This was initially written in response to a facebook meme… (started Jan 6 2022, but I am finishing up this re-imagined response on the first day of the next year and if I had more time…) I figured the rant belongs here instead. Or lecture. Or wishlist. Because when you talk with actual teachers (not the “influencers” who are no longer in the classroom, and not the administrators who are rarely in the classroom, and certainly not the school boards and superintendents who are – even when they are basically good people – politicians and often not educators by training at all)… when you talk with actual teachers about funding education and the problems of underfunding you get very real, and realistic advice.
This is how my thoughts go, based on my current teaching experience.
Sadly, I believe that politicians and curriculum and testing companies are not actually interested in “education” as such but are generally more concerned that children are warehoused in a relatively safe environment that prepares them for working-class life and with profits; for the overarching purpose of returning their parents to the workforce as soon as possible after the children are born and with profits. While they give lip service to supporting all students to attain deep knowledge and enduring skills, the truth is that in communities of high poverty, where children have the most need, there is often the least amount of support for funding for programs that will actually extend student horizons and allow kids to experience learning that is fun and rewarding.
I believe – have always believed – that education should open doors, provide opportunities to explore as much as possible, give students the skills and knowledge to judge for themselves what is right, good, possible, and worthwhile. I have always believed that education should introduce people to the excitement and beauty of learning in ways that promote independent and ongoing study of topics of interest.
How can we produce “life long learners” when our focus has to be on just the basics – reading, writing, math – because our students are so far behind their peers that the mandated standards with accompanying grade-level texts and activities in other topics are all-but inaccessible? I would LOVE to give my students meaningful, age-appropriate social studies and science lessons, but new materials designed for their grade level require a level of sophistication in reading and logic that they lack (by a huge amount). I spend the time I would use for extending and exploring in reteaching and reviewing skills and knowledge necessary for each new lesson.
I scaffold as much as I can while also bringing in extra pictures, videos, and experiences when I can, but our time is so limited because in the “wisdom” of the deciders in my district our school day and school year are the shortest that is legally allowed. My students, who are the pride and joy of their families, are getting the best I can in the time I have with the materials at my disposal. And it isn’t enough. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have robust, multi-modal instructional materials. I don’t have additional classroom support for project-based learning…
Too often students who require additional support services are missing still more in-class time… our students are officially “at school” from 8:25 to 2:43, with 45 minutes of free time spread across three recesses and another 35 minutes for lunch. Another 40 minutes daily are set aside for specialist time. This leaves them approximately four hours for academic instruction each day, of which some is necessarily taken up by administrative and organizational tasks, transition times, social-emotional support (needed more than ever!), and “intervention” pull-out or push-ins which at least are scheduled to fall during a time when each grade level has agreed will be for reading (so the students are not missing core instruction). However, we don’t have math intervention… and once everything is said and done the amount of time I have for anything resembling stand-alone science or social studies/history in a given week is 2 hours (total) if I am lucky *(that was true in the 21-22 school year, in the current school year I have less times for non-core studies). Many students who need support (IEP-related or behavioral, or other therapeutic interventions) are seen by interventionists and other teachers during core instruction as there is no way to completely align all schedules with the number of students who need additional support.
In our district, to accommodate middle and high school sports, we have occasional late starts for staff development and collaboration. While we definitely need that time for those specific tasks, late starts wreak havoc on children because their days don’t start with the normal routines. Children thrive on predictable times and routines, and struggle with self-regulation and other executive function tasks when the day doesn’t begin in the way they expect and need. Most districts I have experience with use early release every week or every other week, which works so much better, even if it means that some of the older students need to find alternate transportation on that day for after-school activities.
In my ideal school, we would have a full-time support person in every classroom (for keeping kids on task, offering them quick advice on how to do the work, grading differentiated materials, offering additional eyes and ears for these students who sometimes live extremely hard lives). Teachers would be able to step out of the classroom for a moment to take care of “personal needs” so they don’t develop kidney issues or other long-term health problems because of a lack of access to regular hydration and bathrooms. We would have an extra hour and a half a day four days a week and kids would leave about 2 or three hours early the other day (kids get some time “off” and teachers get that time for planning and collaboration – outside of “staff meeting” time!). It would be every week – a regular, predictable schedule that allows families and other caregivers to plan for transportation and childcare.
