Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2006 > June > 21 > Entry
Quitting teaching in disgust
Just after I mentioned that some of the best teacher blogs are probably not well known, I discovered an interesting one I’d not seen before through the Carnival of Education, hosted this week at the Why Homeschool? blog.
The carnival is a weekly compilation of the best education blogging of the week, usually hosted at The Education Wonks blog. The best post this week is from a first year teacher who has been agonizing about whether she should stick with her new profession in an appropriately-named blog called Should I Stay or Should I Go?
In this post, she makes her decision …
…and she’s decided to quit. The final straw? At the end of the school year she was pressured to pass two kids who should have failed. It’s a sad, discouraging story.
On another note, I’ve also been included for the past two weeks in The Carnival of Ohio Politics. This week, they included my post on Ohio voucher spin vs. reality, a post that also drew a response on the education blog, Edspresso.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: The Carnival of Education
Comments
By Rick
June 25, 2006 12:08 PM | Link to this
Oldprof, you have got to be kidding about your comment of the Fordham Foundation wanting to keep kids ignorant. In “A Nation at Risk,” (1983) there were no charter schools and homeschooling was a small blip on the horizon. The problems discussed in that report and others (Let’s not forget the conspiracy to keep kids ignorant by the whole word reading advocates) related to public schools. There is plenty of blame to go around.By Ms Cornelius
June 22, 2006 9:22 AM | Link to this
Ironically, the most pressure I ever endured to fudge grades and the like occurred when I taught middle school, where there are really NO consequnces for failing to learn the material at all. It was all about “self-esteem.” My take? Students who are “given” a passing grade who haven’t earned it have had their “self-respect” damaged. I once taught at a parochial school in which the teachers had to sign the students’ records verifying the grade assigned and the recommendation for placement the next year. I refused to do so on one student’s records, when the principal wrote a C over the F that the student had earned, simply because his family gave a lot of money to the parish. I quit two months later, of my own accord, in disgust. Apparently, the writer at SISOSIG also had a crazy schedule with a multitude of preps. That alone is a great way to drive teachers— new or experienced— out of the profession.By Terri
June 21, 2006 10:14 PM | Link to this
As one of the comments on her blog asked - what sort of pressure was brought to bear on the teacher? She had decided to resign anyway and not teach in the future. Why not leave with your integrity intact?By Oldprof
June 21, 2006 5:22 PM | Link to this
True, Mary—but there is no “right thing” here; the education system loses a teacher who was becoming good at her job. The teacher goes through a spell of unemployment and must re-invent herself. The children don’t have to learn anything. The administrators get to continue to slough off their responsibility. And the Fordham Foundation and John Husted will continue to conspire to “keepum ignunt” by turning education into a political and social football. There are no winners here, and I doubt that the right people will lose the most, especially since one-party rule has prevented anyone from even mounting a serious challenge to State Representative Mr. Charter School.By Mary
June 21, 2006 2:25 PM | Link to this
It is a serious cultural problem when people of ability, integrity and conscience feel compelled to resign from their career in order to regain their integrity. That is why we have things like whistleblowers’ acts, etc. Unfortunately, what this teacher experienced is probably not uncommon for education and other public service and private jobs. That she took a stand or felt bad for not taking a firmer stand might favorably impact and inspire others as word gets out in her school district. That is the silver lining - she cared enough to act and take a stand and not simply succumb to being another wage slave. Her resignation from teaching is not simply her loss - it is a loss to us all - but hopefully, her actions will inspire others to say as in the old movie “Network” - “I am mad as **, and I am not going to take it anymore”. She should be on the cover of Time magazine like everyday people a few years ago who were named “person of the year” and blew the whistle in Enron (on corruption) and the FBI (on terrorism issues).