This past Thursday as I was hanging out in my favorite post-work coffee house I began a conversation with another human being about the state of education in this country. Even though this person is somewhat new to teaching, this person was not drinking the Kool-Aid of the deformer and
was very bright and quite perceptive.
As we talked, I learned that this person, who shall henceforth be known in this posting as Cher, was a former employee of the Success Academy charter schools which are led by the irascible Eva Moskowitz. We both smiled and told the barista to brew up another pot of Guatemala-Antigua Original Medium Roast and soon Cher was dishing dirt on Success.
Cher had been what is known as a "associate teacher" at Success at the salary of $50,000. As an associate teacher, Cher did all the grunt work for the head teacher or as she said of what an associate teacher is nothing more than a "bitch for the teacher."
The associate teacher makes all the photo copies, writes the lessons and homework on the boards, if a child is misbehaving, the associate teacher takes that student for a walk. In fact speaking of walking, Cher shared that not only are individual students singled out for not walking correctly in the hall but entire classes as well for the smallest of infractions.
Funny how students need to practice walking in the hall. As Cher mentioned, the first month of school is spent on discipline. How to walk in the halls, how to sit down, when to sit down. In fact she shared with me how the little children are forced to sit quietly for hours at a time.
One thing Cher shared, and I did not know this, but the teachers at Success do not have to write