You Know Me, Right?

A few weeks back, Chicago educators took to the streets in a strike, protesting (among other things) out-of-control class sizes and a teacher evaluation system that puts the majority of its eggs in the basket of standardized testing. The nation watched as battle lines were drawn between the Chicago teacher's union and the city's mayor, former Obama Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel.

As the conflict blossomed, I was not shocked at the initial spin the media put on this issue; of course, the teachers were painted by many in the media as greedy, lazy, completely apathetic towards the needs of their students. Understand, I was still insulted by the way much of the mainstream media portrayed the teachers, but I can't act as if there was anything novel about the disparaging characterization they received; I suppose such "slings and arrows" have just become repetitive and routine in the eyes of the laborers at which they are launched.

I've been in this business nine years and I've heard people in my line of work denigrated by the media more times than I can recount, so I'm not shocked when people want to paint my colleagues and I as individuals who weren't good enough to do anything real and, therefore, just defaulted to teaching in lieu of getting an actual job. I have come to see it as par for the course when someone assumes all teachers just quit trying when they get a tenured contract. I'm no longer surprised when people talk of public education as a black hole of waste and hold their tax dollars over educators' heads as some sort of bludgeoning tool. I'm sadly used to people making snide comments about how no serious profession gets three months of paid vacation. Even as I record these things right now, it bothers me that these are familiarities.

Are there teachers in this business for the wrong reasons? Sure. Are all teachers equally effective and/or gifted in their craft? Of course not. I get it; honestly, I do.

Still, I'm tired of this broad brush that's being used to paint me, my colleagues, and now the Chicago teachers as incompetent, self-focused, ineffective, and easily-replaceable. I'm tired of people talking like my job could be done by any hack. I'm tired of hearing the same people who call documentaries by Michael Moore gross misrepresentations of truth full of hasty generalizations and boldfaced falsehoods turn around and pretend docs like "Waiting For Superman" are a completely accurate depiction of reality.

Many of you know me, right?

Do I whine about my salary? Do I piddle my summer away watching daytime television? Did I sign a tenured contract and begin showing movies everyday instead of teaching?  Don't I fight for my kids day in and day out? Haven't I  given up personal, non-contract time to go the extra mile with kids on essays? Didn't I use nearly two months of my summer "vacation" spending my discretionary income on gas and  tuition so that I could continue to grow as a teacher in both philosophy and practice?

If you're reading this, I feel like you probably know me well enough to answer those questions accurately.  You, more than likely, know what kind of person I am.  You know what I want for kids.

But do you know the media? Do you really know them?  Do you know their motivations and goals?  In all humility, I ask you to consider this: is the media more interested in selling an alarmist story in which the educational sky is falling or giving you the truth in which I treat your kid as a precious individual for whom I'd do this job even if it paid minimum wage?

In the coming days, I'm planning on posting some thoughts on education, not to gripe or moan or complain, or even to boldly defend public education against all criticism--it certainly has its deep, deep issues that need addressed. Should you read any of these posts, I honestly pray that you'll have enough faith in me to know this: I only post them so that you can get your information from someone you know (and trust, hopefully) rather than Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, Ann Coulter, or some other media source mainly in the business of creating and selling a crisis, regardless of how much reality they have to alter/spin/cut/ignore in its manufacture.

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