As a teacher fresh off her third pink slip in as many years, I decided for my own sanity it was time to blog. There are so many feeling and ideas that I want to share that it is hard to stick to just one at a time, but I will try to stay focused.
Today I was in a training at my current school site, Park Western. As I sat there with my colleagues watching another teacher lead the students through a shared experience it hit me again what a special place I was blessed to teach at this year. Last year at this time I was devestated to be pink slipped and later displaced from my first school in LAUSD, South Park. The teachers, students, and staff are amazing there and their school is being ravaged by the latest group of pink slips as well. It is a scary thought when we offer our children uncertain educations with increasingly large classes and fewer services.
This year I received my pink slip as a teacher at Park Western Place. Here at Park Western over fifty percent of the teachers were let go. Losing teachers at any school in any district will affect the effectiveness of education the children receive, but here at Park Western it is even more dramatic because the teachers at this school have received specialized training and professional development over the last fourteen years and teach an individualized curriculum. Cleary it has worked. The school has gone from the list of 100 worst schools in California 14 years ago to one of the top ten preforming schools in the district. With an API of 949 the school has made dramatic gains that are now at risk because of teacher layoffs, my layoff, my colleagues' layoffs.
The scores at this school did not increase so dramatically because the school was lucky. It was hard work, dedication, educated, and experienced teachers doing their jobs. However, if you read about teachers in the news these days we are pegged as lazy employees who work short hours, have summers off, and are bankrupting the government with our "fancy"pensions. (Interesting how we are bankrupting the system not GE who made 5 billion dollars in profits last year but didn't pay a cent in taxes).
So much for staying focused...Anyhow I guess my point for today is there are places that education is working. However, without help from the public to gain support for our schools even the bright spots in what can often be a bleak educational system will be extinguished. In addition, every year we tell our teachers over and over that you are no longer valued by giving them a pink slip thier fire dims a little too. I know my fire is dimming and despite how much I love my job I just don't know if I can continue to take the blows year after year no mutter how much I believe in my profession, value it, and see it as a true vocation.
How do we teach our children to value education when all signs point to the fact that society does not?
Touche!
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