You Got My Back?

As a rule, teachers have each other’s backs.

If I overhear a loudmouth in a restaurant bashing the effectiveness of her kid’s science teacher, it takes a pretty severe grasp on my arm to keep me from marching over to the next booth and spouting my fellow teacher’s credentials.

Educators often don’t get a lot of credit; in fact, we’re often blamed for a kid’s failing grade, bad attitude, and plethora of other social and emotional problems.

So, someone has to stand up for us, and it might as well be those of us who studied our behinds off to teach your kids – both the willing and unwilling.

That’s why it surprises me that a group of disheartened teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District were heartily flogged by their counterparts when they balked at administering yet another standardized test to their overly-tested elementary students.

Granted, I would never have the guts to outright refuse to administer a state-mandated test unless I was independently wealthy, but these handful of teachers, who were at first not backed up by the union, did just that.

I get it, though. Standardized testing can all but overtake the curriculum of a classroom if a teacher lets it. Heavy statistics, peer pressure, and outright confrontations can make an educator “teach to the test” if a school is wavering between a “C” and a “B” grade.

But as educators, we kind of need to support each other; not many other people do. If you don’t agree with a teacher standing up to the school board and saying, “No, I won’t,” then don’t. But there’s no need to bash their bravery or attempt to silence their voices. Make a different choice for yourself and your classroom, move on with your day, and do all the PSAT prep work you can stand.

Or maybe, join the rest of us as we silently cheer on their bravery, because we couldn’t do it ourselves.

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