For six years now, I have had the pleasure of observing/working with a vast array of different teaching styles. From being a college student and substitute teacher, to now a paraprofessional in a middle school I have gotten the chance to meet some fantastic and not so fantastic teachers. I give them all credit, middle school children are the hardest to deal with because of where they are on the maturity level but I got to be honest, how the heck are some of these teachers still teaching?
It seems hard to believe by some people that I do the job that I do with the amount of education I have. What can I say; you take what you can in this economy? I am fortunate enough to still be sponging off my folks until I can find a career. Until then I look at the job I have now as a great opportunity for me to do some research. I graduated with a degree in Communication Studies and although many of my colleagues think I am just some dumb “kid” it surprises them to learn that not only do I have a degree but I am also a published author. Can you imagine that, a highly educated person working in a job that makes the equivalent of a pimple faced high schooler? Preposterous.
In any case, I have been performing a lot of research in these last few years and I have come to the conclusion that some of the teachers I work with are idiots. While I do believe in tenure to an extent, there has to be a better way to get rid of some of these horrendous teachers who are under performing. Sure these people get observed and an administrator deems them skilled enough to teach but these teachers get warned before they are observed and can prepare and rehearse a lesson just for the observation and go right back to being a terrible teacher. Where is the sneak attack, administrators? No one misbehaves when mommy and daddy are watching.
Once a teacher gets tenure its all over. Their job is pretty much secure unless they do some heinous act. (By the way stealing from the hand that feeds you won’t even get you fired unless of course you are in jail.) Then you just get dismissed from your teaching duties because you cannot report to work.
I think that teachers should be up for re-evaluation every five years or so. That way if there are any people left that slipped through the chopping block the first time and received tenure they can get rid of them before they do any more harm.
Teaching children is not easy believe me, I have to worry about one student and I want to bang my head against a wall from time to time. I am not sure exactly who to blame for this but our children are getting dumber by the second. It could be the parents, or a child’s shear laziness, or perhaps all the distractions brought on by technology, but it could also be a bad teacher’s fault who is just in teaching for the security of a job and not for the real reason of teaching, the children. But this is for sure, my four year old cousin who likes to play teacher could probably do a better job than some of the hacks that are out there teaching the future leaders of tomorrow and I only understand ten percent of the words she says.
