The Trenches Are Really All The Same

Indiana Senator Tim Skinner and his wife, both teachers, are leaving their profession due to legislative changes. Although the Great Debate is the constitutionality of vouchers for private religious schools, the underlying debate is the professionalism of teaching and the functioning of public education.

No one should deny the fact that "bad" teachers exist; there are "bad" ____ in every field. But no one should also imply that just because some are public educators that they are hard to fire, in fact, it's very simple...rather it's very easy to move them around, encourage resignation/retirement, or hide their incompetencies, just like any other field. (Actually how many principals are fired for being "bad" at their job? Good statistic to try to find ;) Yet, it's blasphemous to compare teaching to "normal" careers, isn't it?

Being an educator has become a circus job: you need stamina to endure the grind, practice year-around to stay agile, and you have to jump a lot of hoops...and hoops...and hoops.

The Skinners point out that older, experienced teachers are in much better positions that the upcoming troops, whose concept of education will definitely take on a different perspective and set of expectations than their ancestors. I'm all for reforming education (it clearly doesn't function properly now), making more schools and teachers available everywhere, competing for students to attend a fitting school for their skills, etc. But we can not keep attacking the people in the trenches or one day we will find those trenches empty.