Teacher Tom: That's What I Want For All Children

Teacher Tom: That's What I Want For All Children:

That's What I Want For All Children

We often discuss teaching as a profession, and it certainly is a field populated by professionals, but the longer I do this the more I come to understand that what we do falls much more precisely under the heading of a "calling." I've never met a preschool teacher who went into it for the money: everyone knows it stands among the lowest paying careers out there. No, we're in it for the purpose of doing good, for making the lives of young children and their families better. Whether or not we succeed is another story, of course, and I'm quite certain that there are some who have ulterior motives, but most of us feel called to our work for the highest purposes. I know that's true for me because, honestly, I could probably make more money as a barista and I would probably be less tired at the end of the day were I to be a jack hammer operator.

That said, there are those who are hellbent on turning education into a business, one that is measured, as all businesses are, by the singular measure of profit. That's how capitalism works: the bottomline is all that matters. Indeed, courts have found that stockholders of corporations have grounds for suing a company that chooses "public good" over profit. The United States Supreme Court itself has ruled that corporations count, for the purposes of free speech, as "people." People who place money before the good of others are called sociopaths.

So this is where we stand as the corporate education reformers, from Microsoft's education dilettante Bill Gates to Amway heir and US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, seek to shape our schools according to free market principles, where survival of the fittest competition stands at Teacher Tom: That's What I Want For All Children: