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This week in a special edition of District Deeds Sunday Reads tied to Teacher Reads we are featuring a very enlightening article from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).  The school administrator/author helps explain how Teachers are forced to adopt the persona of “martyrs and saints” by “society” and a “teetering system” instead of being identified as “Professionals”.

We have featured the complete ASCD article today in Sunday Reads with our synopsis and analysis.  We strongly urge our readers to click on the title and other links (in red) to read the full article for themselves.

It’s About Skillsets and Support, Not Sainthood

By Elizabeth Dampf  – October 1, 2022

Abstract:

To fix the teaching profession’s reputation, why don’t we stop expecting teachers to “love” the job?

With all the pressures of teachers to do everything and sacrifice their well-being and time, educator Elizabeth Dampf has had enough. She argues that the teaching profession is just that—a profession—and society must stop pressuring teachers to be martyrs and saints “for the love of the job.”

An education professor of mine used to say, “If you don’t truly love teaching, get out before you harm the children.” He’d wax on about how he used to bring food for students who didn’t have enough at home, how he stayed late most days because students needed somewhere to be, and countless other examples of sacrifice.

This level of expectation was reiterated in my first teaching job. My principal welcomed us with exhortations to love the school, love the students, and passionately follow our calling as teachers. Love, it seemed, was requisite to being a good teacher.

The thing is, I was miserable. That first year, I tried to explain to my friends and family how wretched I felt, how trapped in an impossible situation, how unequipped to meet the demands heaped upon me. I would explain that I had a front row seat to everything that was wrong with American society, but was powerless to do anything about it. I’d tell them stories of students coming in with needs that I simply couldn’t meet, wracked by poverty, violence, and trauma and behaving in ways most of my acquaintances couldn’t imagine. I vividly described my meager classroom, which could only be upgraded if I dipped into the wages of the two jobs I worked to pay the rent. The district had no curriculum, no training, and very little hope.

Everyone looked at me like I was a monster.

Teachers are supposed to love teaching. That’s what they do. It’s a calling, a life purpose, a fulfillment of all one’s dreams. If you don’t love teaching, it’s because there is something wrong with you, and you should vacate the classroom immediately. This cultural attitude has proliferated in the years since my first job, most poignantly during the pandemic, when teachers were praised for everything from risking their physical safety to working around the clock to reach students remotely. “Teachers are such saints,” people would say. “Good thing they love what they do.”

A Dangerous Illusion

The longer I stayed in education, though, the more I realized that the “love of teaching” trope is a cultural illusion upon which we have built a teetering system. That system has been happy to press the advantage, relying more and more on the unpaid labor of presumably passionate employees. Teachers must be therapists, doctors, psychologists, providers of food and supplies—and they must be grateful for the opportunity. Cultural references reinforce this message; one need only watch the many movies and TV shows in which an impassioned, if unconventional, teacher makes a difference in students’ lives by loving her job to the point of self-sacrifice.

This hagiographic vision of teachers has mangled the profession. Rates of teacher attrition indicate that the misery I felt was hardly unique—even veterans can no longer sustain the myth of the blissfully sacrificial teacher. Teachers bold enough to call attention to the very real problems in education have been treated as sniveling malcontents for years, and yet with today’s labor shortage, they are in a position to leave the profession altogether if they want, and many are doing just that.

Conflating passion and merit in teachers ultimately harms students. “Passionate” teaching is not the same as skillful teaching, and our love of the saint obscures our view of the skill. When school leaders know a teacher truly cares about students, it can be easy to overlook weak instruction—in fact, nothing is harder than dismissing an enthusiastic, warm, but ineffective teacher. In other professions, quality of work forms the basis of evaluations, both formal and otherwise. No one would think twice about a carpenter fired for shoddy construction, or a pilot dismissed for a crash landing. When you find yourself on the operating table, you care whether your surgeon has the skill to perform your triple bypass properly. You care less whether she feels existentially fulfilled by doing it.

