Last night I listened to Dick Feagler and his Friends on WVIZ discuss Governor Strickland's education plan for the state of Ohio, slated to be piloted in the Cleveland Municipal Schools. When Mr Feagler asked his panel's opinion of the proposed 200 day school year, all of his highly educated guests nodded in agreement. "Of course it is a GREAT idea!" "Some other countries have school years even longer than 200 days." "Another month of school makes sense. We need to prepare Ohio's children to compete in a global economy." "It's about time. After all, the current 180 day school calendar is outdated, being based on the needs of last century's agrarian society."
I noticed none of his guests were teachers.
The view from the people who work on the frontlines of education was substantially different.
As I sat with a small group of colleagues eating lunch in the teachers' lounge the day after the governor's State of the State address, one of them asked, "So did you hear Strickland wants to add another 20 days to the school year?"
One of the guys, who had two kids in college smiled and said,"Another month of work will equal an additional month of pay, right?"
"That's great," commented a young teacher with only a few years in the district, "but where is the money coming from? The school board is already talking about the possibility of hundreds of teacher lay-offs."
"Maybe they don't intend to increase our salaries, just extend the calendar."
Another teacher asked "How about all of the new teachers with bachelors' degrees who need to get their masters' degree to keep their license? Without the summer semester, when will they have time to take classes?"
"And when will we be able to take all the coursework we need to meet the No Child Left Behind mandate to stay "Highly Qualified'? You know businesses pay their employees tuition to upgrade their qualifications. We teachers have always had to foot the bill ourselves, but at least we had the time to do it. Now it looks like we won't get the compensation or the time."
I added, "I'm assuming all of the folks on the Governor's committee who came up with this recommendation work in air conditioned offices in July and August."
The rest of the group laughed. "I'll bet they never had to spend a single day sweltering in a 95 degree office, let alone shut up for hours in close quarters with 30 sweaty, complaining kids, in a room with one door and windows that don't open. Do they even realize that most schools in Cleveland have no air conditioning (except for maybe the administrators' offices) and our classroom windows are nailed shut for security reasons?"
"The district doesn't even provide us with fans. Teachers who need a fan have to bring in their own. On hot days I need at least three in my classroom just to feel some circulation."
"You get a few students in the class whose families don't have washing machines in their homes...Phew! Some of the kids can get pretty ripe on a hot day. A lot of the kids from poor families don't wash their school clothes on a regular basis. I feel embarrassed for them."
"And sorry for the rest of us!"
"It figures...the suburbs have new buildings with air conditioning, but they want to pilot the 200 day calendar in the decrepit schools of Cleveland. The politicians want a 21st century education implemented in 20th century facilities, and there's no money to fund it. "
"But if we complain, we are perceived as lazy, greedy and incompetent."
"The headlines, of course, will read, 'Cleveland Teachers Union Against School Reform'. "
"Sometimes it seems like we are being set-up to look like the bad guys. Is this just a political ploy to make it appear as if the state is trying to do something about education, or is it a back-door attempt at union-busting?"
Sadly, I shook my head and sighed, "It's probably both."
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15 comments:
I think every "expert" should spend some time in a real classroom to see what it's like (preferably at the end of the year when the students are all burned out).
How do they figure that just adding more days will solve anything?
My only serious struggle with living in Cleveland and seeing my kids through schools here is how often a suggestion for fixing an acknowledged problem is met first with the 101 reasons why the suggestion is lousy and doomed to fail. How would things be different if teachers in lounges all over the city reacted to this plan instead by discussing, recording, and submitting to Governor Strickland's office (www.governor.ohio.gov) their 101 suggestions for how to make it work? Or even their 101 substantiated reasons for believing that students' education needs are more effectively served by the current calendar?
As the spouse of a career teacher, I feel your pain, MB.
I'm glad I found you from John Ettore's blog. I teach in cleveland Heights - and of course, we have all said the same things as you have. It's easy for "THEM" to say, isn't it?
As a student that just graduated High school and struggling in College, i wish i felt like my high school cared about its students. I wasn't a bad kid at all and i tried very hard in school. But i feel like we need everything in his plan for it to work including the 20 days. Spent on learning more. Im even in college to become a teacher, and i have researched this plan like its my job. But honestly America should not be one of the lowest educated countries, and adding 20 days is the only thing people are strongly opposing? I mean im not a teacher i can't speak for everyone and money is a definite concern, but why can't we try it? The countries that have the higher education are the ones with 200 days.
Wow, MB - One of guys in that group was my former boss at Boundless Flight. Altho i don't miss listening to glen beck everyday, you see where working for conservative jerks can be tough
you know youre absoluttly right miss, why not try that 200 day school year in the suburbs, and i know i can speak for my self that by the end of the school year we are all burned out, and add to that the 95 degree rooms, you get a recepy for desaster at least our school is by the lake and we get a breze from time to time but can you imagine the response from the rest of the students in other schools, and plus its not really how long the school year is, is how well we the students undertand, thats why some students drop out, they dont see the point in continuing to keep up with something that they dont get, and with something were they recive from little to no help in. i mean i would love classes with smaller student to teacher ratio it would give us at least a better chanse of understanding what is being taught. but nooooooooooooooo the schools just keep on putting more students in smaller schools thats just asinine.
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