"What Makes Sour Apples Sour?"

I read yet another 2 articles today (New York Times) where education is once again portrayed as being in disarray “12 States get Failing Grades on Public School Policies”.  In the same edition Mayor Bloomberg attacks teachers unions, “Teachers Irate as Bloomberg Likens Union to the N.R.A.”. So much talk on how bad our schools are, how bad teacher unions are, and how bad teachers in general are. Normally I am defending teachers as the last bastion of hope for this country, how they do great jobs with less support, how they courageously try to reverse years of disintegrating family structures, bad parenting, the proliferation of drugs and violence in our communities, the deleterious effects of too much TV, video games, cell phone usage, obsessions with social media, and more. Teachers are on the front lines single handed trying to save kids from the ever growing stupidity of adults. Let me ask you one question, where would this society be if we didn't have dedicated teachers working harder than ever on less pay? What do you think this society would look like in one generation if teachers gave up?

 Dedicated good teachers are indispensable. However, the fact is we also have some teachers that are not very good, that are not dedicated, that do figure out ways to draw a paycheck but shortchange the kids. What makes a sour apple in the teaching profession? I think most bad teachers fall into one of three categories.  

#1: Suitability

Not everyone is suited to this job. Look, you can be a doctor and not have very good interpersonal skills; you  become a research doctor or do specialized surgery that requires less interpersonal interactions. You can be a lawyer, sit in the back and do documents, prepare briefs. A person does not have to interact and be a great orator to be a good lawyer. You cannot be a good teacher without being good at interpersonal communication and connection. Bad teaching is rarely about someone not knowing their subject matter since every teacher has a degree in something and has gone through teacher preparation. The problem is some teachers do not understand kids, they don’t know how to motivate students, they don’t understand the subtlety that goes into teaching. Good teachers are: showman, magicians, psychologists, philosophers, coaches, drill instructors, administrators, comedians, politicians, baby sitters, parents, friends, social workers, motivational speakers, accountants, cops, and mentors. And while wearing these hats they must also be compassionate, firm, consistent, fair and above all patient, patient and patient. Most of the time teachers wear multiple hats at the same time and need to switch them at a moments notice. Teachers have to figure out what works with each student and then try to make it work. Teachers are challenged every day by someone or something and they have to think quickly, be decisive and learn to trust their instincts. Think just anyone can do this?  Not on your life. Some teachers get hired and struggle because they cannot be what the job requires beyond teaching academic content. I had student teachers that I knew just didn't possess those intangibles I listed above or not enough of them. They knew their subject matter and were nice, sincere people but just not suited to being a teacher.  Successful teachers are in a sense born with the natural instincts for the job/for how to work with people. Yet bad teachers get hired that don't possess these instincts.

  #2: Burn Out

Some teachers were good at first but get worn down over the years. The job can take a toll and  most teachers I knew would say at some point (usually in May) I’m too old for this, or it gets harder and harder. The best teachers hit the wall several times in a career but they bounce back. Once in a while I would get tired of the grind and start thinking maybe I would have more fun wearing a top hat and being a ring master in the circus. But I knew teaching was what I wanted to do, so I shook it off and jumped back into it. Some teachers just can’t shake it off, and since they aren't in a financial position to retire they just keep doing a job they have grown to hate and count the days til retirement.

 When I first arrived at Poway HS in 1982 I was put in Room H-1 which had a door on the side wall which led into the room on the other side of me H-10. I was teaching English and in the room next door to me was Kathy. She also taught English. She was probably in her early 50’s and she used to come in every day after school and tell me how much she hated her job, called her students little bastards, and thought they were all out to make her life hell. I thought oh my God. Lest you think she was just venting to me, I went into her room several times and believe me she hated them and they hated her. She called them stupid and they called her stupid.  One day I said, "so Kathy how many more years do you have left (to teach) and she said, “Christ, about ten”. I thought well that’s going to be the Bataan death march. She lasted another 2 years and then left. Some teachers are bad teachers because they either never liked the job, or have over time come to hate the job but they won't leave.

#3: Personal Issues

We all have personal issues and as human beings it’s virtually impossible to keep them entirely out of the job site.  Just getting a phone call at work that a spouse was in a car accident or your kid at school got injured and believe me you abandon the professional objectivity and become a person in distress. I am not talking about those personal issues. I’m talking about the teacher that uses the job to hammer home personal dogma or a teacher that sees their job as a fight to the finish with administrative people. Some bad teachers spend more time talking with Union reps about their latest grievance or their latest psych report than they do with their kids and parents. There are teachers that use their classroom as a pulpit on everything from fundamentalist religious views to gay rights to women’s issues, politics, drug usage, animal rights, and on and on. Again I am not talking about fundamental civil liberty issues. If a school announces that from now on all Hispanic students will wear brown tee shirts to school I would think teachers at that school would unite to stop that kind of nonsense. I’m talking about the teacher that instead of teaching Economics or math is using the floor to talk about the power of Jesus to heal, or why all gays should run the school board, that kind of misuse of a credential. 

I was once the VP of the teachers union (long time ago) and I worked with several teachers that fell into this category. One was an English teacher at PHS named Paul. The students liked him and he was very knowledgeable in his area but for whatever reason his first mission was to “bring down the man”. (Admin.) So he put up pictures of mostly nude models from playboy in his office (we had offices in the old days, sigh), he wouldn't show up on back to school night, he made sarcastic remarks at staff meetings, plastered the hallways with leftist rants on free speech and on and on. On the first day of school he wrote the word FUCK on the board as his introduction to free speech. This was 1983! He was always in trouble and I remember a particular phone conversation I had with him when he asked me, “so, Will how far can I go to bug these bastards but not get fired”? I said Paul, two things: 1. Don’t you like teaching kids? What happened to your desire to help kids? Is doing all this why you got into teaching? He didn't have a coherent response to that so then I said 2. You can continue to irritate these people if you want to but you will get fired. These people (admin) have no sense of humor, they don’t think what you are doing is either cute or funny. So if this is the hill you want to die on be my guest but as your representative I must tell you that  if you want to continue to be a teacher, stop doing this stuff and start teaching students. He chose the first option.

  A few months later he was reassigned to a middle school where he was teaching 7^th grade at risk kids in a trailer as far away from the main campus as they could get him. He had to be escorted to and from his car, get someone to open the door to the staff room etc. He hung in there until the end of the year and then he left teaching. All teachers interject opinions and ideas in their work. It is assumed that as a professional you present most sides of an issue. You facilitate opinion sharing, but do not use your job for a soap box. Bad teachers sometimes have personal agendas that facilitate their pathological need to self-destruct. But the students suffer in the interim.

Finally, there is no need to get rid of teacher unions. Good teachers are good regardless of teacher unions and bad teachers are bad regardless of teacher unions. Unions might ensure due process for bad teachers but they can’t prevent bad teachers from being fired. Proper documentation does that. Also, unions can protect good teachers from unwarranted harassment and possible firing. You know the admin person that was offended because a certain teacher didn't kick in on their birthday gift or a teacher a principal wants to get rid of just because he wears an earring and they don't think men should wear earrings. If the union is doing their job properly they are advising bad teachers that they will go down if they don’t change and they will also protect good teachers so that they can continue to be good teachers and not work in an atmosphere of fear.