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Home : 2005 : May : 31

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By bamateach

1.I teach 2nd. I will be starting my 8th year. I don't think that tenure should be abolished. I realize there are teachers out there that have tenure and don't do an adequate job (the same is true in all professions though).
There are ways around tenure in these cases. Documentation for starters. I think that tenure does improve the quality of education for students. Once I got tenure and felt secure in my job. I tried new things and techniques in my classroom. I have grown a lot as a teacher since I started and hope that I never stop learning ways to improve. I think for reasons made obvious on this website

(I am thinking of posts I've read from teachers that were let go for no reason and then "bullied" by the higher ups) tenure should not be obolished.

2. I have worked under a principal that didn't care how you taught as long as you taught and I have worked under one that wanted you to do things their way. I definetly think there is some validity to both and a happy medium. Your state and system sets guidelines that I feel should be followed. They adopt programs that I feel should be followed(to some degree). However, we are professionals and professionals usaully seek out ways to improve themselves and their job performance. If you have done this and it works for you I see nothing wrong with that. Basically, we must all teach addition, but we may not all do it in the same way.

3. Wow - good question. Part of me wants to shout NO! But I guess there are situations where that might be warranted. For example, if my child was placed in a classroom that had an extemely high volume of special education students. This is happening and naturally those children will take more time from instruction. However, if a child is not performing well academically what are parents doing at home to help. Education is not the sole repsonsibility of the teacher. What about the child? Is he or she motivated to learn? There are many variables. I guess the only situation that I feel education malpractice would be truely valid is in a situation similar to the one I have described above.