by Cynthia Sherman

Created on: May 07, 2008

No, No, No! Tenure should not be abolished. Tenure protects a teacher's position ensuring job security until retirement. Teachers work extremely hard on a daily basis before, during, and after school to provide our children with a proper education. Teachers deserve tenure.

Having said that, I do feel that tenure needs some changing. As a mother of three and a substitute teacher, I have seen many deserving teachers receive tenure and appreciate this tenure. I have also seen many teachers abuse this privilege. While the majority of teachers truly love teaching and tenure assures that they maintain a teaching position, there are many teachers that do not appreciate tenure. I have heard time and time again, " I have tenure, so I do not need to do any extra work for the school, or they can not touch me." Sadly my own children have had teachers simply putting their time in and counting the days until they retire. These teachers should not be in the classroom, but because of tenure, they can not lose their jobs. The children, and I am speaking from experience, suffer academically.

Tenure is an excellent concept for those deserving and dedicated teachers, not for the teachers that went into teaching because of the amount of time off. As of right now even with tenure, teachers are evaluated a minimum of once a year. This is fine, but I strongly feel that tenured teachers should be evaluated more often and it should be a surprise evaluation. When teachers know they that they are going to be observed, the students are warned beforehand to be on their very best behavior. If not then they will receive consequences after the evaluation. If there is a surprise evaluation, the person of authority can gain a true sense of the classroom environment. Plus the building principals need to listen to the parents and other teachers. Many things are said in the teacher's room, that a principle never gets to hear. These comments can be positive and/or negative about a certain teacher. My son had a teacher that all of the teachers loved, but each and every parent that year hated this teacher. Many complaints were given to the principal, but because of tenure nothing came from these complaints. The classroom environment stayed the same for the entire year. A friendly and outgoing personality does not always equal being a good teacher.

I am all for tenure and as an aspiring teacher myself, I look forward to achieving tenure. I do feel that teachers are responsible for their actions and most importantly the success of their students. The people of authority must pay more attention to their teachers on a daily basis, and more formal and informal observations need to be done yearly. It is simply not fair for a teacher to be in a classroom knowing that they are on the edge of retirement, and not care. They just want to get it over with. These teachers should be moved into a less taxing position, for example, Basic Skills Instruction. This way they only work with a small handful of students and not an entire classroom. Teaching may even become fun again for them.

Teaching our students is a privilege not a job. Tenure needs to be appreciated and not abused.

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