The Huge Dishonest Attack on Teachers

An interview from Truthout, via a Den Dempsey email:

“… We’re living in the darkest times for teachers that I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s hard to fully understand how the conversation about what makes a robust, vital education for citizens in a democracy has degraded to the point where the frame of the whole discussion is that teachers are the problem. It’s true that good schools are places where good teachers gather, but there’s another piece to that: Good teachers need to be protected to teach, supported to teach, put into relationships with one another – and with the families of the kids – so that they can teach. The attack on teachers is a classic example of what [cognitive linguist George] Lakoff calls “framing.” We’re hearing from every politician and editorial board in the land – including The New York Times and The Washington Post and The New Yorker – that we need to get the lazy, incompetent teachers out of the classroom. …
In the past five years, that attack on public education has ratcheted up to dimensions that were unthinkable 30 years ago. And so people talk about the public schools in a way that is disingenuous and dishonest – and also frightening in its characterization: they say the schools are run by a group of self-interested, selfish, undertrained, undercommitted teachers, who have a union that protects them.”

One thought on “The Huge Dishonest Attack on Teachers”

  1. I noticed in the doc, Waiting for Superman that in Washington, D.C. only the poor schools were closed down, only principals of poor schools were fired; only teachers in poor schools were fired. Strange that only teachers in the poor schools are incompetent but the teachers in the affluent schools aren’t (although we know that’s not the case.)
    I worked for a principal who was fired in one of the California school districts. He was one of the few who would encourage newcomers to English to apply to the school. Because 25% of his students were beginning language learners, test scores in the sub groups were low.
    How many newcomer students are going to pass the ELA “Response to Literature” section even though their English has improved?
    How many teachers who were fired in Washgington, D.C. had textbooks? How many had IEP students but were told they had IEP students? How many had the same students throughout the school year as opposed to new students, sometimes from the continuation schools coming in.
    Yes, some teachers are bad and there has to be a way to get rid of them but don’t imply that because test scores are low in poor schools, ALL TEACHERS IN POOR SCHOOLS ARE BAD AND THEREFORE HAVE TO BE FIRED. This is absolutely outrageous.

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