I am assigned to a low level geometry class with a first year teacher who is first rate. I was in one of her Algebra II classes last semester. She knows her subject and maybe because her mother is an elementary school teacher, she handles her classes “old school.” She gives the kids the respect of teaching a “real” lesson, and then assigns class work that she monitors, and helps them with, teaching the material the entire time. Homework is done at home, is collected and recorded. And she expects the students to treat her classroom as a place of business, with work accomplished and behavior respectful.
With today’s students, she sometimes doesn’t succeed. She may be the best young teacher I have ever seen. She is not tenured and at the end of this year, though she will be offered a contract in this district, she will not have a position in our high school. That is our loss.
Our loss, too, is a tenured math teacher we will never be rid of. In a chemistry class, a student was studying for a math quiz. When asked who she “had”, the student answered Ms. B. Every eye in the room, rolled – rolled to the back of each student’s head. To a person, everyone agreed, “She is the worst.” Apparently she: doesn’t teach a lesson, can’t answer questions, lets the class get out of control, and cries at her desk when things really sour. She should not be teaching. She is not good at it. She is tenured. She has worked at this school for more than five years. She will never be fired unless she abuses a child or parent physically, sexually or perhaps, emotionally. She cannot be fired for being an incompetent teacher, even if the whole world agrees.
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