Chicago STRIKE!

This Chicago strike has really got me on edge...

I find myself torn...for many reasons, but mostly because as a former Chicago teacher (although in a Charter School) I know what it is like to work in the trenches with little pay, long days, little support and resources, pressure from administration, pressure from students and parents...test scores, improvement...data this data that numbers here and there...and it gets EXHAUSTING!!

It doesn't help that teachers are NOT valued in this society - they are not seen as a professional group - only continually blamed for this "undereducated" society!  As a teacher, you FEEL it!  If you haven't taught then you won't understand...and you'll probably find yourself disagreeing with me...

Maybe teachers aren't valued because there is a lack of "standard teacher evaluations" as valued by the business world model.  BUT if you take a business model used for non-human product and try to use that model on a living, breathing STUDENT, I promise you it won't work!!  I think teachers should be evaluated, but there is no way to effectively tie this evaluation to student performance when there are a million factors that affect student performance.  I'm not saying I have the answer, but I can tell you through my experiences that student evaluation (pen and paper) canNOT nor will EVER accurately assess what a student knows and how much a single teacher has truly helped change a life.  (NOT SAYING THERE AREN'T CRAPPY TEACHERS...because there are!  TOO many of em'!!)

I've had students so traumatized they've deficated in their classroom chairs, I've had students bullied to the point of wanting to die and missing months and months of school.  I've had students who are homeless, abused regularly, suffering from a friggin toothache for weeks, or unable to shower because their electricity and heat have been turned off.   I've had students throw desks and chair from an anger impossible to articulate, I've had students shot at and robbed on the way to school...how can anyone understand the consistent trauma our society ignores and than expects teachers and schools to solve all of the social ills?  IMPOSSIBLE.  We live in a society that marginalizes the poor and wants kids to pull themselves up by their bootstraps...ummm, can we get these kiddos some boots first!  SHEESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, these issues in urban schools especially (AHEM... CPS) make it almost impossible to justly evaluate a teacher who gives all she can give on a daily basis and makes little to no "improvement."  How can you asses such a subjective factor as evaluation...and tie our pay to it?! 

For the most part, those who get in to education do not do so because they want to make a ton of money, but in the dysfunctional system of CPS it is easy for teachers to quickly get BURNT by the system and we DESERVE to ask for help and we deserve our voices to be heard...we deserve and should not feel guilty for what I feel is the bare minimum!   I understand the srike....I really DO...

BUT

Our kids need to be in schools.  Bottom line. 

Lord, help public schooling.  Allow the system the growth and EFFECTIVE reform necessary...provide for those who continually give and give in the classroom and in any capacity in schools.  Help us Father, help us.