The teacher's job is filled with frustration. There are the day-to-day struggle to reach and educate the children, the endless petty chores, the effort to get special help for students who need it, the difficulties of getting the right books and supplies and now the near-impossible task of coping with school violence. Many teachers find these problems too much for them. Thousands leave every year. But, with all these problems, nothing has frustrated and angered the teacher more than the unfair treatment received in the newspapers, TV specials, editorial comments and a wave of harshly critical books which, while they contain enough truth in them to hurt, show no understanding of today's school problems.
Teachers and their union have received great amounts of publicity, but it has been very selective. Conflict, strikes, violence, threats and confrontations make news, but the more numerous and more time-consuming efforts to improve the schools, reform teacher preparation, integrate faculties, increase state and federal support for public education, establish effective procedures for the adjudication of student and parent complaints, expand job training and higher education opportunities and develop standards of professional accountability are largely ignored by the media.
This column is our way of telling the parents and the public where we stand on the important educational issues facing our city. In the weeks to come we will comment on recent books on the schools. We will respond to newspaper editorials and analyze the TV coverage which different channels give education. We will make proposals for educational change and explain why there are some changes we will oppose. We will use this column to comment on the educational consequences of the acts of city, state and school officials.
This step is a very unusual one. But, being educators as well as teacher unionists, we are in a very unusual position. We know that we cannot improve the school, we cannot get support for needed change without public understanding. In other "industries" it is management and not the "hired hand" who must be concerned with the quality of the product while in education the quality of the product must be the central concern of both teachers and parents.
Harvey Scribner Must Succeed
New York's schools have made an amazing comeback. Two years ago we came through the longest strike in our nation's history. Thousands of teachers were looking for jobs in other districts. There were gloomy predictions that decentralization would lead to chaos and anarchy. But the experts turned out to be wrong. For two years in a row our schools have opened without disruption. While there has been increasing violence in our schools (usually not well handled by school officials) the amount of violence has not been as great as that experienced in other big cities. As a result of great benefits gained in a new contract, teachers have not fled from the city. Community school board elections did not result in victories by extremists, but the elections of candidates eager to go a good job in school improvement. The struggle to secure a contract for UFT paraprofessionals and to save their jobs has resulted in the re-establishment of a coalition between the UFT, civil rights groups, community school boards, parents and labor unions. Further grounds for optimism can be gained from the fact that the Board of Education, Council of Supervisory Organizations, United Parents Association, the City University, Community School Board Representatives, the UFT and other groups were able, within a very short time, to reach unanimous agreement on the potentially explosive issue of professional accountability. The UFT's three year contract has given everyone the time to begin to find solutions to educational problems in an atmosphere free of conflict.
Now is the time to bring about real change in our schools. No one knows how badly change is needed more than the classroom teacher who is in the "front lines." The real question is whether the changes about to be made will be the kind we have experienced in the past - superficial, ineffective and irrelevant to what is going on in the classroom -- or the result of a long, hard look at what needs to be done to bring about changes that will make a difference to teachers and children in the classroom.
Dr. Scribner is our new Chancellor. We have already had occasion to differ with him in a number of issues, but we must disagree with those who are looking forward to his early departure. Our schools need strong leadership if we are to make improvements. Progress depends on the mutual respect and cooperation of a strong union, strong community boards, strong parent groups and a strong Chancellor. Those who are trying to drive Dr. Scribner out of our schools may very well succeed in sending him to a more desirable position, but will also so weaken the position of Chancellor that educational leadership in our city will become impossible. Those who seek to oust Dr. Scribner must ponder the alternative: a revolving door succession of Chancellors incapable of leading the schools and unable to protect the rights of any of the parties in the schools. Dr. Scribner must succeed and we must help him.
But if Dr. Scribner wants change and progress he must be able to win the cooperation and confidence of the 70,000 of us in the schools who are working with the children. So far the Chancellor has not done so. He has tried, understandably, to enlist the support of the general public. Now it is essential for him to try to enlist the support of the school staff by bringing to the public the story of the thousands of teachers who are struggling against great odds to educate, by leading a fight for adequate funds and by building a coalition to combat the epidemics of violence and drug abuse. Most important, Dr. Scribner must, while calling for change lead a crusade against the destructive and irresponsible critics of our schools, our teachers and public education - against the arrogant elitists who condemn the schools from their editorial offices, foundation suites and university towers.
Above all, Dr. Scribner must bring together parents, teachers, supervisors and community boards to work out plans and programs for change in our schools. If Dr. Scribner succeeds, we all do. If he fails, there's trouble ahead.