Brian Cohen
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Let's Work Together

2/2/2012

3 Comments

 
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. 

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Personal data collected in 2011-2012 school year.
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."

3 Comments
Eileen Duffey
2/2/2012 10:24:45 pm

You have such good things to say. You need to start getting more of this information into op-eds you submit yourself. The public needs to hear this. The "notebook" community is a good place to begin
Do you know how many folks are regular readers of the notebook? The info on the site is so good, but how many people are reading it?

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KD
2/4/2012 04:56:41 am

And another way to say this could be: "Most teachers have a skill set that would enable them to earn $50-$90/hour, yet work a majority of their hours for a fraction of that rate."

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Danielle Sutherland
2/5/2012 07:09:15 am

Some of us take additional jobs to pay for supplies that is not provided for us. Some of us take additional jobs to pay for resources that actually engage our students rather than put them to sleep, resources that AGAIN are not provided for us.

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    I am a math teacher in the New York Department of Education. I infuse technology and real-world problems into my curriculum in order to prepare my students for the future. I would love for people across the country to recognize we teachers can't do it alone. If you don't believe me, come visit my classroom!

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