Some people say summer is the time when teachers should get more pay. But not everyone is grateful to teachers for keeping kids occupied between August and June. Washington state representative Liz Pike has written a Facebook post, titled "A life in the day of a WA state representative", and responded to teachers' complaints of rising costs of living. The post has received criticism for being anti-teacher. After reading her post, I feel that Liz Pike should rethink her criticism of public school teaching and avoid comparing it to the private school.
Many of us teachers would certainly like teaching to be more like the private school. We see nothing wrong with fair pay for fair performance. In fact, performance is the name of the game. With standardized testing popular throughout K-12 education, teachers are some of the most analyzed and performance-measured employees in the United States. Liz Pike is very angry that teachers want raises even while test scores are dropping. Well, how are we supposed to have discipline in the classroom when our hands are tied and we can hardly do anything with naughty students or fail students who are not prepared to move on to the next grade?
Teachers would love to be able to turn education around and improve students' performance. But we can't and we should not suffer for it. Unlike private school businesses, public schools cannot turn away "customers". A private school business serves customers who walk through the door of their own free will, while public schools have to educate students who only attend because courts say they must.
She says those who are "uninspired" by a lack of a cost of living increase should give up teaching. Is this the message that she thinks should be sent to the students whose academic performance she claims to care much about? That "If you love it you'll shut up and not stand up for yourself?" I think teachers should stand up for themselves and I also think supporting teachers can make teachers teach children how to stand up for themselves.
