Thursday night, while doing a variety of household things, I had the news on in the background, and I stopped to listen to a story about twelve grade-school teachers who have been giving extra help to students.
Friday, try as I might, I couldn’t find the story anywhere online. Of course, I didn’t listen carefully enough to note the name of the school or the state in which this occurred. All I do know is that it involved twelve teachers, and their descriptive catch-phrase was For the Children.
Here’s the gist of the story: a group of grade school teachers began devoting the twenty-five minutes of preparation time they are compensated for at the end of each school day to their students. In lieu of using that time to prepare for the following day’s lessons, these teachers devoted that twenty-five minutes of time to assist students in math, reading, and writing.
There were grumblings at the school and grumblings at the union as this time that was being given away was viewed as potentially turning into mandatory (unpaid) service. (In other words, if teachers used their prep time to teach, they don’t really need paid prep time.)
The principal stepped in, and she asked that each of the teachers vote on whether or not to do the extra, after-school tutoring. Her position was simple: everyone’s in or everyone’s out.
Now, I am assuming this only involved the teachers in the math, reading, and writing areas as the vote was unanimously yes, and that resulted in the twelve teachers mentioned on the news.
Here’s where it gets really interesting: the students and teachers have been doing this since the beginning of the school year, and the improvements have been vast.
These teachers are being hailed as heroes, and while I guess they are, I am appalled.
They should not use their paid preparation time to tutor students: they should be using that time to do what they are being paid to do.
If twenty-five minutes of extra time is resulting in such huge advances, why isn’t the nation standing up and demanding this time be given to each and every student across the country?
Where in the HELL are the parent(s) of these children? Twenty-five minutes is making a difference between grades of failure and grades of excellence to most of these kids.
Are you telling me the parent(s) does not/do not have twenty-five minutes of time available to spend helping his/her/their own child/children? This is grade-school-level math, reading, and writing. These are not skill-sets any parent should be without.
We live in a society that requires licenses for driving and for owning handguns, but this same society requires virtually no training to become a parent.
I’m with the union: make the teachers stop. If the school day isn’t sufficient to teach what is necessary, extend the school day. If the kids need extra help, the parent(s) need to step in.
Teachers do not have children in their classrooms: they have students. Parents have children.
Any parent who can’t spend twenty-five minutes of time per day helping his/her child/children is not a fit parent.