is the title of this widely distributed blog post by Joe Nathan, Director of the Center for School Change at Macalaster College in St. Paul, MN. He begins by writing
I was stunned. There were more than 36 million responses to a Google search for the phrase “teachers get no respect.” At the same time, a respected national poll shows widespread respect for teachers. And given the chance to reduce their taxes, thousands of Minnesota voters instead responded, “yes” to maintaining or increasing their tax levels.(Nathan feels that most Americans respect teachers, but that perhaps some teachers do not respect parents.) Yet despite the the data which shows strong national support for teachers, many teachers increasingly express their frustration that they, their profession, and the work they do is not respected. Nathan responds to this by writing
Let’s acknowledge several things:- Creative, effective teachers deserve all the praise we can offer.
- Teaching can be very demanding and difficult.
- Some politicians, parents, journalists and others criticize teachers in ways that seem unfair.
I suggest you consider reading Nathan's entire piece before proceeding, so that what I write in response, at the suggestion of several people who know both Nathan's work and mine, will make more sense.
Let me set the frame in which I response by noting the following
1. I am well aware of the data Nathan cites, particularly that from the annual Phi Delta Kappan poll, which shows strong American support for teachers
2. I agree that there are some teachers who do not respect parents and students - were it up to me, I would counsel them out of teaching, but there are not as many as some critics would have us believe.
3. the level of criticism towards teachers has, despite the poll data, increased greatly in the past few years, in a way that not merely devalues and demoralizes teachers, but also weakens public education
4. the generally accepted ideas about "reform" in education are contributing to a devaluing of teachers and teaching
5. this is the result of organized and deliberate efforts, some intended to have such effects, others of which that seem willfully blind to the effects they are causing.
I invite you to keep reading