Having teachers at the table instead of on the menu | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com

Having teachers at the table instead of on the menu | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com:

Having teachers at the table instead of on the menu 

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Retired Montgomery County superintendent Jerry Weast

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By Maureen Downey

A frequent complaint of teachers is that they aren’t at the table when school improvement strategies are developed.

When they aren’t at the table, they end up on the menu.

During the last decade, teachers have absorbed much of the blame for what’s ailing American schools. The teaching profession presents an easier target than the seemingly intractable problems of poverty, single-parent families and shrinking tax digests.

The Georgia Legislature has all but abandoned traditional public education, adopting the cartoonish rhetoric of “government schools” where liberal teachers indoctrinate children to unionism, vegan diets and electric cars. In debates in the General Assembly, teachers are often seen as adversaries and impediments rather than as assets and resources.

Yet, evidence from the remarkable education turnaround in Finland shows that involved and impassioned teachers are