Lesson 4: Teachers Can’t Be Effective Without Professional Working Conditions
I recently interviewed for a teaching position at a really good charter school in a low-income community. The principal was smart, idealistic and dedicated; so were the other teachers I met. They spoke fondly of the students, who seemed to love the school, which was clean, safe and welcoming to parents.
When I drove away, I almost had to pull over because I could hardly breathe.
I was having a panic attack.
Yes, the school was terrific. But I would not have my own classroom—they were overcrowded, so I’d be sharing space with another teacher. Most classes had around 38 kids, with a very large percentage in Special Ed and another hefty chunk highly proficient, all in the same room; I’d be required to develop a 3-tier curriculum to target each of these populations individually. A lot of the students were English Language Learners so their skills were low; with Common Core tests coming up, the pressure would be on to boost their skills more than one grade level per year. I’d also be required to teach at least one after-school class.
To do a halfway decent job, I knew from previous experience that I’d be doing a minimum of about 60 hours of work at maximum capacity, full-on sprint—10 hours a day during the week at least including lesson prep after school, with 3 tiers of curriculum, probably more than that…probably 10 hours or more of grading on the weekend.
When I closed my eyes, I saw Van Gogh’s last painting, “Wheat Field With Crows.” Under an ominous black-blue sky, a road leads into a field of dead wheat and ends abruptly under Lesson 4: Teachers Can’t Be Effective Without Professional Working Conditions | Gatsby In L.A.: