It's tough being a teacher nowadays. In Wisconsin, they want to kill collective bargaining and do whatever they wish. Mayor Bloomberg doesn't want to look as extreme as Scott Walker, so he's simply rolled out a bill that would pretty much let him fire anyone he feels like firing. It's pretty easy to give a teacher an arbitrary "U" rating. And once can get rid of anyone you like, the whole collective bargaining issue becomes a lot less important.
In fairness, Bloomberg previously requested an arbitrary and capricious standard for dismissing teachers, and only set on this course when teachers, for some odd reason, failed to embrace it. The bill stalled in the Assembly, and looks pretty dead at the moment. But if plans like these are coming down the pike, how can you really sustain a teaching career?
Billionaire-sponsored ERN, E4E, and Cathie Black have synchronized their talking points and are targeting you relentlessly -- you are Satan incarnate, and how dare you presume to protect your livelihood? What outrageous self-indulgence. If you had any shred of self-respect, you'd resign immediately, plant yourself out back with the trash, and wait patiently to be hauled away.
Should you lack the intestinal fortitude to follow those simple instructions, your pathway to a regular classroom is fraught with obstacles. It's particularly tough on experienced teachers. Despite much talk of merit from the "reformers," it's a fair bet, given Joel Klein's decision to have schools pay salaries out of their own budgets, principals will economize, engaging two shiny new teachers rather than a crusty old vet. There are, however, potential workarounds:
1. Change your identity.
It's well known that false ID can be procured if you're willing exercise due diligence. While it may prove costly, if you wish to remain teaching, sacrifices are called for. Disregard qualms about falsifying your educational transcripts. Surely you have real ones equal to or better than those you're creating. If anything discourages veteran teachers, let it be that potential 50-percent pay cut starting anew entails. This may prove untenable for many. As if that were not enough, you'll also be entering a cutthroat job market. If you're determined to proceed, you may wish to enhance your prospects.
2. Join TFA.
If you go this route, it may prove beneficial to falsify an Ivy diploma rather than just any old certificate. For older teachers, consider hair dye or plastic surgery, as necessary, to better integrate with recent grads. Don't let on that you wish to teach; rather, express a desire to become CEO of an up-and-coming charter chain. Rid yourself of family photos. Carry shots of Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee and beam with pride when displaying them to recruiters.
3. Enter witness protection.
This option is most popular among those in the know. An inconvenience, of course, is the necessity of at least peripheral involvement in a major crime in order to be considered. Not only that, but you'll likely need to rat out someone more directly involved, always a risky prospect. Nonetheless, if you're up to the task, you get a new identity, and papers that are likely far superior to those produced in the backroom of the Quickie Mart. Additionally, there's the prospect of writing a sensational tell-all if you manage to outlive whoever wishes to rub you out.
Older teachers may be tempted to prattle of their experience, their years of service, their dedication to students and other such nonsense. Remember, this means nothing to potential employers. Bill Gates says teachers don't get any better after three years. Those who now run school systems have, therefore, disabused themselves of archaic notions that people get wiser with age. (Why they bother with education at all is anyone's guess.)
In any case, current school leaders have learned not to discern between valid ideas and those of self-appointed billionaire educational experts. It's unrealistic to think they'd value anything as irrelevant as classroom experience in a teacher, particularly since they don't value it in a chancellor.
While your educational background precludes your becoming chancellor, if you manage to land yourself a job, you may well be able to hang on 3-5 years before repeating the process. Beginning teachers, while initially skirting this process, are well-advised to study it anyway.
Fifty percent of new teachers don't make it to five years now. If Mayor Bloomberg gets his way, teachers will turn over faster than fry cooks at McDonald's. That's good if the bottom line is saving money on salary and pensions. But it's not precisely putting "children first."
Unless, of course, you really want your children to have that sort of job when they grow up.
4. Close the sale. Ignore the social cost of your actions. Hide the fact that all the "savings" you touted as the result of your actions are fantasy, that the costs of the retooling will be felt not by YOU naturally, but by. . .well, that doesn't matter does it as long as it is not YOU, so never mind.
5. If done right, you will have created a monopoly on education and priced it out of the reach of those you plan to keep under-educated for your labor pool and AT THE SAME TIME have made a killing selling the product used for your main objective. Genius!. Two birds at once -- pure profit and advancing of your social agenda weighted to privilege the wealthy elite. Perfect!!!
And, yes, for the last 30 years life for the American worker has been on a steady down turn, with stagnant wages, more expensive education, factories and other material products jobs shipped overseas (and now the service jobs that replaced THOSE jobs following) while the banks, corporations and venture capitalists looted the economy.
History and experience show that without regulation forcing them, owners and especially corporations, cannot be trusted to care much about their workers' welfare. Oh, they might CLAIM they do, but the majority of owners want the most production out of the cheapest workers at the lowest cost. In the environment of high unemployment, they have no incentive to pay good wages, etc. Without regulation, it's anyone's game. Without union's and the power of collective bargaining it's the owners' game all the way.
5. If done right, you will have created a monopoly on education and priced it out of the reach of those you plan to keep under-educated for your labor pool and AT THE SAME TIME have made a killing selling the product used for your main objective. Genius!. Two birds at once -- pure profit and advancing of your social agenda weighted to privilege the wealthy elite. Perfect!!!
2. Supply your own "product" in the marketplace in the name of "free enterprise". Whatever you do, don't let on to the majority of those soon affected that you intend to replace the presently free public education with your private for-profit version. Refuse to discuss the future of those unable to pay for your product. (You can't let them know that it's exactly what you want to happen. Make it seem natural, the circle of life, inevitable like death and taxes. . . well not TAXES. We HATE taxes.)
3.Make it sound like a good idea. Like all good salesmen, don't mention price, use doublespeak to deflect honest questions about service, hide the small print that outlines the responsibilities they must assume in the contract and do not reveal that you abjure any liability until your mark. . .ah, I I mean your "customer" has become emotionally invested and/or is bankrupt of any other options.
How To Destroy the American Middle Class and Create a Desperate Labor Pool Easy to Exploit:
Five Easy Steps.
I think you are getting dangerously close to the truth. If the capitalist corporatization of every level of American society continues its relentless assault, all playing fields will be purposefully and permanently "un-leveled."
The concept and ambition of "upward mobility" is clearly now out of fashion with whomever makes these decisions. The kind of American education developed over the last 100 years helped produce a huge middle class of relatively independent workers possessing some aspects of self-determination and choice. This model of worker now no longer serves the needs of those who own the means of production. A middle class endowed with options through adequate education is not the kind of worker now desired for the Brave New World being created for us.
It's a sad state of affairs what the business world and politicians have created in regards to education. Our children are hurting, and no one is discussing the real reasons education is troubled: cultural decline due to technology/media/pop culture etc, NCLB, devaluing of education, the entitlement generation....etc.
Oh sure, we have some bad teachers. That is not the fault of unions. That is the fault of poor administrative guidance. Teachers need to be involved in the reforms. Rather than sit back worrying and complaining, I have decided to try and get involved. I joined a website that has given me the opportunity to share my voice in policy making. I encourage all teachers to do the same. See below
Tweet: @VIVAProject    Â
Web: Â Â Â www.vivateachers.org
FB: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The VIVA Project
I can't tell you how many people have told me they would never do what I do.
formed a chorus (late February 2011) recruited from a diverse elementary
school student body; to date, the original eleven chorus members have
increased to thirty. Big Things Have Small Beginnings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQJjkEgnk4E