Today is another sick out for our district's teachers.
I am not complaining. I am doing a 12-day (now 11-day) sub job with 7th graders, and I'd be lying if I said it bothered me to sleep until 9 am today.
There are many things that teachers are protesting; some of which I agree with, and some of which I don't.
I am finishing up a book called Nudge about libertarian paternalism, which I think describes what I believe in a lot of ways. Not every way, of course. That would be too easy. Given the sickouts, I have been metacognating on various public education issues.
Pensions
Personally, I don't like pensions, but I suspect much of that is because I didn't go into teaching until after I'd held a job in the private sector. I had a 401(k) for five years prior to teaching. That was what I was used to.
I like being in control of my retirement; saving as much or as little as I want and determining where it goes. Given what has happened with pensions in our state, I certainly trust the market and myself more than I trust legislators to not tap into retirement savings for public workers.
When I left full-time teaching, I rolled my pension contributions into an IRA. Now that I am back subbing, I am once again enrolled in the pension, although I will never retire from it with full years of service. Whatever I will get will be a pittance. I could buy back my 15 years, but I have no desire or intention to do so, especially given that lack of trust I mentioned.
I'm not sure if a pension system works as well as it used to when people expected to work for the same employer their entire careers. Teaching is so hard, I think it's a miracle that people do it for 27 years and stay sane.
Still, I think that if individuals go into teaching expecting a pension and being told that they will get defined benefits, the state needs to follow through on promises.
School choice
Everyone likes choice, and everyone thinks they like lots of choices. But the ice cream section of the grocery tells me that people cannot handle too many choices. In reality, our brains can only handle a small selection of choices in most things.
What I find maddening in the local district's situation is how many people say they want choice and then in equal measure condemn our district because the choices are too confusing.
G will be attending our "neighborhood" middle school. He could have applied to at least two other schools and likely would have gotten into both based on his gifted/talented scores. But he would have had to apply, write essays, and it would mean longer bus rides and being further away from home each day (which might interfere with his involvement in afterschool activities). He opted to go the easy route, which was fine by me, considering I've been driving N to and from "choice" schools for four years.
Due to G's OCD issues, I am fully prepared to have to make changes to his educational program in the coming years, which could mean homeschooling him or putting him into a different school. Neither of these would be my preference, and both would involve sacrifice, both financial and psychological.
I am a product of private education, and while I think I received a good education, I was a motivated student without behavior problems. My concern with the desire to siphon money from public education to private education (i.e. "school choice") is the kids who will never, ever, ever be able to get into a charter school.
My kids are bright, have good executive functioning skills, and are well-behaved. Personally, if our state went to private schools, my kids would be totally fine. My kids will get a good education wherever they go because D and I educate our kids. We are involved, and we are financially stable.
Yesterday, I subbed with a group of 7th-grade kids. Many of them have special needs and lack parent support (either because their own parents are hot messes or because they are simply unable to be more involved due to jobs, other kids, etc). These are kids who, if they were accepted into a charter school, would likely be tossed out on their heads within minutes. Their parents, who likely work in low-paying retail, fast food or nursing home jobs, don't make enough to pay for any kind of tuition. Someone making $18,000 a year with multiple kids cannot afford a private choice school.
I say this as someone who works for a private educational institution when she's not working in the public schools. The cottage school I work for is very good because the directors strive to hire people who have backgrounds in education and who have taught before. But there is a certain amount of instability that comes with the cottage school because we rent space each year. Parents who are committed to homeschooling and love our program would hate to see it disappear, but they won't be "left in a complete bind" if we did close down. A parent whose child attends a 5-day-a-week charter school would not have this flexibility.
While I feel like the oversight on public education and chronic standardized testing is a pain and mind-numbing, I worry about the lack of oversight on charter schools, especially for vulnerable populations of people.
Until or unless you are in public schools working regularly with these students, you do not have any CLUE what I'm talking about. If our governor came to some of the schools I've subbed in and tried to get anything done, I feel 95% certain he would be eaten alive. Some of these hard-to-reach students would take his pious, patronizing tone and destroy him with it.
Yesterday, a 7th grader came to school reeking of pot; I'm not certain if he still had some on him or not. Suffice it to say, he is not a student with straight As who is highly motivated to be at school. Some students are dropped off at school by parents who open their car doors and a plume of pot scent follows the student as they exit the vehicle.
I'm not sure why anyone thinks a choice of schools is going to make this kid's life miraculously better.
