When Teachers Talk Out of School

New York Times by Jonathan Zimmerman | Jun. 4, 2011 (Opinion)

IN 1927, a schoolteacher in Secaucus, N.J., named Helen Clark lost her teaching license. The reason? Somebody had seen her smoking cigarettes after school hours. In communities across the United States, that was a ground for dismissal. So was card-playing, dancing and failure to attend church. Even after Prohibition ended, teachers could be dismissed for drinking or frequenting a place where liquor was served.

Today, teachers can be suspended, ... Full Story »

Posted by Kristin Gorski - via New York Times (Most Emailed), New York Times (Opinion), AllTop

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Joe Pallas
3.9
 by Joe Pallas - Jun. 5, 2011

This thoughtful piece on professionalism in K-12 education gives a measure of context both historical and current. But it stops short of the big chicken-or-egg issue: can we demand professionalism of teachers while refusing to treat them as professionals?

Also, an opinion piece isn't excused from getting outside expert voices. A piece about doctors or lawyers would at least mention the AMA or ABA. The only quotes we see are from teachers who got in trouble for sharing their frustrations in too-public fora.

Type "Are teachers professionals?" into the NY Times search engine and you'll get an AP article with that title—from 1988! (No, it doesn't presume to answer the question.) Unfortunately, this piece assumes the answer while ignoring reality: we don't treat teachers as professionals, so demanding professionalism is almost certainly unrealistic.

The real question is, if we want teachers to behave professionally, how do we change our education system to treat them as professionals?

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