An op-ed in the Inquirer today upset me. The author has seemingly been exposed to a few very specific arguments tailored to make teachers into the "bad guys" of the problems in education and create an "us or them" mentality with regards to teacher unions and the country. In reality, things are not so simple.

Let's start with one of the author's arguments: "many teachers provide private tutoring services to students from affluent families at a typical rate of $50-$90 per hour." Inherent in this argument is the complaint that teachers are not spending enough time on their own students when, in reality, they probably spend every moment of their day on the kids in their schools. From my own experience as an educator, my "lunch break" is anything but. 

Additionally, the author cites research from the Manhattan Institute, a well-known right-wing think tank whose stated mission includes "shaping American political culture and developing ideas that foster economic choice and individual responsibility." Again, this idea is contrary to the mission of of public schools who seek to use knowledge as an equalizer in order to foster communal responsibility.

The research stated also mentions the median work week as 36.5 hours. I find this incredibly unrealistic. Assuming I do not work on weekends, my average daily workload is already 10 hours (multiplied by 5, that is 50 hours/week). If I, like so many other teachers, had to take a second job to pay my bills, that number balloons. 


As a teacher I am constantly reminded by the adage, "it takes a village to raise a child." If we only would stop blaming each other and start taking responsibility for each other, things would get better. As President Obama said during his State of the Union address, "As long as we are joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, and our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong."