The Problem with Teachers

In today's Washington Post, Richard Whitmire wrote an opinion piece about Michelle Rhee-inspired "reforms" in the Washington, D.C. public school system. His most interesting and controversial assertion emerges halfway through the piece. The point is a central issue in the broadside against the quality of the existing pool of tenured instructors.

The District of Columbia, Whitmire noted, is not an outlier on teacher quality. The well-documented decline in the caliber of those aspiring to teach - calculated by SAT scores, grades, scores on certification tests, etc. - has been evident for many years. That phenomenon, a natural offshoot of more attractive career options opening up for the best and brightest women, is somewhat noticeable in well-functioning suburban schools - but glaring in low-performing urban and rural schools.

The result of this long slide in teacher quality can be captured in multiple snapshots: the declining U.S. ranking on international education comparisons (down to middle of the pack), the embarrassing number of military applicants who get rejected (more than one in five does not meet the minimum standards for Army enlistment) and the astonishing rates of those needing remedial classes in college (as high as 40 percent). (Italics added.)

For many years, teaching was perceived as a profession one undertook out of career desperation or stark necessity. "Well, you could always teach" was a line one heard during a discussion of job direction. It was a step above enlisting in the military. (Note the connection to "calling" and "serving your country" in both situations.) Outside the education world, teaching was often considered "easy," a job that anyone could do. All that was required for success was a modicum of brains, a dash of training, and lots and lots of "passion." Unstated in this formula was the belief that teachers weren't so smart, and that anyone "smart" would go become an attorney, a doctor, or a hero financier. To put it less politely, teachers were the bottom of the achievement barrel. Whitmire states this uncomfortable point in the passage I cited.

An entire generation of barely bright teaching professionals has been one alleged result. Are teachers really that dumb? How does one explain the classroom "success stories" that took place over that generation? The focus on inner city schools masks the dull fact that most people, regardless of "opportunity," are just plain ordinary. That concept touches an unspoken fear that not going to the "right school," not getting the "right internship," not making the "right connections," is an algorithm for perpetual struggle and a lack of material success. If you don't make a lot of money, brother, you'd better have a lot of "passion." The fear of being labeled a loser, in this context, is a very real one and animates the 18-35 year-old demographic group, regardless of race. It is a class concept, one reason why the Obamians and the Republican Party could so easily gang up on public school teachers.

The reigning concept from the Waiting for Superman crowd that teachers held back and continues to restrain the civil rights of a generation is breathtaking in its simple-minded stupidity. Equally flawed is a largely class-driven belief in the efficacy of "smart" solutions. That notion, along with a drumbeat announcing technologically-driven "progress," requires a "stupid" straw-man to present the notion's line of reasoning. Enter the teachers, made to order dummies that one can easily resent and belittle.

More or less lumped together as a class (no pun intended), public school teachers have been given a collective dunce cap and paraded through the virtual streets of our communities. Ambitious politicians such as New Jersey governor Chris Christie have undertaken such a strategy.

Where have we seen this before? In China, during the Cultural Revolution. The Gang of Four's politically inspired dismantling of an inconvenient group of citizens led to disastrous chaos in China. One wonders what will happen here.

For a rare photographic glimpse into the Cultural Revolution, try to get your hands on a copy of Red-Color News Soldier: A Chinese Photographer's Odyssey through the Cultural Revolution. It's a photo-rich book by photographer Li Zhensheng and a rare visual resource into this turbulent period in Chinese history. The photo in this blog is from the 2003 book.