Education Reform Part 3

This is precipitated by the news that a teacher in Pennsylvania is being threatened with the loss of her job for a blog she posted that does not put high school students in the best light.  I did not read her post, just reports about it and comments on it.  Part 3 of my education reform series was going to be about parents so this is fitting.  What would really help to reform education and enhance student achievement would be to let teachers be honest with parents.  Administration should support the teacher who has to deal with an angry parent and not cave in to the parent's demands because the school can't afford a lawsuit.  Yes, folks that is today's reality, if parents don't get their way they threaten the district with a lawsuit, and as you all know school districts have no money!  I can see the hesitation in going to court because the most ridiculous lawsuits win.  Here's the problem;   "One of Munroe's former students, who now attends McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said he was torn by his former teacher's comments. Jeff Shoolbraid said that he thought much of what Munroe said was true and that she had a right to voice her opinion, but felt her comments were out of line for a teacher."  Why are her comments our of line if she spoke the truth?  If her students are not being appropriate in the school environment, why are there actions not having consequences?  
"Whatever influenced her to say what she did is evidence as to why she simply should not teach," Shoolbraid wrote in an e-mail to the AP. "I just thought it was completely inappropriate."   Why?  Frustration over the stress of trying to do your job well, when those you are trying to help are not participating in their own learning is not appropriate? 
He continued: "As far as motivated high school students, she's completely correct. High school kids don't want to do anything. ... It's a teacher's job, however, to give students the motivation to learn." 
It is a teacher's job to plan lessons that will deliver the curriculum and that will engage students.  It is the teacher's job to do everything possible to help the unmotivated.  But it is not the teacher's job to jump through hoops, bang her head against the wall, lose sleep, spend countless unpaid hours trying to find the answer to why the students "won't" engage and in the end fight a losing battle because no one in the students home is holding the student accountable  It is not the teachers job to give students the motivation to learn, young tadpole, that is the job of the home.  

 Rosemary