Teaching in the 21st Century

As I write this, the Chicago Public School Teachers are in their second week of a Teachers' Strike.  Accusations are being made across the political spectrum against the teachers, and as far as I've seen, only a handful of statements have been made in support of the teachers.

I firmly believe that unless one has been in a modern school - and more so, a school with limited resources serving underprivileged children (such as Chicago) - one does not truly understand what teachers in the 21st century do.

Before I entered the ministry, I was a public school teacher for 10 years.  I have my Master's in Educational Leadership and my Principal's Certification.  One of my years was teaching at a school on the Mexican Border where the first language of almost all of the students was Spanish.  There were even children who did not speak any English.  The next six years were teaching at urban K-8 schools that were not adequately funded like their suburban counterparts.  My final three years put me in a district where I was moved each of those years due to budged constraints.  I was a music teacher, and due to budget issues, music is a "sacrificial lamb." With that being the case, my job switched each year. My first year, I taught in a middle-class neighborhood school.  The next year I travelled between 3 separate middle-class schools.  The final year, I taught at a high-poverty school where many of the students' first language was Spanish.  As I write this, I know what I am saying!

The last thing teachers want to do is strike!  Teachers often put other peoples' children ahead of themselves and often their own families.  The majority of teachers spend more time at school than they do at home during the school year.  It is not uncommon for teachers to be at school until 6 or 7 PM.  On average, most teachers are at school until 4-5 PM (and those are days that do not have required meetings or other such required events that would cause a teacher to stay past the official "closing time").  This time takes teachers away from their spouses, partners, children, pets, and their own recreational time.  Countless studies have shown that if a person does not build in time for him/herself during the day, he/she cannot expect to be healthy - both physically and mentally.  Countless teachers - for the sake of other peoples' children - do not build in time for themselves or their own families.

Teachers sacrifice parts of their own paychecks that should go ENTIRELY for their own use for classroom supplies.  These supplies are not things that are "nice to have."  These supplies by and large are things that are "required to have" for teaching - Yes, I mean things like pencils and paper.  Imagine telling a doctor at one of our hospitals that he/she is allotted a certain amount of needles and if he/she goes over that allotment, he/she will not get anymore.  At that point, would the doctor buy more needles?  Tell the Bank President that he or she can only make 500 copies a year (yes, that is realistic - I was told that one year...and I had 800 students).  Will the Bank President then spend money out of his or her own pocket to go to Kinkos to make copies?

Teachers are required to not only put up with whatever behavior a student enters the room with, but also to modify it and teach other students AND the unwilling student despite rude and disruptive behaviors.  In serious cases, suspension may be an option, but that only removes the unruly student for a short time.  Expulsion is saved only for severe offenses.  The teacher is expected to manage the unruly student's behavior while at the same time teaching that student and the rest of the class.  Let me give you examples of unruly behavior - these are real experiences I've had - Temper Tantrums (by students up to 8th grade), Foul Language (by kids as young as age 5), Throwing Sharp Objects brought from home, Making Sexual Remarks and Gestures, Standing on Desks and Tables, Running Out of the Classroom, Refusal to Do Anything, Fighting, Cell Phones, Throwing Chairs and Desks, Talking Back when Disciplined, Wandering Around the Room, Tripping Other Students, Harassing Other Students - I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  Teachers are expected to modify these behaviors, tolerate them while modifying them, make these habitual offenders pass the "Sacred Standardized Test," and teach the other students in the class while several students may be doing the above behaviors.

Teachers are Professionals, and it's time that they are recognized as such.  Yes, there are bad teachers.  Yes, there are bad doctors, but we don't complain about the entire profession because of a few bad doctors, do we?  Teachers are assessed unfairly.  They are assessed by how many students pass a statistically invalid "standardized" test.  Do doctors get assessed by how many of their patients live?  Last time I checked, the death rate of humans was right about 100%.  Doctors aren't looking so good right now, are they?

