as important, they won't do well. They'll do only as well as they have to in order to get by.
From what I saw, many of the failing schools we saw had so many other issues that pull at the students and keep them from wanting to do more than just get by, or opt out completely due to these challenges. The upside I saw was that the students this documentary followed have a better chance because despite how bad the schools may be, at least they are getting the message at home that they need an education. That's better than what a lot of the students are getting. I worked last year at a good school, and yet I only had about 20 out of my 120 students show up for parent teacher conferences. Schools don't fail in a vacuum, there's a lot out there that are involved, so we need to face that and figure out how to fix it. I would be interested to know more about the SEED school that the one child was going to. Is a boarding school in the inner cities a helpful method? Who knows, but it is very interesting.
Unions
In an editorial in Newsweek recently, Michelle Rhee said that unions should do what they're doing because that is their job. It is the job of unions to look out for their members, and you can't expect them to do otherwise. I often get into debates with many of my friends over my stance on unions. I used to be somewhat anti-union. I worked in a plant, I didn't like that they took money out of my check, and I didn't see much that they did for me. I also didn't like the idea of being "on strike". I thought that unions had their day, but they were no longer necessary. This is a view that many people have now. The problem is that I don't believe this anymore because in reality it isn't the truth.
Recently we experience first hand what it's like to lose a job because someone simply didn't like you. There was no one there to say, "hang on, what give you the right to fire an employee who has done their job, made no major mistakes, and went beyond what was expected at the time of hire?" Companies pay what they do thanks to a union. The hours we work, are thanks to a union. The wages we get paid, are thanks to a union. A safe working environment, is thanks to a union. We think that because we won all these battles that the unions aren't necessary, but let me ask you what would happen if the union disappeared and the corporation was able to do as they like with no united barrier. Do you think that our socks come from South and South-East Asia because of their strong union? No, they come from Asia because there isn't someone there to tell them what they have to pay, or how safe their factories are. They are there because they can let kids work 18 hour days for pennies a day. Unions are the counterweight against those who would abuse the workers.
The film points out the abuses that teachers dealt with prior to unionization. Today we live in a world where you see teachers being fired for posting a picture on Facebook where they are holding a glass of wine or a beer. Let's examine that for a second, an adult over the age of 21, holding a legally available beverage. Not to mention the unavoidable tensions that are going to come from a profession where you are not only teaching your subject area but how to be a functioning adult. A teacher has to go into disciplinary action after a student told the teacher to "fuck off", and the teacher escorted the student out and placed a hand on the book bag (in a leading manner). If anything, every teacher should be protected by a union just due to the nature of the work.
At the same time, the unions need to recognize that they shouldn't be protecting those incapable of doing the job that they are tasked with. A doctor who can't identify organs should not be a surgeon, and a teacher that can't teach needs another career as well. I think it is a bit telling when the union wouldn't even support the optional plan in D.C. to give up tenure for a six-figure income. The unions need to fight for their members, but at the same time they also have to be willing to take common sense actions. If a teacher is doing what was seen in the undercover video, no rational person should allow them to keep their jobs. By all means, hold a hearing and give each side an opportunity to explain their side of things, but don't block all action when it clearly isn't right. There is a fine line to tread, but it's not impossible.
Teachers
This is the area I probably take the most offense of when watching this documentary. My problem is that if you find ANY article about education, simply scroll down to the comments section and I would be willing to bet a large sum of money that within the first ten comments there would be some sort of teacher bashing. There's that famous, offensive, inaccurate, and all out anti-teacher quote, "Those who can't, teach." I feel that this film often kind of pointed the finger at teachers and was ready to place the blame for failing schools, and further fans the flames of the anti-teacher crowd.
I won't go so far to say that bad teachers don't play a role, but the situation is so terribly complex that you really can't pin-point a single thing that is the cause. The truth of the matter is that there are a lot of different variables that led us to the situation we're in. The upheaval in the workforce, socio-economic status, home life, parent involvement, self-esteem, culture, and even whether or not the friggin' kid had breakfast. Yet, it always seems that teachers are the problem. And yes, there are bad teachers, I've sat in their classes as a student (I could even give you names), I've sat in their classes to observe (again, I could give you names). They are out there. However, these few bad apples have fed a general distrust and hostility toward most teachers. To steal a famous quote, teachers get no respect!
Teachers are a variable that can be controlled, but all too often we only focus on one thing at a time. What it seems is that it'll be teachers, Teachers, TEACHERS, and when that doesn't work it'll still be teachers. The fact is that if you look at these failing schools they're going to have a lot of things in common in terms of societal difficulties. A great teacher in a "drop out factory" can't teach a child that drops out. Are these students dropping out because of bad teachers, or are there other considerations as well. In the film we meet two parents who dropped out because they had to work the family business, or make money for the family. I'm pretty sure that wasn't due to bad teachers? Do people still do that today? You bet.
