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Black n Blue 4 U
5 years ago
General
In some ways I can relate to what police are going through. I'm in education; I teach for a living. I'll stress that I feel a sort of empathy, but I really don't think their position is as strong as many others I've spoken to about this.
Educators have unions that sometimes work hard to keep people who are really not worth keeping. Can police officers be fired after they screw up? Doesn't sound like it happens all that often.
Education in general attracts people who are really not suited to the profession at all. They imagine what it will be like, find out it isn't like that, and instead of adapting they just do a terrible job, year after year, and nobody can do anything about it (see the first point).
A teacher can have a profound negative affect on the rest of a student's life. It isn't literally the same as dying, but when you're told "No, you probably don't have what it takes to do this," some people just stop trying. There are a lot of other little things, such as being reasonable about deadlines and giving people an F versus a D. "You wave a pretty big magic wand over people's lives," a former student said to me once. And police officers can do the same, in a much more final way.
Lots of armchair quarterbacking goes on when it comes to education. "A true professional would never let things get out of control" is something I've heard a lot. People who've never given schooling a second thought once they were finished with theirs suddenly seem to know a lot about how things ought to be run. Unlike police, who can get politicians to come to their defense, teachers are usually hung out to dry.
Teachers get more and more duties and responsibilities piled onto them year after year. Much like the police, we have to deal with people struggling with mental illnesses and other disabilities, are homeless, are abusing drugs to a point where they can't function anymore, confront and report abuse when we hear about it...I get a training that takes maybe 30 or 45 minutes, and now I'm suddenly an expert in whether something is a legally actionable Title IX violation? No...not so much. Can an officer become a social worker due to a 6 hour training day? Doubtful.
So yeah, I know how it feels to have a lot of these pressures put onto you. Teachers in K-12 got fed up with it and organized, you may have heard of it: Red4Ed. It wasn't just about their salaries, though that was the easy to swallow story that everyone thought made sense.
Some parents became furious about teachers striking, and some politicians have since then been trying to pass legislation that forbids instructors from discussing politics in any form in their classrooms (in my state, don't know about yours). Countering movements sprang to life (Purple4Parents comes to mind).
Instead of Red and Purple, we now are seeing Black versus Blue. It's unfortunate that it's come to "What side are you on" now, but that's where we are.
Educators have unions that sometimes work hard to keep people who are really not worth keeping. Can police officers be fired after they screw up? Doesn't sound like it happens all that often.
Education in general attracts people who are really not suited to the profession at all. They imagine what it will be like, find out it isn't like that, and instead of adapting they just do a terrible job, year after year, and nobody can do anything about it (see the first point).
A teacher can have a profound negative affect on the rest of a student's life. It isn't literally the same as dying, but when you're told "No, you probably don't have what it takes to do this," some people just stop trying. There are a lot of other little things, such as being reasonable about deadlines and giving people an F versus a D. "You wave a pretty big magic wand over people's lives," a former student said to me once. And police officers can do the same, in a much more final way.
Lots of armchair quarterbacking goes on when it comes to education. "A true professional would never let things get out of control" is something I've heard a lot. People who've never given schooling a second thought once they were finished with theirs suddenly seem to know a lot about how things ought to be run. Unlike police, who can get politicians to come to their defense, teachers are usually hung out to dry.
Teachers get more and more duties and responsibilities piled onto them year after year. Much like the police, we have to deal with people struggling with mental illnesses and other disabilities, are homeless, are abusing drugs to a point where they can't function anymore, confront and report abuse when we hear about it...I get a training that takes maybe 30 or 45 minutes, and now I'm suddenly an expert in whether something is a legally actionable Title IX violation? No...not so much. Can an officer become a social worker due to a 6 hour training day? Doubtful.
So yeah, I know how it feels to have a lot of these pressures put onto you. Teachers in K-12 got fed up with it and organized, you may have heard of it: Red4Ed. It wasn't just about their salaries, though that was the easy to swallow story that everyone thought made sense.
Some parents became furious about teachers striking, and some politicians have since then been trying to pass legislation that forbids instructors from discussing politics in any form in their classrooms (in my state, don't know about yours). Countering movements sprang to life (Purple4Parents comes to mind).
Instead of Red and Purple, we now are seeing Black versus Blue. It's unfortunate that it's come to "What side are you on" now, but that's where we are.
My wife was a teacher for two decades, so I only know about the very real struggles second hand. But I have witnessed the long hours, and tremendous workload that is heaped on (grade school) teachers.
I agree with the sentiment that a teacher can have a significant life-long effect on students (whether that is positive or negative). I'm sorry that the state of things has forced people to "choose a side" when (IMO) we should all be on the side of improving society in general.
My father completed a Baccalaureate of Science in Chemical Engineering in 1951 (almost 70 years ago). His Faculty Advisor (or whatever they called them then) tried to convince him to obtain a Master's in Education; Dad hated Academia and declined vehemently.
Fast forward more than a quarter of a century, and I found myself in the same position. I was two years into a Baccalaureate in Psychology and my Faculty Advisor and I had That Conference. He asked me what I wanted to do with my career. I told him I wanted to pursue my Masters and work in therapy.
He scoffed. "That's a wast of time. Pick a school of thought. Freudianism, Jung, Bettelheim, Skinnerian Behaviorism, anything and defend it against all comers. Teach and publish, that's the only way to get ahead in this business." I went home and told my parents I planned to dro out and study computers. I didn't have to convince my Dad. That's when he uttered the phrase at the top of my rant.
Maybe once we burn everything broken to the ground, there will be room to build something that works?
But for now, there truly is no hope of winning in a rigged game by playing fair when noone else is.
V.