Good Teaching--Interrupted

I have been teaching long enough now that I have the pleasure of watching some of my former students become my colleagues. One of them is Maxwell, a young man now in his early thirties whom  I have known since he was a ninth grader.  Thoughtful, respectful, and intelligent, Maxwell has always leaned toward public service.  He was raised in a foster home by a loving, elderly couple, and after their deaths, helped to raise his two younger sisters. After graduating from college with honors, he served two tours in Iraq; then the married father of two boys decided he wanted to be a teacher and a role model to other Black young men.

Max has taught history at several high schools, and is highly respected by co-workers and students. For those who care about numbers, every year that he has taught, 95% of Max’s students have succeeded on the state’s history exit exam (with the exception of one year when the average slipped to 87%).  Like so many of us, Max spends large amounts of his personal time and money on his students.  He prepares lessons weeks in advance, constantly reflects and monitors his own work, pursues his own professional development, and volunteers for extra duties at the school, all without additional compensation.

You would think he’d be a poster for the future of teaching: a successful, minority male teacher who cares about his students and whose students perform well academically. You’d think his school administrators would be thrilled to have him on their staff and support his efforts.

Think again.

Max, who is also a deacon in our church, sat with me after service recently and explained why he has decided to look for other career options.  I had followed the saga over the last year and a half since his school changed principals (again) and had been put under state receivership because of administrative/financial mismanagement issues and low student performance (obviously, not Max’s students).  The new principal, a transfer from an elementary school in another district, is according to the teachers, “weak” in dealing with high school students or administrative issues.  The tipping point for Max, however, has been the state-appointed consultant who has been given carte blanche to evaluate and dictate teaching practice to all faculty--including those who don’t need such micromanaging.  

“It’s like everything I do or want to do now is unacceptable,” he told me, almost in tears. “I just can’t take it anymore.” He has been threatened by his new principal with firing on the grounds of insubordination (we are a right -to-work state), unless he stops disagreeing with the consultant and simply “does what he is told.” Being fired on those grounds would also put his teaching license in jeopardy.

This particular situation carries heavy racial overtones: the consultant is a white woman, with limited teaching experience herself, and none teaching African American students. What she does have is a lot of educational theory, a laundry list of generic best practices, and authority from the district leadership to tell every teacher what and how to teach, even in subjects for which she has no pedagogical background.  If this were just one consultant in one school causing problems for one highly effective teacher, the situation could be salvageable, and so might Maxwell’s career.  Unfortunately, similar scenes are being played out in predominantly Black and poor schools all across the Delta, and the nation.    

Maxwell, like many of my young Black students, wants to remain here in the Delta, where he is needed.  The Mississippi Delta has been an area of chronic teacher shortage for over 25 years, and growing our own teachers is clearly the best long-term solution to that problem.  Yet, it is some of our best, Black teachers who have been targeted by would-be reformers as problems that need to be whipped into line or pushed out of our schools.  Another of my students has become principal of what was a struggling school, whose students face many economic and social obstacles. The elementary school has met or exceeded its learning goals each year of her principalship, yet the district instead of rewarding and supporting her work, has cut the school’s funding more than other lower performing ones in the district. The district also, without input from parents, re-shuffled student school assignments so that the school’s highest performing students were moved to other schools.

The stress of wanting to continue doing what Max believes is his professional best for his students but being prevented, even forbidden, from doing so has taken its toll on this diligent young teacher.  He told me he’s looking at a job with a textbook company or maybe taking an offer from a company looking for someone to do workforce training (both of which pay more than his classroom teaching job). Meanwhile, our schools continue to churn through temporary instructors from various alternative programs or long-term substitutes causing untold disruption and damage to the hopes and dreams of our children.

My heart breaks for Maxwell and the many other wonderful Black teachers like him who are being forced to make such unnecessary and harmful choices.  My heart breaks for the students whose education is being compromised and short-changed by administrative decisions that put self-promotion and preservation ahead of real student needs and potential.  But sadness and disgust, alone,  won’t change anything. We can’t say we want high quality teachers in every classroom, if we’re not going to allow them to do high quality teaching. Otherwise, a free, quality public education for every American child remains only a partially filled dream and an empty promise. I’m more determined than ever to continue fighting for teacher voice and teacher leadership in public education, and more important, encouraging the next generation of teachers to take up that fight. 

