Teaching—the ‘art’; the labor; its future
... Pat Canan, physics teacher extraordinaire (retired, but still working), shares this letter he had intended for the GT (rejected because it was too long). His wisdom and experience are worth paying attention to and worth sharing with our neighbors. —Jay Conroy, Principal
Teaching is a performing art and, as such, it defies many of the management strategies useful for industry. The effects of a teacher’s work are intertwined with the many currents in the lives of young people, and the real payoff for both student and society occurs long after standardized tests have rotted in a landfill. It is not a simple thing to evaluate.
As a performing art, teaching is less well defined by the job description as by the person who shoulders the task. It would be a dreadful error to tightly prescribe what a teacher should do, so there is built into the job a lot of flexibility. With that comes an expectation that the individual entrusted with the task will see it as an important work, one that requires special commitment and dedication. At its best, it is a labor of love that does not end with the setting of the sun, or the arrival of a weekend, or even the last bell in June. On paper, those times signify the cessation of work, but we all know it’s not so.
How does one deal with student loads of 180 or more? This is a troubling question. Is it reasonable to assign a lab report or an essay that takes 8 minutes to evaluate? Multiplied by 180, that’s 24 hours of continuous paper grading. Does the teacher cease to require students to write? Should one ignore one’s own health, or further carve work time out of family time? Does one cut back to part-time pay for what used to be full-time work? Many have made that choice, and are teaching 1992 jobs at their 1992 salaries. One defense available to every teacher is simply not to care as much, not to take time with kids, not to insist on high standards. The environment has become one that deselects the very educators whom students, parents, and the community should want to make their career in the classroom.
I submit that if the state of Oregon is to recruit and retain teachers who care passionately about what they do, and are to have the time to develop and share that passion with their students, then Oregon will need to pay for it. If we don’t, teaching will become just a job, increasingly performed by those whose work is limited to the job description.
As recently as November 5th, Corvallis continued its remarkable record for support of its schools, but control has been taken from our hands. If approved, Measure 28 will provide a 3-year partial respite for schools and other programs, but after that the governor, the legislature, and we who elected them, will need to agree to a long-term solution.