NEWS & LETTERS, Janurary-February 2010
Teacher exploitation
Los Angeles--As a teacher, I am a production worker. The teaching pacing chart is handed down by the district to teach a specific subject per day regardless if the students are learning the material. Of course, if they don't, it is the teacher who has to come up with some magical means to teach and maintain the same accelerated pace. The delivery of material is all planned and teachers are becoming just delivery of knowledge persons who will be replaced soon with some computer center run offshore.
The federal mandate of No Child Left Behind and all the resources the Feds offer as a carrot to the school have created an atmosphere of stress and fear in teachers whose students do not meet the level of achievement set by the federal government. This is a sure recipe for the corporation to get some politician on their side and make the teachers--with overcrowded classrooms and 49-minute periods--take the blame for the failure of the students. It is what management uses to blame workers for not meeting the production schedule. The students are alienated from the curriculum because there is no time to relate the material to real life situations.
The public schools, meanwhile, have opened their doors to corporate consultants who tell us we have to do "everything" until the schools meet the federal and state requirements. As a result the inner city students are losing their hope and aspiration for a future with a job in this economy of bailout of the rich and layoff of the workers. About 80% of the students where I work are dropping out in high school! The accelerated production pace is affecting all professions. Workers of America unite, you have nothing to lose but the national debt.
--Manel
|
