Within minutes of my forward I received an email from a colleague who demanded to know if I was endorsing this biased film. I answered that I was simply forwarding information, but the angry tone of the email struck me. I thought, why was there so much anger and even fear implicit in this email? This was especially notable because the original email I received about the film’s release lacked any sense of panic or anger. It was, in fact, rather upbeat and encouraged the undergraduate education students to go see the film. Why the stark contrast?
Something occurred to me right away. One of the Time articles makes a point about the film’s strong criticism of schools of education and the poor job they do preparing students to become teachers. But I think my colleague in Neag probably feels, as I do, that those criticisms by and large do not apply to Neag, which does an exceptional job of educating and preparing teachers. For instance, the article states that “we hire lots of our lowest performers to teach, and then we scream when our kids don’t excel.†It cites one study which concludes that “just 23% of new teachers in the U.S. come from the top third of their college classes; 47% come from the bottom third.†But at least at UConn, this isn’t the case at all. Not even close.
The competition to get into Neag is tremendous, and dozens of applicants are rejected every year. The twelve to fifteen students who are admitted into the Secondary English cohort each year have better than a 3.8 GPA on average, and Dean’s List in the School of Ed is around a 4.0. When I meet my advisees, it’s not uncommon for them to be in the honors program, to be working on a double major for their Liberal Arts degree, to be studying abroad, or to be pursuing a minor—all in addition to their dual degree and integrated bachelors/masters. And they all took AP or UConn English in high school.
So the more I thought about it, the more I really respected my colleague’s lack of fear or panic about the release of this film, because the film’s criticism of teacher education programs does not apply to the students coming out of UConn. So why go on the defensive?
One image from the film that was focused on by one of the Time writers was of a teacher reading the newspaper at his desk while his class did nothing. A terrible image of teachers, yes, but this was not a fictionalized image. It was a real teacher really neglecting his class. And honestly, haven’t we all known a few teachers like this in our careers? I remember one from my student teaching who did exactly that. It was at an alternative high school, and one of the only times the superintendent in the district ever bothered to cross the threshold of the building, he was greeted by the students in this man’s classroom literally hanging out the open second story window and throwing paper airplanes. The superintendent rushed up to the room, thinking there was no teacher in there, only to find him with his nose in the paper and his feet on the desk. Of course I could cite other examples, but one is sufficient. You get the picture, and you’ve all known those teachers. They give us and our profession a bad name. They aren’t the norm, at least not in the schools I have worked in, visited, and observed. Not by a long shot. But they exist, and pretending they don’t doesn’t help our cause.
To me, we need to have an honest dialogue with the public and the politicians. People need to know that we don’t condone this sort of teaching (if you can call it that) but they also need to know that it is not the norm in our state. The perception that it is the norm is part of what’s behind the drive to eliminate tenure and push for an observation and evaluation process that is more punitive than supportive.
I say that most of us know what we need and what schools need. Good schools of education like Neag are doing an excellent job pembinaan future teachers, but the reality in the trenches can undo even the most prepared teachers. My wife just completed a NEASC accreditation visit to a very troubled school. She told me how she saw superb teaching but she also saw some downright awful teaching—or just the lack of teaching, teachers who just handed out worksheets and were content if kids slept or listened to music just so long as they didn’t cause any disruptions. One third-year teacher broke down crying when he talked to the teachers on the site visit as he described the awful working conditions and the low morale at the school. He told them point blank he knew he couldn’t stay at the school much longer, even though he loved the kids. How do we retain a guy with this level of passion? It's not his education that failed him.
Next week I will tackle some of the questions implicit and explicit in this week’s column, and I’ll begin with a local politician friend of mine who wants to reform education here in my home town--without spending an extra cent. This and other fairy tales next week.
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