Barack Obama recently made a speech to the American Federation of Teachers. We will save the debate for the government's roll in education for another post but one thing in the speech really caught my eye. The following is a quote from Obama that to me is a major problem this country is experiencing.
"the single most important factor in determining a child's achievement is not the color of their skin or where they come from; it's not who their parents are or how much money they have. It's who their teacher is."
WOW!!!
As a teacher, I do believe that I play a huge roll in the outcome of my students lives. However, to argue that I am more important than a child's parent is ridiculous. Children will/should spend far more time and have much more interaction with their parents than they will ever have with their teacher.
This leads me to my point. It seems that as the years go on parents/politicians are every more eager to turn over all child raising duties to the school. This is a dangerous path we are taking. Parental accountablility is slowly receding and I fear that a new title may need to be added to my job resume..... Babysitter.
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17/7/08 16:05
I think you are going overboard here. I see a presidential candidate who finally realizes the impact that we teachers have in the classroom. Maybe he will pay us what we deserve.
7/3/11 20:09
I agree! It definitely feels good to be given the recognition that teachers will play a big part in a child's life, but teachers are definitely secondary to parents. Parents (while not all parents play as active a role as others in their children's life) are the first to instill some sort of ideology into a child. They are the first person to teach then right from wrong, the first person who may have tried to teach them to count or say their A,B,C's. It is evident from the first day of a new class/ new school year, that some parents left most if not all of this up to us teachers, but some took the time to really work with their child. I do feel that maybe such a public figure should not have worded this statement as he did - it may give some of the already less attentive parents reason to hand even more responsibility to teachers.
A pay raise is extremely appropriate and overdue to say the least.