Teachers on the Defensive

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

The closing of Frank Bruni's Op-Ed:

“Our very best teachers ought to be treated much, much better than they are today,” said Joe Williams, the executive director of Democrats for Education Reform. “But in order to get there, we need to be able to say out loud that some teachers are better than others.”

That’s precisely what “Won’t Back Down” says. Although the movie is bound, in this politically charged climate, to be analyzed solely in terms of the position it seems to take on parent trigger or its qualms with union behavior, it’s ultimately about the impact of superior teaching, the need to foster more of it and the importance of school accountability. Who could quibble with any of that?

Call me a quibbler...

Two quick reasons:

• As for the first paragraph above, I can do that: "Some teachers are better than others"...as are doctors, lawyers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, entertainers, athletes, CEOs, politicians, and pundits. The Declaration of Independence's "All men are created equal" was an ideal (that intentionally left out women, along with a multitude of minorities.) That ideal will never be achieved in the real world, no matter how much criticism and/or training. Everywhere you look, you will find the good, the bad, and the average. To demand that all teachers be "superior" is dumb. To assert that some teachers want to be bad is, well, dumber.

• As for the new era of education reformers and their call for accountability and the elimination of unions...TOTAL BS. No accountability tool has been invented to objectively measure what makes a "good teacher", much less a "superior" teacher. And, it's not "just a matter of time" until that happens; it will never happen. And, even if it did...rogue school administrators would twist it to their own self-serving purposes...not for the well-being of "the children". The 1% can afford to hire a stable of lawyers to fight their battles...not so for the 99%. That teachers have found a way to even the playing field and hire lawyers to defend against the wrongs perpetrated by administrators with god-complexes, well, get used to it.