First published: Sunday, May 2, 2010
Goldberg made the point that the media, by focusing on fringe elements and nut jobs, has mischaracterized the tea party movement. It's unfair, Goldberg said, to stereotype the whole movement based on the behavior of a few.
Stewart agreed and contended that Fox News tends to mischaracterize anyone with left leaning views in pretty much the same way. Goldberg admitted that this is, indeed, the case.
This inspired a thought: If the media does, knowingly or not, manipulate the public perception of groups by stereotyping, isn't the same thing happening to teachers?
Here are some headlines from the first page of a Google News search on "teachers": "Poor teachers may hamper good students: U.S. study," "How should teachers be fired?," "'The Cartel' sees teacher unions' grip as crippling," "Held hostage by teachers."
The March 15 cover of Newsweek magazine was particularly pointed. "The Key to Saving American Education" appeared in the middle of the page with a chalk board background covered with "We must fire the bad teachers. We must fire the bad teachers. We must fire the bad teachers."
This has been going on for months.The impact on the public perception of educators has been palpable: Education is stuffed with incompetent and greedy teachers protected by a union that doesn't care about students. Any teacher, no matter how competent, is guilty by association for defending tenure or the teacher's union.
When President Barack Obama endorsed the firing of every teacher at Rhode Island's Central Falls High School, he reinforced the perception that even the best of educators aren't worthy of job security.
But the problem isn't tenure, a system that is flawed but easily remedied, or the union, whose protection educators need now more than ever.
The problem is the corporate model that is the foundation of both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations' education reform. It has turned schools into dehumanized testing factories.
But don't take my word for it. Diane Ravitch, education historian and an architect of the No Child Left Behind Act, outlines the defects of this "reform" model in her highly acclaimed book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education." She says:
"Testing, I realized with dismay, had become a central preoccupation in the schools and was not just a measure but an end in itself. I came to believe that accountability, as written into federal law, was not raising standards but dumbing down the schools as states and districts strived to meet unrealistic targets."
Politicians have been "reforming" education for more than a century. That alone should raise an eyebrow. No sooner has one reform, whether well- or poorly conceived, been instituted before the next one comes along demanding change. "Reform," unfunded mandates that transfer more and more of the responsibility for children from families and communities to the schools, layoffs resulting in larger class sizes and an endless litany of other societal pressures are compromising teachers' ability to fulfill their mission.
Yet the vast majority of educators continue to do everything they can -- every day, after school, on weekends and often during the summer -- to do the best they can for their students.
When Obama's misguided corporate education "reform" also fails, who will be responsible? The teachers. Always the teachers. They are the safest and easiest of political targets. There's a word for that: scapegoat.
And the news media eats it up. Hold teachers to a higher standard than everyone else in society, especially parents, and crucify them when they don't measure up. It's sensational and sexy, and the public loves it.
Wanting to be a teacher has become a catch-22. Today, you'd have to be nuts and therefore not qualified.
Michael Lambert, a Greenfield resident, is a Capital Region high school English teacher.
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