An Ode to the fallen....

I write this knowing that the person that I write it to will probably not see it. Today one of our own got the call that she is "excess staff" at our school. This does not mean that she is fired just yet, but it does mean that she does not have a teaching position next year at our school. She could land at another school or be forced to be a long term substitute. This could very well spell the end of her career. The worst part about it was that she was a good teacher. Her ideas were good, she refused to lower the bar despite pressure to do so, and she cared. What we are left with is a large hole in the school. Anytime you loose a good teacher on the campus, you loose a good part of your school. It is unlikely that the department will be the same again. A voice is lost that spoke of reason, and that I am sad for. What angers me is the fact that the true last hire at our school was a coach. This coach has gotten in trouble multiple times for not showing up on time and received a luke warm review. Why was she not on the list? The simple answer is because she was a coach. That extra little bit offered more than a good teacher that focused on her discipline and had a good review. This is the problem that I feared as soon as layoffs and excess teacher lines started to be formed. In General, teachers that are on the table are not the ones that deserve to be there. Instead they are the teachers that have put their life into it. I would say that when we take a teacher like this off of our campus that we lessen the overall standard of learning. I think that we are kidding ourselves when we say that academics are important. I would also say that we are kidding ourselves when we are told that coaches receive no special treatment. See without state oversight these are the casualties of the war on education. Teachers that are good at what they do are falling fast, while those that are found wanting get to stay around. Which one do you want for your kids? For me, I would want the best teacher. I do not care if they coach or not. I want the best, as would most parents. The answer that we are getting out of the state is to get rid of teachers, districts are indiscriminately "firing" teachers regardless of ability. Where can we go if we remove the talent? What can we do if the good teachers are picked off, and those that deserve to be gone are welcomed with open arms?

Until Tomorrow,
Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.  ~Ezra Pound