With that extra time, there would be funding (and time) for every child to have P.E. once a day (not once a week), and also an additional “specialist” each day (library, art, music, technology, drama, logic/game play, crafting/sewing/woodworking/etc)…, I would DEFINITELY not ask staff to use one of those specialist periods as their lunch break. There would be at least a half an hour a day on the longer days when the entire school just stops and reads. Not moving through the halls, not eating, not listening to teachers, not specifically in intervention… just reading. And not “programmed” reading that is based on levels or readiness, but just reading whatever the person enjoys: gamer magazines, articles about cars or sports, fantasy, history… Some kids who struggle with “grade level” texts are very capable of reading well above grade level on topics they already understand; which of course helps support reading in other areas. And all students benefit from more time to read, to practice what they have learned, and to explore topics of interest beyond the curriculum.
I would have a math specialist and a writing specialist along with the reading specialist who would not only work with students who need extra support and with teachers to help provide materials and methods in those critical areas, but who could work together to support teachers in connecting the three core content areas with science, social studies, and with each other (Math in social studies? Why not? Reading in science? Of course. Writing in history? Definitely!). Project based learning depends on the understanding and ability to think about integrated instruction and assessment like this.
To address teacher burnout – in addition to better use of contracted time I would require school districts to have one full-time (salaried at the basic rate) substitute teacher or paraeducator for each 20 certificated and classified staff. Particularly in these pandemic years it is harder and harder to find substitute teachers, which means school employees are more likely to work through pain and illness. Being hired full-time allows substitutes to learn the school’s culture and the students, and they could easily then be pulled in for longer/unplanned absences, and on the rare day they weren’t needed to substitute for a specific person they could assist in classrooms. Being hired full time would allow access to medical coverage and retirement, along with job security from year to year. With a reliable substitute pool, teachers would be encouraged to take an extra day off once a month for either professional development or personal leave – a way to rejuvenate and restore energy for teaching. Every month.
Teachers would not have to choose between collaborative time with each other or grading/prepping for lessons or having a life outside of school because, with two specialist periods each day, they would be more able to get their work done within the contracted time. Including meeting with their teams, and designing materials for the needs of the students in the classroom (no curriculum can adequately anticipate all student needs and combinations of needs). This would also relieve some of the stress that contributes to health issues and burnout.
I would have year-round school with 4-6 week breaks between terms and, instead of all students starting a grade in September, I would have multiple entry points, year round. That would remove some of the stigma of students taking extra time off for illness or family needs – they could re-enter at the next start point. A student who hadn’t mastered content could retake the material with the next class. I would allow teachers to take a term off as needed for professional development or family time.
I would NOT use a scripted/canned curriculum to drive instruction, but allow teachers to flexibly address the material and adapt it to the students in the class. To do this, I would EITHER require students to “hit” (master) certain key standards before being promoting to the next grade and continue to require every student to learn pre-set (arbitrary) content, or I would eliminate pre-set grade level targets, allowing teachers in a cohort to decide what, within a “grade band” the class in front of them is ready for – and then promote out of the grade band as students are ready. NOTE: ALL teachers should have a mentor for the first 2 or 3 years of teaching in a grade so they learn what is within normal and what is far above or below expected so they can request additional services, and regular assessments of both developmental milestones and academic progress can continue to be administered so we know when a student needs evaluation for learning difficulties.
I am sure I could continue inventing my perfect educational world. Please know that my focus in this article is on the needs of teachers is BECAUSE of the children. When teachers are healthy and not burned out they have more energy, more ability to innovate, more stamina, and more patience to cope with the scores of necessary but thankless tasks we face every day. Teachers who are healthy can better support our students to become their best selves, and that’s the point of education, or should be.