Even those willing to distinguish between passion and skill might incline to the view that loving a job can make a person better at it. Certainly, it can. This, however, is hardly a guarantee, and in the case of teaching—a job that is harder and harder to love—we must avoid that assumption. When teachers express discontent at poor compensation, broken systems, and debilitating pressure, we must stop responding with, “But you love it, right?” We must stop using presumed love of teaching as a blank check, and instead pay cash to set up a system that works.

COVID-19 has made the harsh realities of education visible to the public; a typical Twitter scroll reveals a story about pandemic learning loss, a video of parents protesting at a school board meeting, and an exposé from a burned out teacher who quit after breaking up yet another fight in the cafeteria. The nationwide teacher shortage has emboldened many to express how unsustainable the profession has become. As every educator knows, these problems existed before the pandemic, yet many are worse now that we’re “back to normal.” That’s why it will be tempting, moving forward, to say “only someone who loves this profession would do it.”

That would be a terrible mistake.

Is the solution to hope for a parade of educators so passionate they assume responsibility for an inequitable, under-resourced system? Failing that, shall we bludgeon all newcomers into the familiar tropes of martyrdom, drilling them in happy catch phrases to keep everyone else comfortable? These are rhetorical questions; the cat is out of the bag where teaching is concerned, and neither teachers nor society will believe much longer that educators’ passion blinds them to the challenges—even horrors—of the job.

A Professional Proposal

What we need to do instead is build up a generation of teachers who can approach the work as a profession, not just a selfless calling. The industry has made significant strides toward defining, clearly, what good teaching looks like. Consider, for example, the implementation of the Danielson Framework , which articulates proficiency levels across a spectrum of indicators and removes some of the subjectivity in evaluations.

Sainthood is not required for capable instruction. Let’s shift the focus instead onto the skills that our students deserve in their teachers. This would break the cycle of guilt felt by overwhelmed teachers—veteran and novice alike—who find themselves disliking their jobs but unable to admit it. It may draw attention to the need for additional social support where teachers simply cannot shoulder any more responsibilities. Most important, it can engender a cultural respect for the profession of teaching. This cultural respect is key, for it may incentivize smart, driven people to enter the profession.

So, how should we talk to and about teachers? The most vital step is a controversial one: we must stop modeling, demanding, and praising a martyr mentality from educators. School leaders should flatly refuse to disparage teachers who commit the cardinal sin of “leaving with the bell” while fawning over those who slave away for hours after school ends. In fact, we need to stop implying that effective instruction hinges on clock time altogether. All educators should stop using “Do it for the kids” as a spur and stop using “I love the kids” as a halo; such accessories are unnecessary distractions, anyway.

Leaders must also reject a martyr mentality for themselves. How many times have I, as an administrator, engaged in the end-of-day standoff, where the last person in her office is clearly the most virtuous, the most capable, the most dedicated, while the first to leave sneaks sheepishly down the hall in a cringing walk of shame? When leaders accept the total effacement of their personal time and interests as a necessary part of the job, they project this mindset onto teachers. Educators might say we want to “work smarter, not harder,” but we are often afraid of how we will be perceived if we actually do it. That needs to change.

Let’s also start talking about teaching as a profession—especially to those outside the industry. For obvious, misogynist reasons, teaching has historically been regarded as a low-skills job by non-educators, and this is nothing short of an atrocity. The general public rarely hears how very smart and skilled a person needs to be to effectively teach other humans, so let’s talk about it over and over until the message sinks in. Let’s describe the pedagogical theory teachers incorporate into their lessons, the behavioral psychology they utilize every day, and the mental gymnastics they perform to differentiate for unique learners. If we focus on this when we talk about teaching, our cultural discourse can get into the nuances of the profession and might even lead to a solution more elegant than “Do it for the kids!”

The way we, as a society, talk about teaching is powerful. It can paint a picture in the minds of our community, our students, and even those in the profession. To fix the many issues of morale, attrition, and supply pipelines the industry faces, we must reckon with our own mythology and construct a more sustainable language.

Elizabeth Dampf is the director of professional learning at Round Lake Area Schools 116 in the Chicago area.

DISTRICT DEEDS SYNOPSIS AND ANALYSIS:

Reading this article brought back many meetings and conversations we have had with a wide variety of Parents and Students along with SDUSD Teachers, Staff and senior leadership surrounding what the article author characterized as the  “hagiographic vision of teachers”.