Comments

[CohenD]

Renee, your post breaks my heart as well. What could be more sad, or a more powerful indictment of the current state of the profession, than hearing how a much-needed, highly motivated and capable person is driven from the classroom by people who may not understand and certainly couldn't do his job? I fully understand Max's response. How much sacrifice can we ask of one person? In a way, your reaction is the more difficult one for me to understand, which makes it admirable, too (not to suggest any lack of admiration for the accomplishments and service of your young colleague). As disheartening as this post may be, your perseverance inspires me, and others, I hope.

[Elena Aguilar]

What a poignant story that encapsulates it all. Particularly chilling - the racial dynamics with the consultant. You tell it so well. Thank you for sharing.

[TeachMoore]

Thank you both, Elena and David. It has been especially hard watching this happen to someone whom I have watched grow over the years, and whom I know had so much to offer to the young people of our community. But it also represents much larger issues in our profession right now.

Look for the soon to be released report from the Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching of which I was proud to be part. It will speak forcefully to how we can move to correct these issues.

[Meg Torres]

Renee, In no way would I want to diminish the impact on effective teachers of color. I can only imagine what they are experiencing and how this ultimately affects the children they touch. I recognize the specific and vital importance of having these role models in our educational system for our children. Still, as I read the article, I could completely relate to Maxwell's situation even though I am white and teach in a more upscale population. These mandates and regulations are affecting ALL effective teachers. I also have a very high success rate in growing my kids and am a National Board Certified teacher, but I am daily treated as a first year teacher with absolutely no track record.

[TeachMoore]

Thank you so much, Meg, for bringing that important truth to our attention. I've commented on that more than once here, too. That's one of the larger issues I reference here. Across the country, teachers who truly are high quality, highly accomplished working in classrooms are routinely ignored or disrespected, when in fact we should be not just acknowledged but given leadership both in our classrooms and in the forefront of true education reform.

[Susan]

You know, this story of "school improvement" made me think of those knife demonstrations at the mall where the guy with the headset shows you the "incredible new slicing, dicing tool that allows the everyday housewife to become a kitchen magician." He whips out potato curls and radish roses and all sorts of other novelty items and people step up and buy because the believe the magic is in the tool, not in the skill of the handler. They don't notice that while they may get a potato curl and a radish rose, most of the potato goes to waste, they don't like radishes, they have no idea of what to do with a potato curl once they get one. They just know that if they buy this tool, they'll be empowered!

So they put their money on the counter, take the magic carving kit home, and put it in the drawer. Then they continue to use the old paring knife that is durable, dependable, and adaptable as an all purpose tool to pry open a lock, tighten up a screw, scrap off some glue, cut through some tape and cardboard. And then the wonder why it doesn't cut up vegetables very well.

Never mind, they saw the fully automated vegamatic advertised on the home shopping network for only 15 payments of $29.99 including shipping and handling. They'll order one--clearly it's the solution they've been waiting for.

It is disheartening when well meaning, but misguided people do stupid things because of their ignorance and arrogance. We lose teachers like Max and children are deprived of a stable caring environment that they need to succeed all because decision makers are such easy targets for the flimflam man.

I hope Max can figure out how to find a way to stay in the classroom and continue to be a role model of perseverance and grace under pressure for his students just you were and continue to be for him.

[TeachMoore]

Susan,
Loved that analogy. It applies to these situations in another way as well. Truly masterful classroom teachers make what they do look easy, much like an experienced jazz musician improvising on stage. What the audience doesn't see are the hours of practice, listening, and the interaction between the soloist and the other members of the band or group.

In school settings, many short-sighted administrators and policymakers still treat teachers as if they are interchangeable, and good teaching as if it were just a matter of mimicking some magical best practices.

How do we help move them away from this erroneous and wasteful thinking?