In order to make the education system better, many things could happen. You could add to the curriculum, make the school environment better, or change the standardized testing system. The aspect of the education system that should be changed first and foremost over the others is: getting rid of teacher tenures. Tenures are the security of their jobs that teachers enjoy after a certain amount of years teaching, or after the "probationary" period. Having these in our school systems do not benefit the student one bit, while the teachers, including the poor ones, acquire all of the benefits and job security. The education system should get rid of tenures because they result in low accountability for teachers and it reduces the influence of education administrators.
Many different things come from the lack of accountability for teachers resulting from tenures. The teachers aren't held accountable for their teaching anymore because their job is secure, thanks to their tenure. The low accountability for teachers breeds complacency and laziness, lowers the overall quality of education, and negatively effects the relationship between parents and teachers.
In her article "Engaged Pedagogy", bell hooks says, "Engaged pedagogy begins with the assumption that we learn best when there is an interactive relationship between student and teacher." Unfortunately the students and parents don't get the luxury to have such relationships because teachers are tenured and in turn just don't care about these relationships. Who's to stand in their way if they don't care? They are protected after all. This attitude of the teachers brings on complacency. They just sit back smugly and teach just for the benefits that come from their salary. They sit back, unaware of the defects the children will have in their learning ability.
After being tenured these teachers become lazy. They may have been teaching for too long have gotten bitter, or they may just be terrible teachers in the first place. Whatever the reason the laziness they've attained leads to the expectation for conformity. They expect their students to all be the same and don't allow them to be themselves, wavering the focus of education from the students to the teachers. In his essay " Against School" John Gatto refers to Alexander Inglis' break down of the modern schooling's purpose into six functions. One function is highlighted as the integrating, or conformity function. "The integration function. This might as well be called 'the conformity function' because its intention is to make children as alike as possible. People who conform are predictable, and this is of great use to those who wish to harness and manipulate a large labor force." The laziness is born from the boredom the teachers acquire. "Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent their time in a teachers lounge can vouch for the low energy, the wining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found their [which leads to the lack of motivation in the classroom]." (Gatto)
Not only do tenures bring upon laziness and expectations of conformity, it also lowers the general condition of education. According to Freire in his book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" the education system expects that "the teacher chooses the program content and the students (who were not consulted) adapt to it." This displays the expectation of conformity and the ability of the teachers to not let the students have any say in their own educational journey. Bad teachers don't help students to learn the way they understand and don't take the time to know that. They instead teach it all one way because they can, because they don't care and have protection from being fired. Lewis Black, a comedian apart of a daily show on Comedy Central says, "There are those who feel kids need challenging curriculum and one on one help instead of a cafe and putting green." He means that instead of improving the school itself, the teachers should be improved to get a better condition of education.
"The teacher is the subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects." Freire, again, talks about what the education system now is like. The teachers don't care about their students. They regard them as "objects" that they're tossing information at. All the teachers care about is getting paid; thats why they're there. The focus of education isn't on whether the students are doing well or succeed in the future, it's on whether or not the teacher are reaping the benefits of tenures and teaching unions. The mission of the education system should be that the children are the recipients of the benefits while tenures allow the teachers to be the recipients instead.
Another negative characteristic of tenures is the reduction of influence from the education administrators. Tenures don't just negatively effect the students, it also effects the administrators and the people who are supposed to be in charge. As a result of this security of the teachers' jobs, they think they can get away with most everything. For the most part, they can. They can be just absolutely horrific teachers and people to their students and the administrators are unable to do anything. Their influence in the schools are diminished because they can't set and enforce quality education standards, and they can't hold teachers to a standard.
In his segment, "Back in Black", Black states, "I'm pretty sure schools shouldn't be the nicest building you'll ever be inside, I went to school in an empty carton of Pallmalls." As expected a roar of laughter came from the audience. But, this statement is ringing with truth. Schools and school districts shouldn't be worrying or focusing on the quality/condition of the school as much as they should be focusing on the teachers and if they're paying good and effective teachers. With tenures, how can they even try to focus on that? Mistake after mistake, miscommunication after miscommunication, failure after failure; administrators and the school district are unable to fire the bad teachers because of the tenure. The quality of education goes down and students aren't succeeding because the administrators are unable to enforce good policies and standards for teaching. Principles and people from the school district should have the ability to fire the teachers if their good education standards aren't met, but they can't.
The school/district officials should be able to enforce rules and hold teachers to a standard. They should be able to hold teachers to creating a climate for optimal learning if they understand the level of emotional awareness and emotional intelligence in the classroom [which will bring forth success] (hooks). With tenures this is virtually impossible to enforce/hold teachers accountable for because they don't care anymore. They would listen to the "advice", but they wouldn't apply it because they don't have to. They're protected by tenures, therefore not doing what they're told won't do anything. They can't get fired.
Even though tenures and unions can protect those exceptional teachers, they're all in all something that needs to be ridden of because the poor teachers still have their jobs. The fabulous teachers can't get jobs because the terrible tenured teachers are still there and haven't resigned or retired yet. An effective teacher can change a child's life for the better while weak teaching can also have a profound and long-lasting effect that doesn't benefit the students down the road. In his article "Resolutions on Education" Mike Rose observes that, "...if we simply got rid of the bottom 10% of teachers (as determined by test scores) and replaced them with teachers at the top 10% we'd erase the achievement gap..." Having tenures that keep the bottom 10% of teachers doesn't benefit the students or even the school itself. The focus should be on the students rather than the teachers. The education system should get rid of tenures because they result in low accountability for teachers and it reduces the influence of education administrators.
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