Another Side

After having held forth on the limits forced upon parents in a classroom schooling environment, it's time to address some companion truths.  Doing this runs the risk, of course, of offending three-fourths of my readers, instead of only half of them, as may have been the case with the first post.  I plead forbearance.  If you think parents "make or break the school" you were probably not in agreement with the earlier post.  If you think teachers make or break the school, you will likely not be in agreement with this one.

First, a review of one salient point from the first post on this subject:  Rights and responsibilities should always go together.   That truth is reflected in this post as well as in previous ones.

This post will focus on the rights teachers give up in a classroom school setting.

--They give up the right to create the kind of atmosphere they desire.  It's largely impossible because of what the students bring with them from home when they enter the classroom.

--They give up the right to determine how long they work each day.  As determined by state laws, parental expectations, school administration, and personal goals, a certain body of work must be accomplished, no matter how long it takes.

--They give up the right to fair representation.  Those who observe the teacher's actions most closely are immature, and their report of what goes on is skewed toward an immature evaluation.

--They give up the right to speak forthrightly.  Even if  this is true:  "Your child comes across as being self-centered, insolent, rude, and manipulative," they must say something like this: "I'm uncomfortable with what I'm seeing.  How can we work on this?"

--They give up the right to an idealized version of school.  The reality sometimes stinks.

--They give up the right to determine the charges for their services.  They get whatever the administrators decide to pay them.  Sometimes they're informed of the amount ahead of when the services are rendered and sometimes they aren't.

--They give up the right to adult company throughout the work day.  The company is always immature.

Just as is true for parents, teachers also appear to have very few rights in the classroom.  Heavy responsibility though.  That much most people agree on.  It's lamentable, but how can things change so that the rights more nearly approximate the responsibility?

More later.