I have spent a lot of time contemplating the concept of tenure lately. It is a concept so foreign to me and recently I have had to face it and all it’s ugliness with my son and wife. This ridiculous notion is that after you have survived a position for a set period of years, typically as a teacher or professor, you achieve tenure or a permanent posting. Basically, it is easier to have a tenured professor killed and disposed of than fired. It is a strange concept, because near as I can figure, it only protects the bad teachers. I mean, if you’re a great teacher, you would keep your job, right? So the only reason to apply tenure is to make sure that bad teachers can’t be fired. I understand that it also protects good teachers from being let go so a younger, less expensive teacher can be brought in, and at the college level that might make sense. But grade school teachers??? Turns out, tenure can be applied to eighth grade teachers! Let’s start from the beginning…
Jack is halfway through 8th grade. He is a good student, never received a grade lower than a C, mostly A’s and B’s. Prior to winter break he came to us and let us know that he was struggling in history. He found out that he was supposed to be getting “stamps” every so often from his teacher and hadn’t been doing so. There were also a few missing assignments that he says he did, but she couldn’t find. Wanting to make this a teachable moment, Laura and I helped him work out a plan to fix this on his own. First, he went to the teacher and asked if he could be graded at a discount. He had done the work, just didn’t know she was supposed to stamp it for points. This was out of the question, very strict policy against this sort of thing. Next step was to go to the principal.
Full disclosure, at this point I had had a phone conversation with both the teacher and principal, and Laura had spoken with several parents of other students in the same class. Turns out that there were several really good students failing this class. I got nothing from the teacher as an explanation of how our son was FAILING history and we had never heard from her. I asked what the percentage of students a C or better, and she had said she didn’t know and wouldn’t tell me if she did. She had signed off on his playing basketball midway through the first semester. When I asked her how she approved him playing when he had an F, she told me that she was behind on grading papers, so she didn’t know what his grade was then. In speaking to the principal, a person I used to have a lot of respect for, she told us that since Jack couldn’t prove he did the work, she would be taking the teachers word for what happened. She stated that all things being equal she would always side with the teacher. When Jackson finally got a meeting with the principal, he was told “your best bet is to suck up to the teacher and try and get extra points that way”. I am confident she said this to him as she admitted saying it to me. Awesome teaching strategy there, right?
When Jackson met with the teacher and the principal a plan was formed. The teacher had “graciously” (her word) agreed to let him redo the notebook over break and he could earn a max of 80 out of the original 120 points. Great! At least there was a discussion and an actionable plan. So over break, with Laura checking on him, he completed the redo of the notebook. He turned it in and got 67 out of 80. Sweet, that 84% a solid B, right? No, no, no silly. That’s 67 out of 120, she explained. Sorry, still an F, try again next time. So her plan was to set up a makeup assignment that, if perfectly executed, would garner a grade of 67%???
After we found this out Laura called and asked for a meeting with the principal and teacher. This was in early January. Weeks went by. We saw the principal around campus, “I’m working on it:” she said. Exasperated, Laura went to one of the superintendents and asked for some help. Funny how she got a call back the next day, even though the soonest they could meet was another two weeks away. At least we were finally going to get to the bottom of this.
The day of the meeting comes and I can tell Laura is conflicted. Her only goal is for Jackson to “walk” with his class at graduation. At the same time she is aware that my goal is to get this teacher drawn and quartered. I convince her I will be on my best behavior and for the most part I was. Laura made a clear case of why we were confused about her grading structure. How could all these students be failing and it be of no apparent concern to the teacher or principal? The principal informs us that a student can technically have 3 semester F’s and graduate. What??? OK, overcrowding in schools, I get that. What I don’t get is that you have a number of good students failing and there are no alarm bells? No chance the teacher’s system sucks? It got so comical in the meeting that I finally asked that if Jackson was going to fail this class anyway, could he take the F and do study hall or something else productive, rather than sit in this incompetent teacher’s class knowing that he could do no better than an F if he tried his best? Nope, state requirements say he has to sit there. I guess state requirements don’t say that the teacher has to give a crap about the students.
