To Teachers Everywhere, and anybody else who cares.

I have a friend, (yes, I have friends) who is a teacher (yes, I have friends who are teachers), and is retiring.  She said she is not going to miss it very much, but she would miss "what it used to be."   She did not elaborate, and I did not pursue the reason.  Now, I wish I had.  There are many things going wrong in the world today, and I think most of them could be solved by education.

Anybody who has known me for a while understands the strained relationship I had with teachers.  It was not a happy friendship, and to this day teachers terrify me, even my sons teachers give me chills.  Honestly, though, it was probably not the teachers who were at the root of the problem.  Mostly, they seemed to care much more than I did.  I should take this opportunity to apologize to my former teachers.

Education is so important, and teachers have spent years learning to teach.  Most of them are kind, patient, dedicated people trying to do a difficult job, sometimes against overwhelming odds. Bickering boards of education, hostile administrators, and apathetic, or aggressive parents, who have imbued their children with a sense of entitlement are a constant road block.  And yet they struggle on, hoping some small amount of learning will take root, and grow.

Of course, there is nothing so bad that government can not make it worse.  And, we are visited by the specter of standardized tests.  So, if a student is not equipped to pass the test he will not be able to graduate.  Again, I don't know a lot of teachers, but those I have become comfortable enough to talk to about this say they have to spend an inordinate amount of time teaching the kids who are unable to pass, for any number of reasons, how to pass the tests.  Our elected officials have decided that kids who need extra help should receive extra help.  A noble sentiment, indeed, but without subsidizing the expense of extra time teaching these kids they need to spend more classroom time teaching the basic skills needed to pass.

This leaves the kids who are able to pass the tests at the mercy of those who can't.  It is a sad reality
that the schools have no choice but to make this their burden.  State and Federal funding is tied so closely to these benchmarks that schools can not afford stragglers.  It is not difficult to say that using these tests has not really improved education in the US, and may have actually made it worse.

Further, it is not much of a stretch to say that the schools most in need of improvement, those in poor neighborhoods will get the least help.  Wealthy, suburban schools keep improving and it keeps bringing the accolades and the money, while impoverished neighborhoods fall farther behind.  Their seems to be an imbalance, and it is almost sinful.

Private, for profit schools are not a panacea, either, unless you happen to be a shareholder in one. They make grand promises, and take tons of cash, mostly from the poor schools who don't have the means to make enough noise in government chambers to keep the legal piracy from taking place.

So, the pool of money remains roughly static, and the people trying to take some out grows, often from the districts and buildings the most desperate. And often as a boon to people whose real interest is making money and have no real care for educating children. Then I hear them talk about this wonderful land of opportunity where everybody has an equal chance. I laugh because it keeps me from crying.