Becoming a Teacher V

During my childhood and the early years of my teacher career I think education was a more powerful source and influence in the lives of kids than it is now. I have seen a dramatic change that seemed to begin in the 1970s. It could have been earlier and I just wasn’t aware of it. I don’t mean to say that education isn’t a powerful influence now but that there are other equally, or more powerful, forces now.

In my early years parents rarely questioned educators. They almost always supported the teacher in issues of discipline and curriculum. Teachers were highly revered people, although underpaid. Teachers begged for more parent and state involvement in education issues and funding. They raised concerns about the inadequate curriculum and support.

At Saunders we struggled to keep a viable district parent teacher organization. I served as vice president for a time. Only teachers showed up at the meetings. Parents didn’t see the urgency we felt and they were content to let things go along as they always had.

In the mid seventies Iowa passed collective bargaining for public school teachers. That meant we could negotiate with the school board about salaries. I got involved in that for a while as chair of the teacher negotiation team and then chief negotiator. It is a thankless job with lots of hours outside the school day. At least we were able to negotiate a good contract that served as a model for many other districts.

The bad part is that it set up an adversarial relationship between the teachers and the board and administration. The board and administration then slowly begin to convince the community that the teachers were bad because they were taking their tax dollars. Public sentiment began to shift.

Another problem was on the horizon. Fundamentalism was on the rise across the world. Americans were held hostage in Iran. Locally, religious fundamentals jumped on the bandwagon and condemned public education for the evils of the world. They were against values education, evolution, and generally anything else that might teach their children to think. It was scary! These critics really had no idea what went on in a typical classroom.

A small group from a local church refused to send their kids to public school. The kids were truant, parents were charged, and eventually the group opened their own school. A public forum was held in the community room of a local bank and leaders of the group chastised us for being evil. Our own pastor, Ron McMenimen, rose and spoke passionately in rebuttal and our defense. He made me proud to be a Presbyterian that day! The critics were speechless when he was he finished. He knew their brand of Christianity better than they did, but the damage was done.

The irony is that most of the Sunday school teachers in all of the churches in town were “evil” public school teachers during the week.
I read this week of the teacher in the Middle East that was to be flogged for letting students name a teddy bear Mohammad and I was immediately reminded of the intolerance of our own far right. Scary!