I get that this is a problem all over. Teachers are underpaid and overworked. But there are a lot of really good teachers out there who are out of work. And yet, because of this concept of tenure, my son is stuck with a dinosaur that can’t be fired for incompetence. How have we created a system where a teacher can go through the motions with a complete lack of concern for the students she is charged with teaching, and there are no repercussions? What is the advantage of this system? I wish I had a funny, witty answer to this but I really don’t. It’s pathetic.
Here is the life lesson, Jack. Do what you love, as long as you love it. But as soon as you dread going to work, as this battle axe does, get out. Don’t impose your misery on those around you. Especially if those around you are young minds you are supposed to be molding. But most importantly, don’t sweat the things you can’t change. Enjoy the knowledge you are getting about our great history as a nation, and don’t worry about the grade. Your mom and I know that it is meaningless.
Oh. My. God. This is a version of a story I told, when I was a student teacher, working at an inner city school in San Diego, waaay back in the last millenium! It is a version of a story I experienced with nephews in elementary school in the early 2000’s. It is a version of a story – from the “other side” – that I am experiencing with the daughter of a good friend, who is a 6- year subsitute teacher in Humbolt County; and cannot get a full-time, permenent teaching position…why??? Because, the tenured, for-the-most-part uninspired & complacent teachers AND THEIR PRINCIPALS are running a closed (minded) and impossible school system!
Meanwhile, I applaud yours & Laura’s support for your son! Let him know that “grown ups” all over the State are “with him” AND look forward to him graduating, having a great Summer & rocking High School! Hang in there!
I can understand your frustration since I taught for 33 years. I agree something stinks, but maybe it is not the system of “tenure”. First tenure does not protect you from being fired with cause. If you are a poor teacher it does provide that the “administration” find fault during the evaluation process, then give the teacher an opportunity to improve those poor teaching practices. What you experiences is both poor teaching, (base on your information) and poor administration.
I served as a union rep for a time and saw several cases of the administration being unwilling to properly evaluate a poor teacher. I even had to defend a poor teacher and when I asked the principal what remediation the teacher had failed to perform, the answer was he had failed to require any. Well that summer the teacher was sent back to school to improve and what do you know he was a better teacher. Saddest part of the story is that it was in the 28th year of his teaching that someone finally got around to doing something about his poor teaching. 28 years without a negative evaluation?
Maybe we need to fix a problem and not just throw away a teacher.
If you are serious about improving education please volunteer to guest teach at any cooking class in the area. You will see what is real and I bet you would be great at passing on your passion for “quality” food to the next generation of customers.
After working in a California school district for 10 years, I left. Why?? Because of what I saw: The monetary waste, abuse of working hours and time off, incompetent teachers and principals (who did not do their job) had job security and it made me sick to my stomach. Witnessing new and good teachers stressed out every March of possibly getting a pink slip. And if you spoke up they tried to get rid of you, even though I was a member of the Teacher’s Union. I worked with Teachers, Administrators, Superintendent and the Board Members. I was in a clerical position and answered directly to all of them. Until you work in a school district you have no idea what abuses really goes on. Good for you Adam for speaking up. My suggestion is go to the School Board and file a complaint or speak to several of the members. If they do not respond….FIRE THEM come election time!!
The original idea for tenure was so that teachers could not be fired merely for being politically incorrect. If you didn’t have tenure it would be quite easy to remove professors who were advocating or even teaching about things that horrify the majority (such as racial or sexual equality in decades past). At the college level, and, IMHO in high school, it is good for students to be exposed to a wide variety of political and sociological viewpoints, this necessitates some protection for those holding forth those viewpoints overtly, when such protection would not really make sanse in most other contexts. Tenure (is supposed to be) what protects a teacher who teaches evolution, or makes arguments against abortion or other such things that could easily rile up the parents and thus put pressure on the school to find some easy pretext to get rid of the teacher. Yes, it has been abused, but there was originally a reason for it.