We praise Ms. Dampf for standing up, for telling the truth about Teachers to “stop modeling, demanding, and praising a martyr mentality from educators. School leaders should flatly refuse to disparage teachers who commit the cardinal sin of “leaving with the bell” while fawning over those who slave away for hours after school ends.”

However the first thing we had to do was locate the definition of “hagiographic” in Merriam-Webster:

And here is the defintion of “hagiography” from Merriam-Webster:

The article described it this way:

This hagiographic vision of teachers has mangled the profession. Rates of teacher attrition indicate that the misery I felt was hardly unique—even veterans can no longer sustain the myth of the blissfully sacrificial teacher. Teachers bold enough to call attention to the very real problems in education have been treated as sniveling malcontents for years, and yet with today’s labor shortage, they are in a position to leave the profession altogether if they want, and many are doing just that.

We understand the untenable and unhealthy position of Teachers who attempt to live up to that impossible standard.  In a toxic work environment like the SDUSD, the more corrupt and dysfuntional the school district senior leadership is, the more “saintly” the Teachers must appear for propaganda sake.  In the SDUSD, a teacher is LUCKY if they are only called  “sniveling malcontents” if they speak out against the current Board of Education that has been financially elected by San Diego Education Association (SDEA Teachers Union).

But the overall damage to Students through the “Sainthood” of Teachers is even worse.  The enrollment success  of the corrupt and dysfunctional SDUSD is built upon the successful propaganda coupling of Teacher “Sainthood”, Parent Trust and District Image.

Here is the breakdown of that unholy SDUSD enrollment strategy:

Teacher “Sainthood”

Removing the “Sainthood” tag may be a dangerous step for Teachers in other Districts but not too dangerous in the SDUSD.

As the article mentioned:

Conflating passion and merit in teachers ultimately harms students. “Passionate” teaching is not the same as skillful teaching, and our love of the saint obscures our view of the skill. When school leaders know a teacher truly cares about students, it can be easy to overlook weak instruction—in fact, nothing is harder than dismissing an enthusiastic, warm, but ineffective teacher.

In the SDUSD the SDEA rules.

In the SDUSD, “dismissing an enthusiastic, warm, but ineffective teacher” is not “harder”, it is impossible.  IF the “ineffective” Teacher is fully backed by the SDEA (as a strong SDEA backer or as a School Site SDEA rep), the SDUSD cannot and will not fire them no matter what the “ineffective” offense up to and including total teaching incompetence. The SDEA has a political choke chain around the necks of each Board of Education Trustee (100% Democrat) that grovels for SDEA political endorsement.  Three of the four candidates for the upcoming 2022 School Board Trustee election have already subscribed to the SDEA choke chain groveling requirement so the SDEA will continue to have the capacity to remove Teacher “Sainthood” for the immediate future.

Parent Trust

Parent Trust for Teacher Sainthood is established in Kindergarten.

For any Parent who is willing to send their 4 or 5 year old child to a classroom run by a complete stranger, blind Trust is not optional, it is a necessity.  A good Parent couldn’t live with themselves if they thought that the child was being harmed in any way.

Unfortunately there is virtually ZERO “caveat emptor” for “quality of work”    available for Kindergarten Parents at a school site.

Caveat Emptor – Buyer Beware!

Much easier said to Parents than to have them do it.

An average parent might be able to slightly check out the Kindergarten Teacher “quality of work” but virtually impossible to check out the “quality of work” for the rest of the School Site Staff.  Unfortunately, for poorly educated families and for immigrant families with a language barrier, effectively evaluating Teacher “quality of work” at any level is impossible.

All those parents can do is hope that the Teacher is a saint.

But as a Student and Parent progress through the SDUSD, they discover the truth:

Teachers are human, not “Saints”.

Some teachers are fine human beings and some are not.  Some are fine teachers and some are not.  As the author of today’s article mentions:

Sainthood is not required for capable instruction. Let’s shift the focus instead onto the skills that our students deserve in their teachers.

Lack of capable instruction skills and leadership support is why families and excellent professional Teachers are running away from SDUSD schools.