Let me address some issues head on:

But teachers get 3 months off. - Yes, that's true, but teachers didn't determine that.  That was determined long ago by the agricultural schedule and then written into state laws.  If you don't like it, write to your legislators - we see how effective they are!

Our schools are failing. - That depends on certain factors.  1. Define failing.  According to the No Child Left Behind Act, a "Failing School" is any school in which 1 sub-group does not meet expected requirements on the "standardized" test.  A sub-group is any group that has 40 or more students in the school (ex. Boys, Girls, Whites, Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, Hispanics, Special Education Students, Students of Poverty, etc.).  FACT - I taught in a school that had 20 sub-groups.  One group did not meet the expected requirement.  That school was labeled as failing.  Last time I checked, 19 out of 20 was 95%.  I don't know of a school where 95% is an "F."

Also, look at where the schools that are failing are.  They (for the most part) are not in rich suburbs.  They are mostly in impoverished areas and in areas made up of racial minorities.  Can we say "institutional segregation????"

Teachers are overpaid. - I ask, Compared to what?  Do not tell me that since teachers are paid by tax dollars they are overpaid.  If you use that excuse, then Congress is overpaid, the President is overpaid, all of the Government Officials are overpaid, Police are overpaid, etc.  (For the record: I am NOT saying that Police are overpaid - that was intentional "shock value" in order to make a point).  We do not complain that the President of our Bank is overpaid, though the money we deposit pays that salary.  We do not complain that the CEO of the Grocery Store we frequent is overpaid, though the cost of groceries reflect his or her salary.  We buy brand name items because they are better quality than generic items (in some cases).  Why is paying for a quality education too much to ask through our taxes?  We also forget that Teachers are professionals! They not only teach reading, writing, math, science, music, art, social studies, history, science, etc., but they also diagnose reasons why a student may not be learning (provided it is not a medical reason) and adapt to that individual student (and often there are multiple students in one classroom.  They are required in most districts to earn a Master's Degree - often at their own expense (sometimes with little financial help from the district, and very rarely with full financial help from the district).

I get it, no one likes taxes.  Every April, the vein in my forehead throbs just a little harder as I find out what I owe.  But, I'd rather know that my money is going to support good teachers than our Congress who can't seem to accomplish much of anything - unless providing material for Letterman and Leno is considered part of their job.

The children suffer when teachers strike. - No one knows that more than teachers! Teachers strike so that children won't have to suffer long!  If teachers are mistreated by the school boards and government, the children will suffer by unjust laws and practices.

This happened in 2007 in Dayton, Ohio.  Because then Superintendent Dr. Percy Mack and Board President Gail Littlejohn were unable to manage the budget (and made a "shady" deal in buying a new $20 Million office building for the central administrators), Dayton was $30 Million in the hole (despite the fact that the Official Legal 5-Year Financial Forecast stated that Dayton Public Schools WOULD NOT be in debt for 5 years - and then the debt would be $600 Thousand). As a result Dayton laid off 300 teachers - myself included.  Who suffered?  Yes, we teachers did, but we could find new jobs.  The children suffered in having larger class sizes, less teachers to help, younger and newly trained teachers were cut due to tenure rules, etc. Test scores dropped to horrible levels. Morale among the entire community dropped.  5 years later, Dayton is still trying to recover.

It's time for America to wake up and support Teachers.  Teachers are not the enemy.

Remember when teachers caused a recession - needed a bail out - caused millions of lay offs - and left the economy in the state that it's in?  Oh yeah, neither do I.

***Just a few hours after publishing this, the Chicago Teachers' Union Delegates voted to suspend the strike (9/18/12)***

The Material and The Spiritual

In Christianity, there is often a confusion between the proper understanding of the "material" and the "spiritual."  We're often taught to put our Spiritual needs ahead of our Material (or Fleshly) needs.  While that is true, people often take that to the extreme - an extreme that is not the intent of God.