Regards,
Dan
Just wanted to add what is among my (our) proudest moments as a parent. When Adam and I returned from our meeting, Adam did as he said he would and gave Jackson the option of putting all of his energy toward his other classes and “taking the “F””. Jack thought about it for a moment or two and then, in a display of great character, said he wanted to prove his teacher wrong about him and become her most improved student. This is a 13 year old boy who has been given the okay by his parent to basically blow off a class that has made him miserable…and his decision is to fight harder. Unbelievably proud.
Hi Laura, I just now read your comment and I completely get your sense of pride. I have had this experience myself with both of my sons, where I gave them options rather than handing down the law, and they have never yet disappointed me with a poor choice. It makes me proud every single time. Good for Jackson, and good for you and Adam to have raised such a fine boy.
I teach part time, so there is no possibility of my getting tenure, and I am sure that tenure has prevented me from getting a full time position. HOWEVER, tenure is a good thing. Tenure keeps teachers from being fired for not teaching what administrators want taught, or to a standard that administrators set. Dan, above, described this most eloquently. Teachers are evaluated multiple times before receiving tenure, and still have to undergo various performance reviews afterwards. Tenure does not prevent teachers from being fired; it is hard to fire them, granted, but this system was set up as a response to abuse from administrators in the past.
I completely understand how insanely frustrating it is to see your son suffer with an incompetent teacher, and I am glad you are holding their feet to the fire on this, and teaching Jack a great lesson. It is not tenure that is the problem, though. the problem is that often administrators DO NOT really care about teaching, and are focused on getting rid of teachers for political reasons. They have the mechanisms for eliminating incompetent teachers. Make them do it.
So, any questions about why I homeschool? Good thing Jackson has you two amazing people to support him and be great examples for him! Seriously – not one of us is worried about his future success. :)
Thanks everyone for the great discussion! I was really interested to learn about the history of tenure and where it has a place in the system. Like so many other things these days, it seems to have been abused to the point of becoming out dated. I get that it was a means of protecting teachers from being fired for political views or teachings. But in this day and age is that still an issue? I would rather see a system that says that no teacher can be fired for the content of their teachings without proper review. But that system also allows for any teacher to be fired for cause, just like any other job. Same for administrators. I understand that this is an enormous issue and certainly isn’t going to be fixed here. But hopefully these type of discussions lead to more in other settings and the more it goes, the more it grows!
“But in this day and age is that still an issue? ”
You’re kidding, right? Education is more politicized now than ever, with extremist people on both sides equating disagreement with moral failing.
Perhaps not quite as much here in Norcal (although friends of mine of the conservative persuasion would think it to be so), but in many, many places even the most competent teacher presenting, even as a viewpoint to be discussed (as Aristotle said “the educated mind is one that can entertain an idea without accepting it”) that challanges the dominant paradigm is going to face severe pressure.
Adam,
All sympathy to you and your family for enduring an intolerable situation, and congratulations for working patiently, creatively towards a solution.
But as others have pointed out, the villain of the piece is not tenure. The villain is COWARDLY ADMINISTRATORS — in this case the school principal. Tenure is no blanket guarantee of lifelong employment. Tenured teachers can be fired not only for moral turpitude and the like, but for incompetence. Trouble is, it’s the rare administrator that’s willing to do the work necessary to make that evaluation stick. Your son’s principal had the case presented to her on a silver platter, and refused to take action. When administrators chicken out like that, they give the NEEDED institution of tenure a bad name, and vilify the teaching profession that relies on it. They also feed the intertwined myths that teachers’ unions are bad, teachers lazy and greedy, and the only way for parents to get relief from their grievances is to send their kids to a charter school.
Good luck with your continuing campaign. Do your best to get that principal fired along with the battle axe.