Reporter-turned-charter school teacher Marilyn Rhames blogged last week on an experience that changed her perception of education and the core values that should guide education reform. She began her student teaching in an elementary school on the West Side of Chicago, where conditions were such that “after six months, I fled.” From the administration’s selfish, negative attitude to the unprofessional conduct she witnessed from colleagues, the situation was intolerable.
The experience that most affected her, though, happened after she had started student teaching at a progressive school on another side of the city. Stumbling upon water-cooler chat in the teacher’s lounge one day, she heard fellow teachers telling horror stories of their past experiences, each “one-upping” each other. Unable to contain herself, she joined in with her own stories of her former school. It was then that a quiet, “Mr. Rogers-esque” social studies teacher stopped everyone in their tracks with four little words.
“It happened to them.”
The social studies teacher chastised, “It happened to them, not to you. You tell the stories like it’s some kind of entertainment, but it happened to them—the kids. They are the ones who 30 years from now will remember these stories with tears in their eyes.”
Rhames recalls this episode as a turning point in her career. She writes:
It happened to them: This truth has haunted me for the past eight years I’ve been teaching. I am only glad that I got set straight early in my teaching career. Some teachers never seem to get it. You know this when their debates about education reform are centered around teacher rights, and not student rights. Teachers’ needs are important—I have a mortgage; I have a family; I would like to retire one day—but they are not the core issue. The mission is bigger than us. Educators and policymakers must boil the chatter down to two essential questions: To what degree will this policy enhance student learning, and how will we know?
To read more of Rhames’ reflections, visit http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/charting_my_own_course/