District Image

The truth is, the SDUSD is not “teetering”.  It has completely fallen into the cesspool abyss of political corruption and incompetence.  To prop up the SDUSD educational disaster, the horrible senior leadership has devised a massively false “District Image” and the “Sainthood” tag for Teachers which are major tools enabling ongoing SDUSD propaganda.

Here is the SDUSD “District Image” 3 step Game Plan:

Step 1:  With SDEA help, fluff up the “Teachers are Saints” meme as an ongoing theme thereby reducing Teachers from “professionals” to devout acolytes of the SDUSD.  Get the SDEA election endorsement and push the Teacher acolytes to vote for the designated Trustee candidates.  Wash, rinse and repeat each election year.  Based on election results, the vast amount of Teachers are happy to trade the “professional” tag for Sainthood.

Step 2: Plaster thousands of propaganda pictures and press releases from the SDUSD Communications/Propaganda Department on the SDUSD website and flood the lazy “SDUSD friendly” local media outlets with propaganda press releases they happily release as “news” in place of REAL investigative reporting..

Step 3: Manipulate new SDUSD Parents with “Feel Good” Propaganda on both the district website and local media.  This step is much easier for corrupt SDUSD leadership than “unsainting” any K-5 Teachers and treating them like professionals.

As Students progress through Elementary School, Parents discover the depth of SDUSD educational dysfunction. Meanwhile the SDUSD reduction of the school choice window and gradual elimination of busing trap the poorest familes in a horrible school site with few other neighborhood options.

The result?

Those Parents and Teachers who can afford to leave actually do so.

Those Parents who can’t leave become a captive enrollment victim and the education of their children is irrevocably damaged.

The Teachers who can’t leave must play the “martyr” and keep their head down and their mouth shut.

That is the corrupt SDUSD truth where maintaining the false SDUSD image is much more important to senior leadership than Student education, “unsainting” Teachers and treating Teachers like a 1st class  “professional”.

Until this SDUSD  corruption changes, ALL of the following will continue to negatively impact the SDUSD as a viable education resource and employer of future Teachers while relegating current SDUSD Teachers to 2nd class professional status:

  • “modeling, demanding, and praising a martyr mentality from educators”
  • “Conflating passion and merit in teachers”
  • “bludgeon all newcomers into the familiar tropes of martyrdom”
  • “sustain the myth of the blissfully sacrificial teacher”
  • “disparage teachers who commit the cardinal sin of “leaving with the bell””
  • “Teachers must be therapists, doctors, psychologists, providers of food and supplies—and they must be grateful for the opportunity”

THAT belongs in all SDUSD press releases and Teacher Job Descriptions as as a disclaimer as long as San Diego voters continue to elect clones of current SDUSD Board of Education Trustees every two years.

But Teachers have the Electoral Power to change this paradigm.

Teachers must vote AGAINST the two SDUSD Board of Education Candidates Shana Hazan and Cody Petterson recommended by LIAR Trustee “Tricky Dick” Barrera and against LIAR California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond who did nothing during the Covid crisis.

Teachers MUST vote against “Sainthood” and the SDUSD/SDEA propaganda that relegates them to 2nd class Professionals.

If teachers allow the SDUSD and SDEA to elect the 3 candidates listed, they will deserve what they get and will continue to be treated as bumbling, subservient “Saints”.

If teachers allow the SDUSD and SDEA to do this, they show that they do not deserve the pay or respect private sector “professionals” with the same educational credentials and experience receive.

If teachers allow the SDUSD and SDEA to do this, Teachers have themselves to blame.

But if self respecting teachers refuse to allow the SDUSD and SDEA to do this to them, we and ALL Parents and Students are behind you 100%.

It won’t take ALL Teacher votes…30 or 40 percent will do.

It’s your “Profession”.

It’s your choice.

Now for our quote of the week dedicated to the Teachers that will stand up to both SDUSD and SDEA authority and DEMAND, through their vote, that they allow them to “approach the work as a profession” and deliver “skills that our students deserve in their teachers”:

“Teaching is the essential profession, the one that makes all professions possible. – David Haselkorn

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