• Originally published May 2, 2008 at 5:37 p.m., updated May 2, 2008 at 5:37 p.m.

According to a front-page blurb in the Victoria Advocate (April 20), 44 percent of Texas teachers are seriously thinking of leaving teaching. Low morale, not paychecks, is the reason most often cited. This reminds me of a TV ad with an executive throwing his briefcase through an open window as if in desperation. Funny how ads never show teachers doing the same thing. What would they throw? A box of chalk? A book bag they received for showing up at a workshop sponsored by a textbook company? Or a big binder interlarded with peppy cheerleader slogans?

Who’s surprised? Everybody runs the class! — politicians from the president down to the local school board member, education experts from Ivy League faculty down to someone who once read an article in Reader’s Digest, and consultants from Fortune 500 companies to inservicers who assign hugging for homework or throw markers at attendees. Of course, lawyers and the judicial system also have a hand on the spatula scrambling the eggs in the frying pan.

Even the entertainment industry intrudes with advice. Rosie O’Donnell once commented that nobody needs to learn multiplication tables now that they have calculators. And who needs English when you have spell-check? Someone needs to remind Hollywood that teaching is an unglamorous profession, in spite of the occasional movie about teachers with glamorous actors such as Michelle Pfeiffer, or Nick Nolte (before his last arrest). A plot line that features rote memorization and practice is not terribly exciting. A realistic movie about everyday life in a teacher’s life wouldn’t sell. You’ll never see a movie with teachers challenging students with flashcards of multiplication tables, state capitals, or a list of prepositions, because it lacks the kind of drama Hollywood and the TEA prefer.

There is a catalogue of reasons for low morale. The biggest part of the frustration is the lack of interest of students, compounded by the lack of parental support. So help me, I listened to a parent call another teacher a “slacker.” She was upset because the teacher didn’t stop class and ask for the assignments when her baby entered class 10 minutes late four days out of five. Unnecessary paperwork is also part of the problem. Over here, sending a student to the office entails a seven-step plan, including documentation of phone calls and warnings and detention notices. Recording unexcused tardies means you have to enter the data into the computer system and marking a weekly log. Teachers are expected to adhere to an array of modifications for dozens of students or run afoul of federal law and an army of civil rights lawyers.

Many students have never learned manners or how to treat anyone, let alone authority figures, with respect. They stroll the halls wearing pants that sag below see-level like simian popinjays. (And if anyone asks, the federal law is called No Child Left Behind, not No Child’s Behind Left.) If you attempt to stop a student wandering around and ask his name, he’ll either ignore you and walk away or he’ll tell you “I forgot.” That means you’ll have to follow him around wherever he goes until you can get a security guard’s attention who can identify him. You may have several students on probation or parole. You’re not allowed to know who they are, so you can only hope it wasn’t for assaulting a teacher. Add to that the charge of “racism” and “prejudice,” and you get the flavor of what we have to endure from some of the “stockholders” with tattoos on their fingers, arms and necks, parents and students alike.

As L.B.J. puckishly commented, they’re jumping off like ticks off a dead dog. I’m just amazed that the number isn’t higher than 44 percent. What’s the solution?

In the state legislative session which recently came to an ignominious end (as they all do), Representative Debbie Riddle proposed a bill which would require all superintendents, principals, and other senior district administrators to serve as a substitute teacher in the district for at least two days during each school year.

I suppose it’s worth a try, but I would include pooh-bahs from the Texas Education Agency, with the stipulation that it be in a class required for graduation such as algebra or English. Also, they should have to endure an evaluation, dodge markers thrown during inservice, and fill out reams of paperwork required by the rest of us.

While we’re at it, we should require the creator of No Child Left Behind to compose a coherent speech without using spell-check and balance a checkbook without using a calculator. Even Rosie O’Donnell would be impressed.

 

Patrick Hubbell is a teacher and resident of Victoria.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

    Share on FaceBook

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Post a Comment
• •
• Favorite
• •
• Report error
  • Thank you for your submission.
    Error report or correction

    Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  

    
  • Close
• •