I am not complaining. I am doing a 12-day (now 11-day) sub job with 7th graders, and I'd be lying if I said it bothered me to sleep until 9 am today.
There are many things that teachers are protesting; some of which I agree with, and some of which I don't.
I am finishing up a book called Nudge about libertarian paternalism, which I think describes what I believe in a lot of ways. Not every way, of course. That would be too easy. Given the sickouts, I have been metacognating on various public education issues.
Pensions
Personally, I don't like pensions, but I suspect much of that is because I didn't go into teaching until after I'd held a job in the private sector. I had a 401(k) for five years prior to teaching. That was what I was used to.
I like being in control of my retirement; saving as much or as little as I want and determining where it goes. Given what has happened with pensions in our state, I certainly trust the market and myself more than I trust legislators to not tap into retirement savings for public workers.
When I left full-time teaching, I rolled my pension contributions into an IRA. Now that I am back subbing, I am once again enrolled in the pension, although I will never retire from it with full years of service. Whatever I will get will be a pittance. I could buy back my 15 years, but I have no desire or intention to do so, especially given that lack of trust I mentioned.
I'm not sure if a pension system works as well as it used to when people expected to work for the same employer their entire careers. Teaching is so hard, I think it's a miracle that people do it for 27 years and stay sane.
Still, I think that if individuals go into teaching expecting a pension and being told that they will get defined benefits, the state needs to follow through on promises.
School choice
Everyone likes choice, and everyone thinks they like lots of choices. But the ice cream section of the grocery tells me that people cannot handle too many choices. In reality, our brains can only handle a small selection of choices in most things.
What I find maddening in the local district's situation is how many people say they want choice and then in equal measure condemn our district because the choices are too confusing.
G will be attending our "neighborhood" middle school. He could have applied to at least two other schools and likely would have gotten into both based on his gifted/talented scores. But he would have had to apply, write essays, and it would mean longer bus rides and being further away from home each day (which might interfere with his involvement in afterschool activities). He opted to go the easy route, which was fine by me, considering I've been driving N to and from "choice" schools for four years.
Due to G's OCD issues, I am fully prepared to have to make changes to his educational program in the coming years, which could mean homeschooling him or putting him into a different school. Neither of these would be my preference, and both would involve sacrifice, both financial and psychological.
I am a product of private education, and while I think I received a good education, I was a motivated student without behavior problems. My concern with the desire to siphon money from public education to private education (i.e. "school choice") is the kids who will never, ever, ever be able to get into a charter school.
My kids are bright, have good executive functioning skills, and are well-behaved. Personally, if our state went to private schools, my kids would be totally fine. My kids will get a good education wherever they go because D and I educate our kids. We are involved, and we are financially stable.
Yesterday, I subbed with a group of 7th-grade kids. Many of them have special needs and lack parent support (either because their own parents are hot messes or because they are simply unable to be more involved due to jobs, other kids, etc). These are kids who, if they were accepted into a charter school, would likely be tossed out on their heads within minutes. Their parents, who likely work in low-paying retail, fast food or nursing home jobs, don't make enough to pay for any kind of tuition. Someone making $18,000 a year with multiple kids cannot afford a private choice school.
I say this as someone who works for a private educational institution when she's not working in the public schools. The cottage school I work for is very good because the directors strive to hire people who have backgrounds in education and who have taught before. But there is a certain amount of instability that comes with the cottage school because we rent space each year. Parents who are committed to homeschooling and love our program would hate to see it disappear, but they won't be "left in a complete bind" if we did close down. A parent whose child attends a 5-day-a-week charter school would not have this flexibility.
While I feel like the oversight on public education and chronic standardized testing is a pain and mind-numbing, I worry about the lack of oversight on charter schools, especially for vulnerable populations of people.
Until or unless you are in public schools working regularly with these students, you do not have any CLUE what I'm talking about. If our governor came to some of the schools I've subbed in and tried to get anything done, I feel 95% certain he would be eaten alive. Some of these hard-to-reach students would take his pious, patronizing tone and destroy him with it.
Yesterday, a 7th grader came to school reeking of pot; I'm not certain if he still had some on him or not. Suffice it to say, he is not a student with straight As who is highly motivated to be at school. Some students are dropped off at school by parents who open their car doors and a plume of pot scent follows the student as they exit the vehicle.
I'm not sure why anyone thinks a choice of schools is going to make this kid's life miraculously better.
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