Respect for Teaching: One Teacher’s Story
To be a teacher is honored in name, with awards, and fond memories of former students. Sometimes, however, those honors and memories are betrayed, albeit inadvertently, by bureaucratic rules that reveal disrespect for teaching.
I describe here an incident that occurred to me nearly 50 years ago when I worked in the Washington, D.C. schools. I was a teacher who became an administrator and then chose to return to the classroom, Sure, five decades ago is ancient history so readers will have to judge whether the attitudes embedded in organizational procedures that I experienced are contemporary or merely a historical curiosity.
I wrote the following piece for a Washington, D.C. alternative newspaper in 1971.
I have taught off and on for nearly fifteen years. When not teaching, I have been an administrator…. I directed an experimental teaching project called the Cardozo Project in Urban Teaching 1963-1967. [Afterwards] I taught half-time while writing a book. The following year, in the hope of working with others who shared my interest in [reform], I returned to administration as the Director of Staff Development in the Washington, D.C. schools. That lasted two years since the budget and program [were] gutted … by the D.C. Council…. At that point [1970] I decided to return to the classroom rather than occupy a desk [downtown].
It was an uncommon decision I discovered. To understand why, you have to appreciate the nagging guilt that haunts administrators about leaving the classroom. Talk to most central office administrators … and you will inevitably hear how important it is ‘to stay in touch with kids. That’s where the action is. How I miss it.’ When I would ask why not return to the classroom, I would hear: CONTINUE READING: Respect for Teaching: One Teacher’s Story | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice
