Why America Demonizes Its Teachers | Frank Breslin:
Why America Demonizes Its Teachers
Evaluating teachers on their students' performance is an issue that has elicited much comment of late. In essence, this view assumes that if students aren't learning, the fault lies squarely with their teachers alone. Well, perhaps, but not necessarily.
While the logic of this view seems compelling at first, a moment's reflection shows that it ignores several factors over which teachers have no control. These factors include: the home life of children, the poverty and segregation of the inner cities, America's Gospel of Instant Gratification, commercial TV, school sports, the restlessness of American society itself and its ingrained anti-intellectualism and ambivalence toward knowledge, youth's distrust of the adult world and the school, youth culture and its rejection of tradition, the Millennial Generation and its outlook on life, technology's negative impact on learning, Facebook, the eclipse of reading, youth's literal-mindedness, its lack of intellectual curiosity, its inability to ask significant questions, and its disinclination to develop a critical mind. To repeat, these are factors over which teachers have no control, but which have an enormous impact upon student learning.
The issue of teacher responsibility for student performance must be placed within this broader social context of what has been happening outside the American classroom for the last 30 years. Only in this way will the discussion about student learning become more realistic, and honest, and why singling out teachers alone distorts the true nature of both the problem and its solution.
When there are too few teachers in a school, and those few are overwhelmed by large classes and have no time to provide individualized attention for students -- many of whom come to school deeply troubled and alienated with all sorts of problems having nothing to do with the school -- is it any wonder that students find it hard to focus and learn?
The emotional, familial, and social problems of many inner-city students are often so deeply embedded and, in many cases, treatable only by professional help that the paltry resources of the school cannot begin to address them. These underfunded schools often lack even the essential services of counselors, social workers, and nurses because of draconian budget cuts.
What makes matters still worse is that these same schools are now set up for additional failure by being annually denied billions in vitally needed tax revenues diverted to charter schools, with no accountability, as part of a right-wing political agenda.
This is nothing less than the nationwide destruction of public schools by privatizing them for personal gain and rewarding charter-friendly legislators and governors with campaign contributions taken from that same taxpayer funding that should be going to support public schools.
