Why do we never ask teachers?

Everyone has an opinion about the ongoing failure in public education.  We know what all the heavy hitters think.

We know what the Governor and her Public Education Secretary think are the problems and solutions.

We know what the APS Supt  thinks, and what school board members, newspaper editors, and union presidents think.

What we don't know, is what teachers think.

What do the people who carry out the orders think about what is wrong and how best to fix it?

In the Albuquerque Public Schools alone, teachers have between them nearly 100,000 years of ongoing experience.  No one knows better than teachers what are the effects of policy and procedure classrooms, the educational interface, where the rubber meets the road, where the system and the student meet face to face.

Why don't teachers have a seat at the table where decisions are made? Why is their input of so little importance as not even to be gathered?

Teacher input is not sought because it is unimportant, it is not sought because it threatens administrative and executive incompetence.  A teacher survey would document incompetence in administration and leadership.

Teachers are being made scapegoats in the failure blame game.  It wouldn't do to let them gather any data in their defense.

Take for example, student discipline.  Teachers are the only people who will tell you that student discipline has a significant and dilatory effect on an efficient and effective educational environment.

Have you ever heard the Governor talk about the problems caused by student discipline and chronically disruptive students?  Or the Public Education Secretary, or a school board member or any senior administrator?  Have you ever heard a newspaper editor point to discipline problems in APS, and their effect on the education of all students?

Enforcing school discipline problems is an administrative responsibility.  Can you imagine the administration documenting the fact that teachers think the administration is undermining their authority over students?

Student discipline problems in the APS, are being kept secret from interest holders.

It has been more than a year since Brooks was asked point blank; "why do we never talk about student discipline, link.  He is yet to respond.

It has been 21 months since Brooks was asked, link, to put together a PowerPoint presentation of the historic, current and future plans to restore the authority of adults in schools; a candid, forthright and honest analysis of student discipline.

It's not why can't the put together a PowerPoint on student discipline issues in the APS, it's why won't they?

There is only one reason to not tell the truth
and that is to avoid the consequences of so doing.




photos Mark Bralley