Teachers Are Unhappy

Teaching: what a noble calling, until it fell into the control of the state.

The state ruins many things. Building roads and waterways is one thing that the state can do, but building minds is something else, a grand endeavor that does not belong in the hands of distant and uncaring government officials obsessed with the winning the next election instead of the assisting next generation.

Teachers are an unhappy lot. Beset on all sides with education mandates from local, state, and federal officials, they must comply with more regulations, attend more meetings, endure more bureaucratic wranglings to keep their credentials.

And the scores of workshops and paraphernalia they are expected to purchase and produce in their classrooms is stultifying. With every new fad of the liberal agenda infiltration the classroom experience, students struggle to learn the basics yet are bombarded with feel-good mantras of political correcting and vapid good-think that turns inquiring minds into quiet bodies easily told what to do.

Most students resist the empty education forced upon them, but they need to understand that the curriculum is forced on the teacher, too. It is a rare teacher who bucks the political trends and the local mandates of the school board to create inviting lessons that challenge the student instead of burdening the adult.

Some teachers are unhappy because they are regarded like deadwood that needs to be tossed rather than established innovators who know what works, not what should work. Older teachers are a stringent thorn in the side of many administrators who would prefer new teachers, easier to intimidate, easier to indoctrinate.

How does a school district get rid of a teacher with tenure who is paid at the highest tier of the pay scale? Give them classes that they are not qualified or have little experience teaching. Transfer them to different, unfamiliar, or hostile work sites. Saddle them with addition administrative duties, in some cases involuntary promotions in the district office, as far away as possible from the students. Some teachers are given inadequate resources and limited space on purpose in order to make their teaching experience so frustrated, that they will readily resign rather than resign themselves to such abuse.

Just because a teacher has been teaching a long time does not meant that they do not have what it takes to work with a younger generation. In fact, they demonstrate a capacity to function independently, free of the bullying that new, non-tenured teachers face and embrace, for fear of losing their position.

Still, teachers are an unhappy lot. Beset on all sides with political pressures from parents, students, and administrator who demand more, support little, and contribute nothing at all. No wonder so many teachers quit the profession or retire early.