Blaming the Teachers
Author: Patricia C. BehnkePublished on: May 1, 2004
This article first appeared on June 1, 2001, at the Public Schools Today topic: http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/14117
This topic is archived and available for adoption.
Blaming the Teachers
The news is filled with cries about the teacher shortage that the nation will face in the next decade. We all know that a job like teaching with its low pay and high stress is not an attractive career choice for many young people coming out of college these days.
But what do schools do about those teachers who have decided to enter the profession because of a great love of teaching? Are they nurtured and made to feel safe?
Gina Crews, a teacher at Union County High School in Lake Butler, Florida, recently resigned because of threats from a student. The people involved, from the school board to the administration to the parent of the student in question, all expressed great compassion for Crews. Yet, all of those statements were followed by the big “But,” leading the public to somehow associate these statements with blame falling on the teacher. Once again. Always. Forever?
Why didn’t Crews inform the school board or the superintendent or the principal or the parents sooner, they all asked? According to the news reports, Crews did everything that a responsible teacher should do. She did contact the principal and the resource officer. No one listened because no one wanted to get involved. Or no one took her seriously. Or no one wanted to do the work necessary to stop this situation. The bottom line: Crews did her job; no one else did.
This situation had gotten to the point that any contact by Crews to the family of this student would have been foolish on the part of Crews. The parents already knew that the child had been verbally abusing this teacher, but Crews, as a compassionate teacher willing to give a student another chance, decided not to press charges. When extensive vandalism was done to her car and verbal abuse continued by the student, it was the school’s responsibility to call the parents, not Crews.
When are we going to wake up? Will our public schools have to be crumbling around our feet before we realize that we are destroying one of our most precious commodities? As I read the newspaper reports on Crews, I could relive moments from my own teaching career in vivid color and feel exactly the amount of frustration and fear that Crews expressed in her resignation letter. Only it has taken me seventeen years to speak out. And it has taken seventeen years of beating me down for me to do something about it.
I remember once when a student told me, “You better not do that again.” I wrote a referral to an administrator because I felt that the student had threatened me. I had to change the word “threat” on the referral because the assistant principal told me that students just say stuff like that; it’s not a threat. I walked around for weeks scared every time I passed this student in the hall. Fortunately nothing happened.
I remember several teachers going to the administration about their fear of a particular student and his angry outbursts in class. Repeatedly they were told they were overreacting. This student just had a tough home life. Finally when one of those teachers referred the student for fighting in the classroom, the administration saw first hand that the teachers hadn’t been exaggerating. During a conference, the student came across the desk at an assistant principal and hit him in the face. The student left our school that very day and was later expelled. The message? Only when an administrator is threatened will something be done.
I remember the last time I seriously tried to do my required hall duty. I questioned a student without a pass. He said he was a dean’s aide, but I didn’t know him. They have badges they wear when out on campus, and he didn’t have one. I went with him back to the Dean’s office to check on his status, with the student swearing at me and calling me unprintable names all the way there. When we arrived, the Dean, in front of the student, informed me that she found my story hard to believe since he was the model of polite behavior in front of her. For the rest of that school year, I had to put up with verbal abuses from this student every time I passed him in the hallway. I quit doing my required duty on that day, even though it is required. It is also the first time in seventeen years, I haven’t done my duty as prescribed. That’s when I knew that my career as a teacher had reached an end, and that’s why I am taking a leave of absence at the end of this school year.
I remembered it all as I read about Gina Crews, my new hero. I applaud her bravery in finally speaking out on this issue. And, Gina, from now on I promise you that I will do all I can to help the public understand the problems in the schools today. The problems aren’t the fault of teachers like us who have cared passionately about our students. The fault lies in a system that has become too large, impersonal, and afraid. As a result, it creates administrators who fail to listen, parents who place blame in the wrong places, and students who run the institution.
Visit Suite University: http://www.suite101.com/suiteu/school.cf... for many great education courses including:
Featured Course: Teaching Writing to Children |
Featured Course: Teaching Writing to Children - Part Two |
Featured Course: Helping with Homework |