In Genesis 1:1-2:3 we have the first Creation Story of the Bible.  Following that in Genesis 2 is another Creation Story.  Some consider Genesis 2 to be a continuation, but if you read it closely, it is very different in its details.  That doesn't mean that either is wrong.  In fact, both are right - People just ask the wrong questions.  Genesis 5 can also be seen as a Creation Story in the fact that it's a genealogy.  Showing the progression of people from one generation to another is a type of Creation.

Let me start off by saying that Religion and Science ARE NOT in contention.  They ask and seek to answer 2 inherently different questions.  Science seeks to answer "how" things came to be.  Religion seeks to answer "why" things came to be.  Yes, that's an oversimplified explanation.

The Bible is a living, breathing, inspired by God - written by humans, work.  Genesis is no exception.  The Creation story here in the same vain is no exception.  This Creation Story IS NOT a Science text book.  It is not a How to Create Your Own World in Seven Days book.  That doesn't mean it's not true.

Think of the story of "The Boy who Cried Wolf."  The boy was sent out to watch sheep.  He was bored.  Two times, to cure his boredom, he screamed "Wolf! Wolf!"  Both times, the villagers came running to save him and the sheep.  Both times, the boy was lying.  Then, a wolf finally did come, and they boy screamed again.  This time, no one believed his screaming and the wolf ate all his sheep.

Is "The Boy who Cried Wolf" true?  That depends on what you mean by true.  Did it really happen as told?  Probably not.  Does it teach a lesson that is true?  Definitely yes!

Did Genesis 1 happen exactly as it's written?  I don't know - God didn't invite me when creating the world.  Is it true? Absolutely - God did create the world!

Why did God create?  We can get hints in this passage, but we get the full answer in the context of the whole Bible.  God created because God is Love.  Love can't help but create!  Think of when you were a little kid in elementary school.  How many times did you write "Billy Loves Suzy" on pieces of paper and hand them to your sweetheart?  Artists can't help but create out of love - and even anger is redirected love.  Musicians make music out of love.  People bake cookies out of love.  Carpenters build out of love.  Farmers plant out of love.  Of course our love is not perfect like God's.  Of course we don't create in the same way - from nothing.  But love creates.

Why did God create?  God created the world for the final creation - Humans.  God gave humans dominion over all creation.  Why? Because God saw everything and said it was very good!  We often confuse the meaning of dominion.  Dominion does not mean exploitation.  Dominion means responsible care. Think of it this way:  If I ask you to housesit for me while I go out of town and tell you that you have dominion of my house.  You can use my whole house - my TV, my rooms, my stove, my computer, my porch, and so on.  Your job is to have dominion and keep it safe.  If you truly take your charge seriously, you would not start off by having a keg party and inviting 50 of your felon stoner friends over for an "anything goes" party.  That would be taking advantage of my house.  If you did take your charge seriously, you would use my house, but clean up after yourself, sleep in the bed and then make the bed, watch TV and then turn it off, make sure to lock the doors, and so on.

This world is God's.  We have dominion.  We are to care for it - not rule it - not exploit it.

God made us material beings in a material world.  The material things in life are not inherently bad if we don't forget the Spiritual (cough *God).  Often, when we do enjoy the material things of the world, someone will pull some verse from Romans 8 about the Evils of the Flesh.  They aren't totally wrong, but they are misquoting Paul if they are being extreme.  Paul does say that the Flesh can be evil.  What Paul means is that the Flesh (the Material) should be secondary to the Spiritual (God).

God gave us creation to enjoy, to use, to care for, to love.  But, as we do that, we need to remember who gave us the Material.

Gregory of Nyssa - one of the Church Fathers who lived from 335-395 spoke of Holy Communion.  He said that it is made of material bread and wine (or juice) because we are material beings.  But these material elements remind us of a spiritual truth - the reality of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.