"You're Fired!"

Public Education Matters

3.27.10

"You're Fired!"

I have a really great friend from college who was in management with JC Penney's for years before getting out and starting up her own successful businesses. Even while our life and career paths have been very different, we discovered a few years back that we both got a huge kick out of the TV show "The Apprentice."

Have you seen this enterprise created by Donald Trump? It pits, first, teams of people, and then, individuals against each other in business type challenges to determine who remains hired and who gets fired. The punch line of each show as a contestant is thrown "off the island" is "you're fired." Currently they are doing "Celebrity Apprentice" featuring a number of "celebrities" including the former (disgraced) Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagovich. " Blaggo" incidentally, seems pretty good at practically nothing, struggling to even turn on a computer, use it to search the internet, or even type on it, for that matter.

Anyway, what has bemused both my business friend and I since we first started watching the show is that it's simply amazing to us how really stupid these contestants seem to be at their own chosen "sport." We find ourselves constantly saying "D'oh! No no no, don't do that, do this" and then speculating how we would do things if we were in that kind of competition. We also speculate that we would literally "kick bxxx" if we were to ever go on the show. Make no mistake; Donald Trump would be impressed with us! We'd be hired and rewarded handsomely.

I'm thinking about that today as I read a column "The Scarlet T" by Anthony Mullen (the 59th National Teacher of the Year) on tenure, which would more correctly be called "due process." I'm also thinking about it today because after one day back from spring vacation, I'm considering my NEXT career. I'm thinking to myself that I'm truly tired of all the criticism, scapegoating, and the blame for the state of the economy from people not in my field and who know nothing about it. I’m tired of all the misdirection, misguidance, and rhetoric by our educational leaders and our legislators regarding education and children. I'm disgusted by the lack of respect and even simple understanding of the true nature of things such as tenure from people such as Mr. Mullen's Rolex wearer. I really think that perhaps in a few years I would like to get out of this "biz."

So, I'm wondering what I might do next. I'm wondering what talents I have as a teacher and as a consultant teacher that might lend themselves well to another (hopefully more respected and better rewarded) career. I have to think this way because goodness knows I've not amassed a great fortune on which to retire from my education career. I have to think this way because I will need to be able to pay for my own healthcare until I reach the age for Medicare.

And it occurs to me that while I've been playing along at home with "The Apprentice" I've actually been thinking about this all along. What would I be good at? Well, quite honestly LOTS of things!! I'd be good at marketing, at running a business, at managing people, at human resources, at being a waitress or a hostess or a cashier. I'd even be good at things involving physical labor because I've stayed in good shape alongside students all these years and because I've got a creative enough mind to be able to withstand the boredom of any repetitive job.

I could work outdoors and withstand the elements because I've weathered recess duties that have toughened me for even the most arctic of weather. I could pursue music or art therapy as I've learned to be quite creative using multi-sensory methods. I've developed the patience and empathy necessary for most any counseling type position or even as a hostage negotiator. I could report and write for a newspaper or a magazine. I’d be good at advertising. Because of my own "specialty" of working with students with orthopedic and health issues, I probably know enough medical terminology to work in the health care field. Literally, I could do a million things and do them well, almost anything- so long as it didn't involve extensive math (which is my Achilles’ heel.)

Literally, I do have a long standing offer from my college friend to retire from this business and come manage one of her stores. And I'm thinking to myself as I read about the firings in Rhode Island, hear about my Governor's cuts to our state educational system, watch the dog and pony show that seems to be the Race for the Top competition, and listen to all this business about "those spoiled teachers don't deserve tenure" or "those teachers get raises for breathing, it's time they take cuts" that "WOW, maybe it IS time for me to get out! I have had just about enough from all you people!"

I even hear it from my own brother, who as a stuffy old attorney is about as Republican as they come. He worries that his “just- graduated from college” daughter (my niece) won't be able to get a job in the field that his SISTER (me) inspired her to go into - Special Education. And it takes all the patience I can muster to explain to him for the UMPTEENTH time what tenure actually is.

But I'll explain it one more time for his benefit and for the public's on this post. It IS simply Due Process. It's NOT a set of procedures designed to keep bad teachers, as critics of teachers' unions always want to tout. It IS a set of procedures that makes certain that the law is followed in the dismissal of any teacher. It is a guarantee that you won't be fired simply because there is a cuter young thing with a perky personality showing up at the superintendent's door looking for a position. It IS what would assure my niece and her father that even while she'll never get rich being a teacher, she won't be summarily turned out on the streets after his investment in her education and after she's been a practicing teacher for 5 or 6 or 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 years because the system can find someone just out of school for less money. Again, I'll tell you that there is no reason that a "bad" teacher (no matter how long he or she has been teaching) can't be fired IF the administrators follow the law and the due process procedures.

And you know what? There's another reason that the public and my brother and the teachers' unions want tenure or due process to stay on the books- It's good for the students. There is actually research out there on teacher experience correlating with student achievement. I personally can assure you with complete certainty that I am a much better teacher now than I was at 24. A teacher gets better and more effective with experience if provided a nurturing environment; I can assure you of this.

I can also assure you that without a truly outstanding "older" teacher next door to me who served as my unofficial mentor when I first started, I would not be HALF the teacher I am today. Because of her experience and her guidance and her willingness to share and collaborate with me, I became who I am. I'd really hate to think how different I'd be today if the school system had sought to get rid of her after her first few years of teaching. I simply would not have gotten those same benefits (and neither would my current and past students) had the teacher beside me been a young teacher like me, no matter how great he or she might have been. On top of that, as I've said before in this blog, consistency and community are things that you want in your schools. Can you not see the benefits of a 5th grader looking back down the hallway and knowing that her first grade teacher is still watching out for her as she grows?

Now you can say all you want to that competition in the workplace for teachers would in fact make sure that all teachers were great. But I won't believe you, because I'll tell you what- with all the talents that I've got now (and had the buds of way back when) - if I'd have known a long time ago that I would only have a "chance" of making a living wage rather than having a secure future (so long as I did my job) I would NEVER EVER have gone into teaching. I would have gone into business, maybe run a non-profit organization, or anything else that would have made it more likely that I could provide for myself and my family. People like me would not be in this field.

I did not go into this field to get rich and wear a Rolex, really I did not. I didn't expect that and that's OK. Rather, I went into this field in order to work with and educate students and help them achieve. It seemed like a good idea at the time because I thought I'd be able to live on what I earned while doing a job that I loved. Perhaps I was wrong and maybe it's time for me to take my talents elsewhere. Mr. Trump, is it too late for me to sign up for the next season?