Teacher appreciation among Americans has become an oxymoron, and teachers have known this for years. It’s not that teachers don’t appreciate luncheons, little trinkets, and notes that say, “We love our teachers,” or that they don’t pile up those heartfelt gifts (poems, pictures, and letters of appreciation from students and parents) to review forever.
The sad reality is that they also understand how messaging has strategically lumped them together and put them down over the years, even though they work so hard to accomplish a most critical job. America must have great teachers who study and understand the subjects they teach and how to communicate with students if it is to survive.
Over the years, the disparagement of teachers and teaching has opened the door for a self-fulfilling prophecy: teachers who don’t have the necessary background or weakened education in schools (See: Teach for America). Those who studied to be teachers and jumped through all the required hoops know when they’ve been dealt a blow.
Here are two ways to appreciate teachers.
Teachers want a leader they can respect and trust.
Linda McMahon is disingenuous when praising teachers. She never experienced the challenge of working with students, nor did she become a real teacher to complete a teaching degree. She doesn’t understand the laws that make up the U.S. Department of Education, which protect children. She is a pawn of President Trump, who shows no respect for teachers in America’s free public schools or for what they do.
Trump, McMahon, and their cronies want to end the public school system. They would replace teachers with AI (or A1, as McMahon called it) for cyber charters while giving the wealthy vouchers to supplement their kids’ private school tuition.
McMahon sat around the table with other cabinet members, and when Trump asked how things were going, she giggled, saying she faced many lawsuits. Is this funny? We’re talking about terrible changes to schooling that affect children.
McMahon isn’t as blunt as her Trumpian predecessor, Betsy DeVos. Still, she’s just as disingenuous and prejudiced, lacking an understanding of the critical importance of public schools in America.
Teachers deserve a leader who has walked in their shoes and will champion their cause to educate all children, including the poor, disabled, and disenfranchised, to the best of their abilities.
Teachers and how charter schools were supposed to be.
Trump will give $60 million to charter schools, breaking down the Civil Rights Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to further destroy public schools.
Ray Budde’s original concept of charter schools was for teachers to run them. School reformers stole the idea, and now many charters are run by those from business, charter management operations, or faux teachers from groups like Teach for America who have never studied education.
It’s easy to find nonprofits or wealthy oligarchs who espouse their ideas about how schools should be run and what should be taught. These individuals or groups, who often know little about how children learn or the problems teachers face, are not short on criticism for the teachers who do the work.
Former AFT leader Albert Shanker believed charter schools would elevate teachers. Many teachers are innovative, have developed and run alternative schools in the past, and could create schools that work for kids.
However, today’s charter schools reduce teachers’ expertise and their pay. Charter schools that work, teacher-led schools, should be part of school districts, creating one great public school system with the real teachers running the show!
To sum up, if one wants to appreciate teachers, two ways would be to give them a respected leader and the chance to show creativity and run schools.
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