My problem is the ever growing stance against teachers that extends to all teachers. From their "short days" to their "summers off" to their "failure to improve test scores" and their "government killing pensions and healthcare costs". Yet, we expect these teachers to get 30+ kids to not only pay attention, but to learn, retain, engage, and become good citizens. We give teachers one period a day to "prep" for sometimes 2, 3 or even 4 different subjects, make them deal with kids who tell them to "fuck off", teachers must take home grading and read hundreds of papers, working well over eight hours a day, deal with parents, deal with "Individualized Educational Plans", special ed programs, differentiate lessons for multiple abilities, find ways to explain why the smart kid has to do more challenging work, deal with kids that "just want to know what's on the test so they only bother studying that", and try to meet state standards with very little time, often little resources, and then sometimes we'll tell them that they have to take "furlough" days where they work but just don't get paid for it. Oh, and the pay? You may start in the mid $30,000 range. If you're lucky it'll be more, if you're unlucky it'll be less. And after years and years of service you may get over $50,000, but you'll have to coach a sport, sponsor a program, be a department head, or all of the above to gain that extra pay. Oh, and don't forget you'll need your master's too.
Am I saying that's too much? No. Am I saying there shouldn't be accountability? No. What I am saying is that teachers aren't the only problem. Some bad teachers need to improve or go, but we need to stop attacking teachers. I've stopped reading comments on articles about education because it's too demoralizing. You read all about the teacher bashing and how "All teachers are overpaid... blah blah blah." and you question why you'd take a job that pays you less than the student loans you took out in order to get the degree, deal with everyone telling you how you should do your job (even when they may have barely graduated high school), be told YOU are the problem and reason kids fail, and be expected to do so much with so little.
However while all that may be true teachers need to engage in the process, the debate, and the solutions. At Eastern we'd talk about those teachers who want to just close their door and teacher. The ones that want to try and be a turtle and stay away from all the "stupid paperwork," the parents, and the administration. My professor was not kind to these teachers because we don't teach in some isolated island. We are part of an institution, but we are also part of the community. We need to reach out to parents, deal with the district, work in the system that requires things we might see as "stupid paperwork" because there are reasons behind it. It is a tough job, but it is something that we should all expect when we take a job as a teacher. We can't hide from the world, we can't sit back and do nothing because we are "safe" thanks to tenure, and we can't expect to work a job and not provide results.
Conclusion
To sum this all up, education is a tricky issue because there are so many things involved that influence the outcomes that we're seeing. There are some things that we have some control over such as funding, standards, etc. There are some things we need to work together on, such as number of days in school, hours in school, ensuring teachers are doing a good job and not reading papers, shoving kids heads in the toilet, or allowing kids to shoot crap. There are some things that are outside of a school's control like socio-economic status, crime, drugs, a disregard for education, and generational poverty. I think this film is good in a sense that it brings the subjects up and hopefully will start a dialogue and get people involved. It points out some of the flaws in our system, and hopefully gets people to find ways to repair them.
At the same time, it really doesn't offer any solutions. Sure you get some buzzwords at the end credits, but what can be done for those kids? It's heartbreaking to see those children wait for their number to be called, and to see that they didn't make the cut. I wonder what will happen to them, if they'll succeed and become a vet, or whatever it is they wished to be, or if their "communities" will destroy them. In the end, we need to look at the whole picture and face some hard facts about all the issues facing the system. We also need to learn to talk to each other and communicate. In the environment we're in, it has become an "us" vs. "them" kind of showdown, and that will not solve the problems. Those being attacked will not be willing to budge because of how this issue is being dealt with, e.g. perhaps the tenure for high pay would have been better received if the plan had collaboration rather than the top down format that it took.
I feel this, like many things, needs a reset. Teachers need respect, districts need the ability to hire good teachers and remove bad ones, at the same time both need to better be able to define what is "good" and "bad". An acceptable form of accountability needs to be developed more than some standardized test score. But, above all, education needs to be valued in our society. Places like Finland have the best schools because there is a value in education. To be a teacher you have to come from the top of your class, teaching is seen as an honorable profession, and there is an expectation on high student achievement. Here, you can fail the basic skills test multiple times, be in the bottom of your class, and yet still somehow get your license.
The problems are complex, the film points out some flaws, some successes, and some road blocks. In the end, like many things in our world today, people need to come together and collaborate, compromise, and find a solution.
Side Note
Congratulations! You made it to the end. I apologize if I rambled a bit, repeated myself, or for any typographical errors. This was a bit off the top of my head right after watching the movie, and I was a bit fired up. I welcome your comments, so please feel free to leave one!
On account of it being so nice and warm out, and wanting to enjoy the fabulous weather... we decided to go see a movie. 
