Oregon Save Our Schools: Increasing Teacher Stress is a Recipe for Disaster!

Oregon Save Our Schools: Increasing Teacher Stress is a Recipe for Disaster!:

Increasing Teacher Stress is a Recipe for Disaster!

At a recent meeting, it came to my attention that the Oregon Teaching Standards and Practices Commissionhas been receiving an increasing number of complaints about teachers who have engaged in conduct that is extremely out of the ordinary for them as individuals, or who have acted before thinking, resulting in interactions that were then judged to be unprofessional. The Commission Director indicated that she felt this was an indicator of rising stress in the teaching force.

Rising teacher stress is painfully obvious to any objective observer and is approaching epidemic proportions. We must change it before we completely lose the excellent teachers that we now have.

But this is only the latest reminder about the scope of the problem that I have encountered. This really should not be news to those who make educational policy. Two different studies now nearly two years old sounded the alarm loud and clear. Unfortunately, both have been alternatively “spun” or just plain ignored.

One was the 2012 release of the prestigious MetLife Survey of the American Teacher - Challenges for School Leadership. This was the twenty-ninth in a series sponsored annually by MetLife since 1984 to give voice to those closest to the Classroom.

The other is the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (2013).

The way in which these two were presented to the public, however, was strikingly different. The Atlantic headlined its story on the MetLife survey "Teacher Job Satisfaction Hits 25-Year Low" and said: 

Principal and teacher job satisfaction is declining. Principals’ satisfaction with their jobs in the public schools has decreased nine percentage points since it was last measured in 2008. In that same period, teacher satisfaction has dropped precipitously by 23 percentage points, including a five-point decrease in the last year, to the lowest level it has been in the survey in 25 years. A majority of teachers report that they feel under great stress at least several days a week, a significant increase from 1985 when this was last measured.

But Brandon Busteed, Executive Director of Oregon Save Our Schools: Increasing Teacher Stress is a Recipe for Disaster!:

The Terrible Choice and Other Peoples' Children | Peter Greene

The Terrible Choice and Other Peoples' Children | Peter Greene:

The Terrible Choice and Other Peoples' Children

For much of our history, Americans have operated under a simple premise -- we will educate other people's children.

Educating your own offspring is an old idea; human beings have done it for most of history. This has had many implications. You can't teach your own children things you don't know. If you're not wealthy (or even wealthy-ish), you can't hire people smarter than yourself to teach your offspring; if you are well-to-do, you can hire those smarter people -- and since they're your personal employees, you can tell them what sorts of things you want your children to be taught.

But from the beginning, some American communities provided schools for all their children. The system was not remotely perfect from Day One (for one thing, it was only for white children). But the idea was established -- as members of the community, we join to educate all children. We join to educate other people's children.

This commitment was part of a long, slow-motion argument. Only educated folks should be full citizens. No, every person should be a full citizen. Therefore all folks should be educated. It's a simple progression, but it took us a couple of centuries to work our way through it.

It is a point of American pride that we have set that task for ourselves. It is a point of American shame that we have tried to weasel out of it.

Our commitment to educating other people's children has collided with the class divide and the racial divide, like an Evel Education Knievel who can't quite clear the row of school buses, stacked too high and wrapped in a big sign that says, "I've got mine, Jack."

If I've got to spend money educating other people's children, can't I just buy them the absolute minimum? I don't really want to spend the money to educate Those Peoples' Children. What -- you want to take my tax dollars to educate Black Peoples' Children?!

Over the past several decades, our unwillingness to educate other peoples' children has stretched and trained the system. Well, parts of the system. Just as the rich have made sure they have good security and fine infrastructure in their isolated communities, they have also made sure that their own children are well-educated. But as the public system (you know -- the one for educating other peoples' children) has The Terrible Choice and Other Peoples' Children | Peter Greene:

Who supports public schools for all? Who opposes high stakes testing and corporate education reform? | Reclaim Reform

Who supports public schools for all? Who opposes high stakes testing and corporate education reform? | Reclaim Reform:

Who supports public schools for all? Who opposes high stakes testing and corporate education reform?

Which candidate and party to vote for? Who supports public schools for all? Who opposes high stakes testing and corporate education reform? Who supports raising the minimum wage? Who supports food stamps for the working poor and their children? Who voted against sane regulations for the banking industry such as the Dodd-Frank Act

Democrat (D) and/or Republican (R)?

“Wish I could have been there. Would have loved to have asked him (Patrick Murphy, ex-Republican US Representative and present Democratic US Senate candidate) about why he voted recently with Republicans to cut food stamps by $90 a month for poor people, to pass CISPA, to set up the House Benghazi panel, or to gut minimum coverage requirements for the ACA, or reduce restrictions on for-profit universities. Or, well, all the other awesome Republican bills that have come forward and earned his strong support. He’s come a long way since maxing out donations to Mitt Romney in 2008 and other GOP candidates and then joining the Democratic Party right before the 2012 qualifying period. It’s great to have him with us, really it is. Maybe he’ll be Florida’s next Senator?”
(Sarcasm intended.)– Joe Pishgar, former Democratic candidate for Brevard County, FL Commissioner

In Florida, we have just experienced the insanity of running our last Republican Governor Charlie Crist as the Democratic candidate for governor. Crist was the protege of ex-Governor Jeb Bush (R). Crist, of course, lost.

“Kudos to Florida Democratic Senatorial Candidate Patrick Murphy (recent-R) for raising a ton of money this last quarter, mostly from the banking industry – go get ’em, Pat! In completely unrelated news, we just hit the six month anniversary of Patrick Murphy’s vote to dismantle the Dodd-Frank 

Who supports public schools for all? Who opposes high stakes testing and corporate education reform? | Reclaim Reform:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/8/15

SPECIAL NITE CAP 

CORPORATE ED REFORM

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YESTERDAY

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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 8/7/15

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