Is Teaching a Profession, an Occupation, a Calling, or a Job? | The Merrow Report

Is Teaching a Profession, an Occupation, a Calling, or a Job? | The Merrow Report

Is Teaching a Profession, an Occupation, a Calling, or a Job?

(Because this 2015 essay continues to attract readers from around the world, I am reprinting it, edited to include contributions from thoughtful readers.)

“So, are they quitting because they’re fed up with their heavy-handed union bosses?” The hostility of the question took me by surprise. I was explaining to my dinner companion, a veteran lawyer, that 40% of teachers leave the field within five years, and right away he jumped to his anti-union conclusion disguised as a question.

No, I explained. Unions don’t seem to have anything to do with it; it’s most often related to working conditions: class size, discipline policies, and how much control and influence they have over their daily activities.

“It’s not money?” he asked, aggressively suspicious. Not according to surveys, I explained.

I described what I’d seen of a teacher’s daily work life. He interrupted, “How can it be a profession if you can’t take a leak when you need to?”

While that’s not a criterion that social scientists use to define a profession, my cut-to-the-chase acquaintance might be onto something.

Can teaching be a true profession if you can’t take a bathroom break when nature CONTINUE READING: Is Teaching a Profession, an Occupation, a Calling, or a Job? | The Merrow Report

What's ahead for teachers? | Cornell Chronicle

What's ahead for teachers? | Cornell Chronicle

What's ahead for teachers?

One of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten ’80, meets Thursday with ILR Dean Alex Colvin to discuss “One Year Later, What’s Ahead for Teachers?”

Part of ILR’s eCornell series entitled “The Future of Work: Labor in America,” the event is free and open to the public.

Register here for “One Year Later, What’s Ahead for Teachers,” which will be held from 3:30 to 4:30 ET on Thursday.

The first in the ILR “Future of Work” series was “Unionization in Big Tech: Why Now?” and is accessible by completing the form in this link.

After this Thursday’s event, the next in the series will be a May 10 keynote with Colvin, Thomas Perez, labor secretary in the Obama administration and former Democratic National Committee chair, and Cathy Creighton, director of ILR’s Buffalo Co-Lab. The keynote begins at 2:30 p.m. ET.

On Thursday, Weingarten and Colvin will discuss three areas:

• the pandemic’s impact on K-12 learning and teaching, this fall and beyond
• how the Amazon union vote is affecting labor
• how the Biden administration will impact teaching.

Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, a union of 1.7 million teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare CONTINUE READING: What's ahead for teachers? | Cornell Chronicle

Teacher Tom: I Will Not Prepare Children for The "Jobs of Tomorrow"

Teacher Tom: I Will Not Prepare Children for The "Jobs of Tomorrow"

I Will Not Prepare Children for The "Jobs of Tomorrow"

I've spent most of my professional career railing against the widely held belief that our schools exist for the purpose of vocational training. Those "jobs of tomorrow" our policymakers are always going on about? "Out educating the Chinese?" Getting the kids "college and career ready?" What a crock. First of all, no one knows what those jobs of tomorrow might be, no matter how authoritatively they speak of the future. The jobs that today's five-year-olds will be applying for 20 years from now are unimaginable to us. Indeed, it will be the children of today who invent the jobs of tomorrow. And this has always been true, going back at least to the Industrial Revolution when policymakers were certain that we would all move to the cities to take our place along an assembly line. My own high school career counselor got it wrong. Most of the jobs our daughter is applying for today didn't exist when she was a preschooler. As for competing with the Chinese, that's a dubious and mercenary adult concern, one that is a cruelty when inflicted on innocent children.

No, the proper "career" aspiration for a preschooler is princess. 

The role of education (not necessarily school) in a self-governing society is to produce good citizens, critical thinkers CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: I Will Not Prepare Children for The "Jobs of Tomorrow"

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: College Is For Meat Widgets, Not That Learnin' Stuff

CURMUDGUCATION: FL: College Is For Meat Widgets, Not That Learnin' Stuff

FL: College Is For Meat Widgets, Not That Learnin' Stuff

Oh, Florida.

GOP State Senator Dennis Baxley wants only some students to have Bright Futures. Under his bill SB 86, the scholarship program would be targeted only for those students who are pursuing majors that lead "directly to employment."

Baxley offers a folksy justification for this, saying his own sociology degree was very nice and all, but wouldn't buy him a cup of coffee, and not until he got that associate degree that he was able to make a buck opening his funeral parlor. As God is my witness, I am not making this up.

This "refocus" comes with an endorsement from Senate President Wilton Simpson, who points out that "All too often the debate surrounding higher education focuses on the cost to the student, in terms of tuition and fees, but never the cost to the taxpayer or the actual value to the student." 

More from Baxley:

We want all of our students to succeed in meaningful careers that provide for their families and serve our communities. As taxpayers we should all be concerned about subsidizing degrees that just lead to debt, instead of the jobs our students want and need. We encourage all students to pursue their passions, but when it comes to taxpayer subsidized education, there needs to be a link to our CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: FL: College Is For Meat Widgets, Not That Learnin' Stuff