From student to teacher
by Molly Thacker on May 11 2009 Posted in Class notes
I made the decision to become a high school teacher while sitting in Mr. Mendelson’s Honors U.S. Studies class in the 11th grade. Wiry with a wry sense of humor, he was not the first teacher to make an impression on me, but he was the first who made me imagine what it would be like to teach. He made me think. He made me want to do my best. He miraculously made The Red Badge of Courage interesting. Most importantly, he made me want to be a part of this world that includes inspiring students to think critically and creatively on a daily basis.
In that same year, I was given Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol as a Christmas present and devoured it. Though this text is perhaps now a clichéd introduction to urban education issues, it was transformative for me. I particularly connected with the chapter on East St. Louis, which forced me to reconcile the fact that an entirely different world existed just across the river from my suburban St. Louis high school. From that point on, I knew that I would always work in an urban high school, but I never knew that my path would take me to Philadelphia. I came here as a Teach For America transplant four years ago; for me, the organization was a means to teach in a city with the supports I instinctively knew I would need. Now that I’m here in Philadelphia, I can’t imagine being anywhere else, or doing anything else, and I plan to continue teaching here for as long as they’ll have me.
While I remain very much committed to Philadelphia public schools, I am also interested in exploring through this blog the idea of teacher sustenance. I hope to begin discussion on such critical questions for teachers as: how do you maintain hope in an environment that sometimes seems hopeless? How do you continue to bring creativity and commitment every day to a place that everyone is simultaneously trying to escape from? How do you ward off disillusionment, even as a new teacher? And, how do you stay connected to the passion that brought you into teaching when you passionately hate all the testing that takes you away from doing what you love?
Some of my teaching mentors began their careers in Philadelphia public schools during the 1970s. Besides admiring the impact they have had on students in Philadelphia, I have often marveled at how they stayed in the district for so long without losing steam or focus. Perhaps they are made of a different stuff than other teachers who struggle to stay, or maybe something truly is different about urban education today?
I have always appreciated the Notebook for validating the voices of the students and teachers of Philadelphia schools, which often go overlooked or overpowered, and I look forward to contributing to that chorus of voices here at this blog.
Comments (15)
Submitted by Samuel Reed III on Mon, 05/11/2009 - 21:09.
Hello Blog Mate. I am excited to read your blog.
Submitted by Erika Owens on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 10:43.
The Google example gets a little dicey since a lot of the amenities are also to make it as easy as possible for people to stay at work as long as possible and I don't really think that's a good thing (even if it does ensure people have clean clothes).
I think the bigger lesson with Google is that free time that they give their programmers to work on their own projects. They actually get 20% of their time to work on other projects, and as that link says, that's given us features like Google Reader. This could absolutely translate in a school, more time for staff meetings, supporting teachers in professional development, giving teachers time to really investigate a topic they love and could share with their students.
The combination of autonomy and treating people well seems to be treating people like professionals, and yes, trusting them. Maybe some people won't use that trust well, but you can't operate under that assumption or you'll never get stuff like Google Reader!
Submitted by Terry (not verified) on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 10:51.
The time to work on their own goes to even a bigger point I think: I work at an engineering and consulting firm and just in the typical way that we do business, there is plenty of time for me to consult with my colleagues, get suggestions from them, look over similar work that they have performed. I have found this to be the best way to learn how to do my job better and teachers seem to have very little time to work collaboratively in such a manner.
Submitted by Mattie (not verified) on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 22:20.
This is just fabulous! It will be with a super sense of pride that I will read your words. All the best!
Submitted by dportnoy on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 12:53.
Congratulations on your blog! As one of those teachers who continued for a long time in the district, I find your concerns and interests here compelling. I worry that 1) the District isn't focusing sufficiently on retention of teachers, (as opposed to recruitment), 2) that we have to begin to understand that most teachers may not stay in the profession for 25 or 35 years, 3) that the national focus on test preparation and scripted curriculum will force creative people out of the profession as it will not be sufficiently intellectually challenging, and 4) that new teachers will not be willing to put up with some of the difficult situations that I and others lived through and will leave. In retrospect, though, I am happy that I kept doing it - I learned more and more every year.
Dina Portnoy
Submitted by Terry (not verified) on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 09:34.
Do you think the decline of teachers staying with one school for multiple decades is a specific issue with education/psd or just an incarnation of the increased rate at which people change jobs that is being seen across all industries?
Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 15:21.
Well, Terry...maybe the fact that the working conditions in Philly schools rival the conditions in Bosnia...during the war...maybe that explains why 50 percent of the teachers have left by the 3rd year of teaching...
Americans are not keen in being threatened and cursed at during their worktime...
