Stop blaming teachers for broken system

Public education. It almost seems like a bad word these days. The system is broken, and the future is pretty dismal as well. If teachers try to stand up for themselves and their worth, they are perceived as not caring about the kids and/or lazy. It is truly a lose-lose situation.

No one works harder than elementary classroom teachers. They work before school, after school, in the evenings, and on the weekends.

If you look at the districts that receive the most negative press about how the kids are failing, the schools are failing, the teachers are failing the kids, etc. these districts all have one thing in common - a high percentage of low income families. If you look at the class sizes in these districts, most are 25-30 students per class. How do you effectively teach that many students who already come with risk factors? You can’t.

You spend an inordinate amount of time on classroom management, because many of these kids lack basic academic behaviors and are very immature and impulsive.

We need to hold our parents accountable. Teachers constantly talk with the parents about the importance of reading with their child every night. But many parents don’t. The lack of parent involvement is the root of the problem. Ninety percent of successful students have a warm, supportive environment at home, regardless of income.

But there is a general correlation between economic status and student achievement. Higher socio-economic communities have higher student achievement. If we want to impact student achievement, then we need to impact the community. We need to stop the cycle of welfare. But most of all, we need to stop blaming the teachers - especially elementary classroom teachers. They get paid the least for doing the most. They clearly care about the kids.

Jennifer West Mundelein