Good reporting
Thursday, June 5th, 2008 By Mike Maurer
Kudos to the Toledo Blade for a solid story on No Child Left Behind and a Toledo elementary school that is being swept clean and restarted.
It’s easy to be sympathetic to the fellow at left, a 24-year teacher who isn’t certain whether he’ll reapply for his job. The photo does a nice job of placing the context: Can you imagine trying to fight the bureaucracy, the legislators (state and federal), the unions and know-nothing-know-it-all courts, to try to do both your job and the overall job of making the school a healthy, productive place to learn? All of these collateral, do-gooding entities should simply not be involved, so that teachers like this guy can fight the true battle, the one to interest, educate and discipline the kids. Instead, he’s been hog-tied and then blamed for what the others have wrought. Are the teachers personally responsible? Sure. But you have to have sympathy for them, because there’s no way they can win that battle.
UPDATE: And a shout out to the Plain Dealer and this guy, who doesn’t take a whole lot of guff : "The Lincoln-West High School math teacher accused the district of child abuse for letting teenagers reach his ninth- and 10th-grade classes without mastering basic multiplication." His lips to God’s ear.
But retiring two years shy of a 30-year pension? Better rethink that one, Mr. Tracy. Apart from the question of whether public employees should have pensions that are so much more generous than private sector pensions, you have earned it, sir, and ought to get it. Indeed, any freshman teacher who throws a cafeteria sandwich onto a school board table and dares them to eat it has more than earned it.
