All across America teachers are going on or threatening to go on strike and it disgusts me. It disgusts me that this is necessary; next to a parent or a preacher, who has more influence on our children, and our future, than a teacher?
Americans don’t value education. We like to give lip service to the idea of a good education but as a culture do not truly value it. If we did, then our schools would be the best equipped in the world. They would be high tech laboratories. There would be small class sizes and teachers for the arts, music, workshops for trade skills, language labs. And, teachers would be among the best paid professionals with people being put on waiting lists for the opportunity to teach. That is, if we truly valued education.
What do we really think of teachers? Nice people will say, “How wonderful you are a teacher” and leave it at that. The not so nice will think, “What’s the matter, couldn’t you get a real job?” Or, maybe they’ll just come right out and say, “Yuck, how could you handle all those brats?”
When I read the settlements for the various teachers’ strikes across the country I am appalled by what they “won.” They won the right to have smaller class sizes, to have a nurse in every school, to have librarians in the high schools. Silly me, I was under the impression that these things already existed. Why do teachers have to go on strike to get these basic forms of assistance?
A good example I always use to explain our lack of support for education is a simple one. We have all heard a success story about some person who was born disadvantaged; we heard how they worked their way up to become a rich person. It’s always about becoming rich, these success stories. Often the last line in the praise is something like, “He is the richest man in town and he didn’t even finish high school.” Like that is a special honor, he’s so rich he didn’t need school. I dream of living in a society that would say, “He’s the richest man in town, too bad he never got an education.”
I think private schools are another example of the culture not supporting the idea of education. Instead of making the public schools better, we take our children out of the public school and put them into a “better” private school. This takes the wealthy, and with scholarships, some of the smartest not-so-wealthy, from the schools, leaving behind only the disadvantaged.
I can’t blame a parent for wanting his or her child to have the best education possible but to remove the child from a school that has poor children, children of color or children who do not support the same religion does little good for a child or the country as a whole. Separation creates divides. The children in public school get schools not as well equipped as the private schools. And, all the children get deprived of learning how to live among people who are different.
Children come into this world pure with no prejudices. They learn prejudices from their parents and peers. When we live among those not like us, we learn from the experience. Sure, it’s not always easy or comfortable but then life isn’t either.
I saw a sign on the internet: “Wouldn’t be nice if professional athletes had to buy their own equipment and teachers got diamond rings at the end of their season?” Yes, it would be.
Gabriel A. Fraire has been a writer more than 45 years. He can be reached through his website at: www.gabrielfraire.com.
