I was driving down to Chicago yesterday for a meeting when I tuned my trusty AM radio into one of my favorite Chicago channels. The hosts of a morning talk show were discussing Jenna Bush's decision to apply to teach at a low income school in Washington DC, and they were taking calls on it. Here are the thoughts of some of the callers, no doubt Kerry voters:
- She used a fake ID in college. That may be a felony. Teachers can't have felonies on their record
- She used a fake ID in college. She can't be trusted with our children.
- Her father was an alcoholic. She liked to drink in college. Alcoholism is genetic, so she's an alcoholic. No school should hire her.
I have a couple of thoughts on all of this, but I am going to skip my desire to lambaste the left for being pathetic since the callers did not identify their political affiliations. These people taking shots at her are pathetic, though. And woefully out of touch with reality. I can say from experience that their are some very, very good people who go into teaching. I have many friends who fall into that group. They are the few that deserve all the praise that is heaped onto teachers. There is another, larger group of teachers that are not so good. They were absolute hell raisers in college. Class was an afterthought. They went to school for Business, or for the Sciences, and they quickly learned that they couldn't cut it in those fields. Some were even kicked out of school for their miniscule grade points that were lower than the blood alcohol content most nights. When they gave college a second shot, they found that they could get by in the education field. They were not particularly inquisitive, and they did not have much of an interest in the kids they would be teaching. It was the only field they could graduate in. This is part of the reason that every month or so we hear a new story of teachers having sex with students.
This is the reality of our school system. I think I'm being a little generous in saying that a third of all teachers really shouldn't be teachers. Now here we have a young woman who raised some hell in college, but has made the decision to work in a school district that isn't exactly sought after by new grads. That says to me that she has an interest in helping kids that many teachers do not. As daughter of a sitting President, she could have chosen the poshest of private schools to teach in, and she'd have gotten the job. In my mind, that means she'll be a better teacher than many of those already in the system, who wait for summer vacation with more excitement than the students. If the critics of Jenna are this shaded from reality, then maybe they should take the time to learn about those already teaching in their school districts.
1 comment:
The reason I read you is that your observations are well balanced. I agree there are good teachers. There are also bad teachers. Worse, I think there are horrid administrators who have lowered the standards of teaching by their own lack of teaching abilities or moral/ethical standards. This trickles down to teachers.
I did a one-month survey of teacher/student sex stories and came away wondering why the media has not seen fit to focus on the issue. Every reporter has access to Lexus/Nexus and can connect the stories but they don't. Primarily, I suspect, because the teachers' union is a big Democrat constitutent.
http://spacenotes.blogspot.com/
When teaching really became useless was when teachers were no longer required to have majors in the subject they teach. The theory is that education theory would make up for the deficit, but nothing can make up for the enthusiasm of a teacher for a subject that he or she chooses to get a degree in out of choice. Having a psychology major teaching English or History is to deprive students of the richness of information and enthusiasm that a History major or English major could bring to the classroom. Every parent should insist that their local school district publish online the qualifications of every teacher in the district so parents can judge the appropriateness of the district's hiring policies. That's one way to help us find out what our school boards and schools are doing. IMHO
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