By Julie Shankle
Over the Thanksgiving holiday I often reflect upon for what I am thankful. While family, friends, good health, and stability in bad economic times top my list, I delved a little deeper this year. I started thinking about my rapidly changing profession and how I and others in my field are coping with said changes.
First off, I am a public school teacher. I have been for 19 years. Since college, I have worked for three school districts in two states as a secondary English and journalism teacher. And in that time I have been privileged and thankful to spend time with many, many wonderful teenagers. Luckily, I still keep in contact with some of them. I'm thankful that so many of them grew up to find success and build strong families and traditions of their own. As an educator, I want my students to be skilled, intelligent, successful contributors to our society. Every teacher I know wants the same thing, but my colleagues' world has changed dramatically during my 19 years in the classroom, especially in the past two years. Our once stable profession has turned into an unstable mine field littered with unemployed holders of masters degrees, trained professionals faced with having to change professions by force, and mentors of today's youth worried about what this means for the children's futures.
Luckily I live in a country that values educating the masses, or at least it did in my youth. I remember learning about Horace Mann's belief in the importance of free, universal public education. In the 1800's, our country began to invest in the notion that every man, not just the wealthy, should have access to a quality education, as education is the great equalizer. In the mid-1900's, we witnessed the rise of the middle class due to the success of our public education system.
Unfortunately, I fear public education is in decline. Unfortunately, political mandates and lack of funding have put a stranglehold on teachers in the classroom. Unfortunately, academic freedom and creativity are dying slow deaths and being replaced with lock-step curricula, drill and kill non-critical thinking assignments, and standardized testing. Unfortunately, Americans are divesting in public education. But...
Thankfully, I love teaching and want to continue doing so, even in a vastly different paradigm. Thankfully, my son has caring, smart, dedicated teachers. Thankfully, Horace Mann's original concept of universal public education still exists. Thankfully, public schools still exist to provide an avenue for millions of school children to build their own American dream. Thankfully, I am still a teacher.
Julie Shankle is an English and journalism instructor at North High school in Torrance. She is the president of the Torrance Teachers Association.
Reporter's note:
A special thanks goes out to Aileen Yoon and Julie Shankle, who were kind enough to contribute to the School Notebook blog this week. Look for more contributions from local students and teachers in the coming weeks.
Tom, I do realize that everyone is suffering from economic hardships. I see it everyday in my classroom through my students. The point of this article is not to throw a pity party for teachers, it is to show that thankfully we still have schools for children to attend and dedicated teachers who work with them. And to show that we are indeed not immune to the chaos of the "real" world.
While you may have a beef with unions, can we not agree that bad times are upon us and forcing changes in how business is done? I also hate to think that I would ever want someone who might have better benefits not to get those benefits just because I don't. I want better benefits for all. I have immediate family members who are underemployed and uninsured. So yes, I do understand the economic hardships of this recession. I just wanted to give thanks for my profession, even in a changing world.
Public schools also exist in the real world. We are currently in the worst economic climate since the early 80's.
What this boils down to is that everybody, even public school teachers, has to deal with some economic hardship. Its a little shocking to find that the PRESIDENT of a teachers group doesn't seem to understand that the rest of us are hurting our here in taxpayer land.
Maybe if teachers got a taste of what its like to work in a place where you get fired with no notice or don't get fully paid healthcare they might not gripe so much when taxpayers can't keep up with union demands.