To the Editor:
Sometime last spring before school ended, a letter was written to the Reformer regarding the lack of respect for teachers, the lack of appreciation for long years of service and teachers’ fear of speaking up in some schools. With the new school year, the disrespect is continuing. Some teachers are being asked to perform certain tasks while others are not. Some teachers are favored over others. Comments about one teacher are being shared with others. Ideas by staff members are ignored if they even dare to express them. This is not how a collaborative learning environment is fostered.
It has surprised me that the results of 2013 Vermont NEA TELL survey have not been made public by the administrators, Brattleboro school board members or the Reformer. Governor Shumlin has said, “This survey will give us the information we need to take our schools to even greater levels of achievement so that every Vermonter can thrive.” Every school in the state participated with more than 6660 educators, including ESPs, answering questions about a variety of topics such as Teacher, ESP and School Leadership, School Climate, Student Conduct et al. I encourage everyone in Brattleboro to check the website, www.tellvermont.org. After selecting a district, individual schools in that district appear. You can then look through that school’s results. Their results are also compared with other elementary schools in Vermont as well as all of Windham SESU. I think many Brattleboro parents will be interested in the results
As a former teacher of 35 years in the Brattleboro schools, I am deeply concerned about the erosion of respect, the micromanaging by administrators, and the top-down decision-making. (Read the article by Vicki Roach that was in the 10/9 Reformer.) There needs to be a climate of safety and respect where educators’ ideas and opinions are thoughtfully considered just as parents should expect that their child’s ideas and opinions are thoughtfully respected. If teachers are afraid to speak up, how collaborative is the leadership style?
Diana Mazzuchi
1178 Western Ave.
Brattleboro, VT 05301
Comments | 9
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TELLing
Thanks for the link to the TELL results. There’s a lot of information there to go through and consider.
reply to comment
Yes, there is a lot of information but you can scan through and find topics. Look for school leadership, school climate. Those two are very informative.
The Atmosphere
I have had two conversations recently with teachers who are deeply disturbed by the decisions and behavior of school administrators as well as the general atmosphere in the schools these days. Not being a professional in the school system I don’t have the experience to form a first-hand opinion, but it’s been enough to make me, as a town rep., want to learn more.
Vicki Roach’s letter was a wonderful articulation of what many people see as an underlying problem in how schools are now run. I hope that it leads to some serious debate about how we teach our children to think for themselves and be good citizens. Tailoring curricula exclusively to pass standardized national tests will leave us with a barren culture indeed.
reply to comment
I agree with Ted. Vicki Roach has had many years of work with students learning to read at both Canal Street School and Oak Grove. She’s also been a Reading Recovery teacher. The School Board is holding a planning meeting at the Coop at 7:00 to discuss ways to communicate with the public about our schools. Perhaps you should attend.
Planning Meeting at the Coop?
I went there … there was no meeting. Guess I should have cross-checked this, and not just believe it because it was here on iBratt …
Maybe it’s scheduled for another date?
Mtg
Tuesday evening.
Tremendous Respect
I’ve been substituting in the Windham Southeast schools, all of them plus the Career Center, for nearly two years. Overall, I have to say that I am tremendously impressed by the quality of educational opportunities that the students here enjoy. I have met and worked with scores of educators and staff, and hundreds of students. By and large, these people know they are part of a wondrous educational system.
Yes, things go wrong. And yes, some of the folks I have worked with have had ‘off’ days. It’s hard work, and it takes a lot out of you. And perhaps the hardest part is seeing kids whose lives outside of school are not supporting their efforts to learn. Poverty, substance abuse, mental illness … the list goes on. But in every student’s life, there are teachers who care, and who support, and sometimes even stay with them one-on-one most of the day, if that is warranted.
Some top-down decision making is justifiable. Principals and administrators have to respond proactively to any situation that poses a threat to their school’s integrity, or to the students’ well-being and safety. Sometimes I get quite depressed when I see the weight of life-changing decisions on their shoulders. I wish I could tell them, ‘I see what you’re going through’. But there are also leadership team meetings, curriculum meetings, special needs conferences … I think that very little is falling through the cracks in our schools.
The best of our teachers keep their equilibrium at work regardless. Love and good will are a fountain that they tap into to re-charge themselves and move through their days with aplomb. You can always tell the best teachers because you see a twinkle in their eyes — their love for their work is apparent, and they can always draw upon a personal reserve that includes an undying sense of humor! Personally, when I substitute in the schools, I always bring my guitar, and if the moment is right, I will offer to play and sing a song.
I’d like to say that the criticisms I see offered here don’t seem to have much substance. Of course, I am not permanently employed in our local school system … I’m substituting until I can find a better job. But I’ve been in the schools enough that my ‘antennae’ spring up when I see criticism of the schools that isn’t substantiated. There ought to be specifics, checkable facts before anyone starts to run down our schools. Because let me tell you, yes sirree bob, these teachers and these schools, by and large, are first rate!
Erosion of Respect
I am not in any way disputing that our teachers work long and hard in our schools. The best teachers put their students first. But it is difficult to keep your equilibrium when a principal singles you out for constant questioning, making numerous observations and/or creating a hostile environment. Due to confidentiality I cannot give specific examples or name names. But the teachers who have been selected, and there are more than a few, have many years of experience, exemplary personnel files and are highly regarded by parents of their students. Teachers of experience cost more money than beginning teachers. Teachers of experience tend to question new initiatives if they are just repeats of what’s been used before under a different name. And teachers of experience know that no program fits every child, that events that occur in a classroom sometimes need to take precedence over what was written in a lesson plan. There is definitely a pattern at least in the elementary schools of getting teachers of experience to leave and then replace them with younger, less experienced teachers.
Young Teachers
It seems unfortunate to cast all experienced teachers as knowing better incredible differentiators just as it does to cast young teachers as thoughtless, naive pawns for administration. I think we minimize everyone’s experience and become divisive by design when we paint with a broad brush.