After teachers discovered
Time Magazine's November 3 cover headline, some were outraged enough to petition for Time to apologize for the "attack."
The headline, which reads: "Rotten Apples: It's Nearly Impossible to Fire a Bad Teacher. Some Tech Millionaires May Have Found a Way to Change," will "blame teachers for the problems in America's schools," said the
pledge on ATF.org.
"
Time’s cover doesn’t even reflect its own reporting," the site said. "The
Time article itself looks at the wealthy sponsors of these efforts. And while it looks critically at tenure, it also questions the testing industry’s connections to Silicon Valley and the motives of these players. The cover is particularly disappointing because the articles inside the magazine present a much more balanced view of the issue. But for millions of Americans, all they’ll see is the cover and a misleading attack on teachers."
AFT finished with this statement: "TIME: apologize to America's teachers for the misleading and hyperbolic attack on your November 3 cover."
The American Federation of Teachers' Randi Weingarten said that "while the inside content is much more balanced, it's unfortunately obscured by the controversial cover," according to an article on EducationDive.com.
"The cover is particularly disappointing because the articles inside the magazine present a much more balanced view of the issue. But for millions of Americans, all they’ll see is the cover and a misleading attack on teachers," she said.
New York University education historian Dave Ravitch, the article said, called the cover "malicious", and "is asking teachers to write letters to Time, and a whole slew of teachers are taking to Twitter and other forms of social media to make their voices heard."
Ravitch, the article said, is "less concerned with the rest of the content and more focused on the message the cover spreads."
"She argues that the bigger issue is not teacher tenure but rather retention. With all the teacher bashing, enrollment at teacher colleges is declining and teachers are retiring earlier. Why would anyone want to go into a field when they are automatically viewed as the enemy?" the article said.
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