Go into the neighborhood schools and you will see the reason why teachers are leaving the Philly schools in droves...
Submitted by Erika Owens on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 15:29.
I'm not Dina, but...I think it's a little of both. People are working more jobs for shorter duration than in the past. People coming out of high school/college nowadays definitely do not have the expectation of staying at the same company till they retire with a nice pension. I don't think that's because young people nowadays are different than 50 years ago, but I think the fact that you don't have a pension at most jobs is one reason people move around a lot. There is limited mobility in many jobs so people move around a lot to continue to gain more experience/income. A bit of a chicken/egg problem here, are people just moving around a lot more or are they being forced to move around a lot more?
As the other commenter mentioned, the Philly schools have problems of their own, but education shares many of the problems as other fields--limited mobility, etc.
I often think I was born in the wrong time. I'd love to work at the same, stable place for a couple decades and then retire with a pension, but no such luck!
Submitted by Margaret Plotkin (not verified) on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 21:06.
This is my twentieth year as a school librarian in the district. Nothing would make me happier than to have stayed in one place for that time, but I'm now in my thirteenth school, because this district declared war on school libraries after Constance Clayton retired (the last educator to run the district, she understood and valued school librarians). Since 1996, I have not been permitted to remain at any school longer than three years before the budget was cut to the point that a librarian was impossible to retain. I have been force transferred from every school I've been assigned, and it looks like the process will continue, as Dr. Ackerman shows no sign of caring whether her district puts library programs into its schools. The only thing that has saved me is the amount of burnout has kept those with seniority disgusted enough to retire as soon as they qualify, so there is usually some opening, but not always! I've been given emergency certification and forced to take positions I knew I was unqualified for, when there were no jobs available for a librarian. I have worked as a classroom teacher in a high school even though my job classification was Librarian, and this practice is becoming common in our neighborhood high schools. It's not the cursing, the violence, the filthy buildings, the chaos, or the Sisyphean nature of the task that leads to the discouragement and loss of one's ideals. After all, flowers can blossom beautifully when fertilized by waste. You appreciate the victories all the more for the struggle. What has made every one of my librarian colleagues retire (Other than actual illness) was the massive disrespect from Downtown for us as professionals. To them , we are nothing but babysitters to cover teachers' preps. The fact that librarians have never been included in the crafting of the core curriculum, that librarians and LIMAs are considered equivalent, that libraries are "kept open" with noon-time aides, SSAs and parent volunteers, that every library-trained staffer was systematically cut from 440, is a slap in the face that no amount of student abuse can equal.
Submitted by Molly Thacker on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 21:41.
Thank you for your comment. I have always known that librarians were underappreciated, but I did not know the history of the school district's policies that affect your very important presence in schools. I agree that feeling like your profession is not validated or respected can definitely contribute to burnout. What would it look like for teachers, librarians and all members of the education community to be treated like professionals? I think this is a really important issue that I'd like to explore and discuss further.
Submitted by Helen Gym on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 19:51.
I'm a big fan of APSL (Assoc. of Philadelphia School Librarians): They have done an amazing job researching and documenting the dramatic decline in librarians and library services, and, more important, they are using the info to organize and lobby on the issue. It's their research that Parents United has cited when we talk about how an overwhelming majority of elementary schools lack librarians, and its connection to the dismal reading level of young children (barely half of the District's third graders are reading at proficient and above levels). It's our belief that like teachers and principals, librarians - along with a full time nurse, art and music and science teachers, and reading specialists - need to be considered a standard allotment (along with school libraries) for every school that opens.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 17:02.
I have been with the district for more years than I care to count. I was beginning to think that the new crop of teachers did not have the "right stuff." Your blog has filled me with renewed hope and faith that the system will thrive.
Submitted by Ron Whitehorne on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 10:18.
Thanks for your thoughtful post. As a retired teacher who spent upwards of 20 years in the system I want to second Dina's comments about teacher retention.
Submitted by Helen Gym on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 20:01.
Molly: I very much look forward to your thoughtful dialogue as well.
When I was a teacher , one of the things I learned early on was the importance of having supportive social justice, anti-racist educational communities outside my school and the District that could help address the struggles and frustration of daily teaching. It's easy to hunker down into battle mode and begin casting blame on all the forces that make your job so difficult, but that approach often breeds the very problems and resentments and biases that become a part of institutional oppression. The Notebook was one of my earliest homes as a teacher, a community organization was another important home (to remind me that there are many ways to achieve change in families and communities), and Rethinking Schools and a national activist community helped me realize local struggle in a broader national perspective.
Good luck and look forward to more posts!
Post new comment