Turn down the Heat on Teachers

Only a fair portion of the American population, not a large part of it by any means, understands what it means to be a great teacher in America in 2014. I am tired of hearing of people bashing teachers for all sorts of reasons; summers off, alleged high pay, tenure, unions and more.

The fact of the matter is that the above don't even enter into what goes on in the life of a teacher. Most teachers quietly talk among themselves or come home to vent their frustrations, real ones at that! The biggest reason for not discussing these significant issues is because few will acknowledge them and even fewer will do anything about those issues.

The issues and concerns are often subtle and naked to the eye. Teachers want to be in the classroom and disruptive late start days, early dismissal days and long periods of time attending IEP meetings all serve to put teachers and students behind the proverbial '8 ball.' This is not a minor concern.

Students who miss long stretches of class due to illness, out of school suspensions, in-school suspensions are not minor disturbances. It seems as though everyone pounds the drum demanding that teachers suddenly meet the needs of these children after long stretches of absence. Teachers do their best to meet the needs of these kids but missing three, five or seven days of class at a time aren't made up in a 10 minute after school meeting with the teacher. Valuable class time is valuable class time and simply giving students missed assignments misses the point.

Many teachers have a number of students with IEP plans or other special accommodations and the students can typically be in the same classroom. Three special aides, as many as 35 to 40% of the class composition being Special Education students who require different curriculum and different assessment adds to the real craziness of running the class. On a given unit test, teachers may have to make three or four different exams, see to it that certain students are pulled out of class to go to their own room, making sure someone is available to proctor the tests and then have different answer keys and different criteria for grading those different tests makes this one small portion of the class - what use to be one simple unit exam - a HUGE undertaking.

To be quite blunt, even more troubling, is the fact that the 'powers that be' do very little to acknowledge the above (in addition to further underlying concerns) and the teacher is left to fend for themselves. With no acknowledgment of these issues it is no wonder that nothing is done about the above. I know for a fact that little is done about the issues that are of concern to teachers and students alike. I hear more terrific teachers lamenting the daily grind and pressures of obstacles that take away from their ability to teach effectively.

There are so many concerns and issues like the above that need to be addressed that one is left to wonder how America's teachers will be able to respond. I left the profession ten years ago but stay in touch with many in the classroom. I'm not sure, given the nature of the profession, that I would have been up to the task and that saddens me.

By the way, I don't want to hear some cynic say that 'if they can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.' Put another way, cynics, turn down the damn heat!!!

Dick