Comments on Into My Own: Why Tenure Matters, Part II

Let me add my own comments from the point of view ...

2007-02-16T18:38:00.000-05:00

Let me add my own comments from the point of view of a presently employed and working teacher.

We lose some large percentage of beginning teachers in the first three years of their careers, not because the schools go to any great length to make it difficult for them, but because there is a fairly significant degree of difficulty in the career of teaching. The job is a difficult one, and the number of practitioners who are skilled at it is limited.

The profession as a whole is very welcoming: if you really want to be a teacher, the departments of education, the school administrators, the mentor teachers all say, then you can be one. The first five years usually prove to be quite different from the picture the candidate had when entering -- to some extent, those generational teachers, whose parents or older relatives are teachers already, have an advantage here -- and he or she has to re-evaluate the profession.

I think the tenure discussion attacks the symptom of the difficulty rather than the cause. The cause is a shortage of good teachers, and the consequence of that is the hiring of bad teachers.

The system responds to a social status of teaching as of low prestige: you are not a success if you have only managed to be a teacher.

For suggestions of how to change the social status of teaching I am afraid I am at a loss. But, I claim, if we could change that, then a lot of what troubles us now would be solved immediately. If intelligent and talented people found teaching to be an attractive rather than a repellant occupation, the shortage would disappear, the quality of teaching would improve, and we'd discuss something other than how to get rid of bad teachers.

Thanks all 3 of you for stopping by.

2007-02-14T20:19:00.000-05:00

Thanks all 3 of you for stopping by.

Great job on clearing up the misconceptions. I'm ...

2007-02-14T11:44:00.000-05:00

Great job on clearing up the misconceptions. I'm glad I have tenure because it gives me some modicum of protection against those who would want to run me out of town as a godless liberal. Please note -- I stay in the closet at school re: atheism because I am a firm believer of separation of church and state and remember suffering through public school classes where the teacher promoted religion every day with prayers and church talk. I wish all teachers would keep their religious beliefs to themselves, but there are some who can't get through the day without having that bible displayed on their desk.

Excellent post; this clears up a lot of confusion ...

2007-02-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Excellent post; this clears up a lot of confusion and myths. And I agree with buckblog about having a sensible 3rd option.

"One important change to tenure law that would hel...

2007-02-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

"One important change to tenure law that would help everyone would be to eliminate the requirement that teachers either be granted tenure or non-renewed. There ought to be a third option granted by law. As an administrator, I should be have the option of saying, "I don't think you are ready for tenure, but I also don't want to non-renew you. I think you have potential. Here's a contract for two more years and we'll reevaluate your status at the end of that contract." Right now, that's not an option."

I like that idea. It is a common sense tool that should be available.