The Problem No One Wants to Talk About
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By Paul S. Williams 
My wife taught her final day of public school this past May. Cathy taught for 11 years in New York and five years in Colorado. During most of that time she taught the third grade.
When Cathy started teaching she had tireless energy and great expectations. She went to school early and often stayed until 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. She was consistently the most requested third-grade teacher in her New York schools, and she has been plenty popular in Colorado as well. Cathy has been greatly appreciated and well liked by principals, fellow teachers, students, and parents. But she is done—finished—and not happy.
It was when No Child Left Behind entered the school lexicon that Cathy first felt the pressure to “teach to the test.” As far as I can tell, it is also when she began to lose her love for teaching.
Politicians talk about the need for qualified teachers who care. While there were a couple of bad apples in her New York school, most of the teachers were extraordinarily gifted and capable. Her fellow teachers in Colorado were the most enjoyable group with whom she ever worked. In other words, the problem does not appear to be “qualified teachers who care.”
I see the work Cathy does at home and I have watched her in the classroom. She is extraordinary. The evening before her final day she wrote a long letter to each child in her class. She read the letters in front of the children and sent her handwritten sentiments home with them. From past experience I know the children keep those letters for life.
So what hastened her burnout? One problem was administrators constantly looking for the next “new thing.” Remember “whole language”? We now have a generation of adults who cannot spell. But there is a much bigger problem than well-meaning but overzealous administrators. The biggest problem is not teachers, administrators, curriculum, or funding. The biggest problem is parents. No matter how great a teacher you are, there is a limit to how effective you can be when parents are not doing their jobs. Only parents can decide when the television goes off and the homework comes out. Only parents can model reading at home.
In her final years of teaching, one of Cathy’s greatest frustrations was parents who did not even bother to attend the school’s open house or parent-teacher conferences. Even those who valued education were so busy trying to stay alive they were happy to leave Johnny’s ABC’s up to the school.
So Cathy is retiring. It is sad, really. It is the children who suffer when we lose our best teachers. It is not the American education system that needs an overhaul. It is the American family.
Great article; brief and to the point. It’s bound to hit home with a lot of teachers among whom I have many friends. So glad I was long out of school before this nonsense legislation took effect.
Excellent article! I was privileged to teach 7th and 8th grade Science and Social Studies for ten years in my district in South Carolina. The introduction of standards for teaching has given us technicians in the classrooms, not teachers. Teachers are those who decide what is important. Technicians do what others tell them to do. Teachers are those who inspire by example. Technicians simply perform a task. Teachers connect with their students. Technicians connect with technology. Teachers are energized by teaching. Technicians are bored by teaching. Teachers encourage their students to reach as high as they can. Technicians produce students who simply meet the standards. Teachers love the subject they are teaching. Technicians adapt to the subject they are teaching. Teachers change lives. Technicians change methods. Teachers are indispensable. Technicians are interchangeable.
I am so there with her! I do not think I might be able to go on 10 more years in the classroom doing what I love. Too bad the ones that are reading this already know it. Administrators and parents need to read this. Should we make copies and hand out during open house, since these are coming up very soon!???
I’ll just keep praying!
Spot on!
Unfortunately, the story is true and repeated by many teachers. Also, unfortunately, these are perennial complaints about parents I’ve heard through the years, from multiple generations of teachers (except homeschooling ones). You can read about these same issues in old books and plays.
There’s always the next PhD to disrupt the education system with another miraculous teaching method.
Unfortunately, my guess is that this is played out in the realm of discipleship as well. I can only speak to my experience in the last 12 years at two different churches, but I’ve worked with a lot of students who don’t seem to get a whole lot of spiritual input at home beyond “Go to church.”
So how do we go about overhauling the American family?
Well said. Thanks.
As a society we have become comfortable with turning over almost all of the responsibility of raising our children to someone or something else. The same thing is happening in our churches.
Perhaps, rather than perpetuating the model, the church can have a big impact in setting the example for turning the hearts of the fathers (parents) to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers (parents). We should consider moving away from the model of fully outsourcing the responsibility of educating our children to an “organization”. The Biblical model seems to be that the fathers are given the responsibility to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
I would argue that this task is significantly more important than the three R’s per se. However, most likely, in homes where the parents are taking an active role in teaching their children the truths from the Bible, they will also be very involved with the three R’s. I would suggest that our primary objective would be to set the example (and expectation) that parents assume their God-given responsibility with their children. We should become focused on equipping the parents for this responsibility.
It is a difficult message to share and a big pill to swallow for those who have to change. In order to accomplish this, it will require some radical changes to the current norm. Is it worth it? I think so.
May God be glorified through us.
At last…. The voice of sanity about the so-called ‘failure’ of the American education system. With exceptions of course….it is not the administrators, teachers, programs or facilities. It is the chaos in the homes kids are coming out of today. Daily drama as many moms and dads possess no spiritual tap root or true family values. Deadly divorce that creates poverty and single parents doing two jobs with no time for affection, interaction or help with homework. What’s the answer? 5-3 word imperatives [that will sound alot like cliches]: Preach the Word. Live the Truth. Win the lost. Be the church. Build the church.
A miracle of Biblical proportions will take place in Indiana in 2014 … every child will pass the ISTEP performance test. That’s what I tell state legislators whenever I get the chance.
Those in authority seem to have forgotten that the bell curve has two ends … with the majority being declared average. Those in the classroom continually try in six hours a day to overcome lives that have no foundation the other 18.
My wife has been an educator for 35 years and at times would trade her job to work as a greeter at Walmart. However when things get bad something good comes along…. Just this last week a former student stopped by to see her (she has taught LD the last twenty years) and told her ….” When I came to your class I couldn’t read, but now that I’m in high school I make mostly A’s and want to be a Chemical engineer” ….. When she needed encouraged most God sent that young man to her to fan the fire of teaching once again. Teachers do make a difference one life at a time. Let them know you appreciate them!
Thanks to all of you for some incredibly beautiful and inspiring responses. I’m thinking’ I struck a chord when I wrote that one.
Paul
I understand the frustration and agree that parents are indeed a major part of the problem. Don’t agree that all teachers are as dedicated as your wife”was”. I have picked up my kids and grandkids from school for a number of years and watched as the first ones out of the school when the bell rings at the end of the day where teachers. I would also say that I am concerned about her giving up. This does not meet the needs of those who don’t have the necessary parenting. Also, what if we just gave up on being a Christian because everyone did not seem willing to do their part. What if Jesus had said “I Quit” instead of “Father, Your Will Be Done.” I applaud her years of teaching but question the quitting. I hope she reconsiders.