I believe unions have the best intentions in making teachers and their job viewed professionally. After the presentations and reading articles it seems like unions hinder certain aspects of improving certain areas within the profession of education but do so with the attention of protecting the teachers and administration. One example is the ideas of teachers receiving tenure after teaching for three years. This is good for teachers because they know they are safe from being fired but it may also be bad because some teachers start to slack off once they have tenure. I couldn’t believe, in the article in the Plain Dealer called Good teachers are key to student achievement, but bad ones are hard to fire, that Lakewood school district had to spend $350,000 to take a teacher step down from their job after they were accused of teasing students to make them step down from the job. Looking at the other side I understand that the union was protecting the teacher from false accusations. I think as teachers we do need this protection because some kids will say and do anything if they are mad enough. But at the same time students should have the right to have teachers who are committed to their job and want to be there to help them improve their education.
The same problem comes with the idea of protecting both teachers and children when there is a felony being brought against the teacher. I believe protecting the children is number one but at the same time I think teachers should be protected till being proven guilty. I know in class it was mentioned that any accusation would be documented in a teachers file forever. I think if they were shown to not be guilty it should be erased from their file. I was shocked when I read that more then 1,700 educators had to be disciplined in Ohio in the past seven years. ( Speak Out) Something does need to be down to limit these numbers for parents trust us with their children and children trust us that they will be safe. So what can we do to protect both the teachers and students? This is a tough question and one that should be looked at by unions, educators, and the state together to create a balance system protecting everyone rights in the end.
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The ODE website has a link to Educator Conduct Search. Just type in your zipcode and educator's names will pop up who have been admonished or had their license revoked. You can even read letters that are in their file. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteDo the teachers’ unions really help to make the teaching profession to be viewed as professional? I would agree that probably the unions are not intentionally undermining the professionalism of the profession. Also, I do not think that that the labels given to teachers are do only to the direction the unions have placed teachers in, but also falls on school districts and administrators. From the article “Union Bashing Won't Reform Our Schools”, Jennifer Goldstein says, “The fact is that many American school districts and their local teachers' unions have formed a symbiotic partnership in mediocrity”. She also states that you can’t single out unions as the cause of many of the problems facing the teaching profession today. School administrators have added to the mix of problems. I think the unions just want to save everyone’s butt.
ReplyDeleteI agree that unions probably did have the best intentions going into it. Like anything else, they lost sight of what really mattered. I think it is important to back their teachers. However, eventually there comes a time when a teacher is just not what he/she use to be, and it is time to step down. Who should get to decide when that time is though?
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