Taylor Mali on what teachers make

PMAD-Stephen Krashen

Choosing a Pathway

This past school year proved to be a difficult one. Leaving a position for several reasons, and they were all good, solid reasons which I believe were correct, meant spending the year in teaching limbo. Thankfully, I was able to find some adjunct work at two colleges and substitute for a local school district as well. While these hardly equated to a full time paycheck, they did manage to save my sanity and prevent complete financial ruin (although the summer months will require tight purse strings). Fortunately, I have been hired to teach full time at a good public high school in the fall, as well as maintain my adjunct position at the local community college. The tide, I hope, has turned.


With my new position comes a set of questions from my friends and peers that usually surround one central idea: are you eventually going to focus on college teaching? In this day and age, when public school teachers are beset with codified standards, mandatory testing, and tightened budgets, it would seem that the answer to that question would be easy, but it’s not! The truth is I love teaching at both, so how would I choose? Should I even have to? The fact is, if it were up to me, I’d find a way that every teacher could spend time teaching at different grade levels in their content area. The experience gained by working with students in various grades provides incredible insights into the challenges faced by our students during their educational journey, as well as the difficulties tackled by our peers.

As a college adjunct, not only am I privy to the methods and factors that determine success in a college classroom, I am able to take this information and use it to shape my practice, and that of my colleagues, at the high school level. This experience has been invaluable, and disturbing. Our incoming college freshmen are lacking in their ability to think critically and apply it to their interpretation of material or reflect it in their writing. A troubling discovery to say the least! They also lack the stamina to create papers of sufficient length (and therefore depth) that fully explore a given topic. Our public education system’s desire to create proficient test takers has resulted in ill-equipped thinkers who, at the very least, are unable to fully substantiate their ideas, and, at the worst, fear to express their own opinions. Couple this with the “everything at your fingertips” culture and the result is generations of low-stamina, short-sighted adults who are unable to compete in our global job markets.

Not a very bright outcome, is it? Teaching at the high school level is vital to me – not only because I believe that you can’t simply criticize a system, you need to be a part of the change within it, but because it offers experience that can only be found with young people at this age. They offer insight and points of view that are unique, and often times startling. They also leave an indelible mark on you. Just the other day, I received a card from my former students in Hawai`i. It reminds me how much I miss working with teens and how important a teacher can be in their lives. Yes, it’s nice to hear that they miss me or that they liked me; but more importantly, it was great to be reminded of the impact they’ve had on me. I grew as a teacher with them in ways I don’t know if I would in the college arena alone. The fact is, if I am to grow into the educator I so want to be, then I will need to continue my journey through both words of academia. I can’t wait to get back into a high school classroom and I’m grateful for the opportunity! Look out, Fall 2011, I’m on my way!

Out in the Classroom

As one school year ends, another awaits the passing of summer. This next school year I will be starting as an English teacher at a suburban public high schools. Relieved and excited, I recently talked with a friend about how much I’ve missed the high school environment this past year. Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching at the college and it will remain a part of my modus operandi because it continues to be a vital practice that informs my high school teaching methods. There is something, however, about working with high school students. The social development and intellectual growth of the age range fascinates me. High school students, despite the frustrations, can offer some amazing insights into our world – if you can hook them! Somewhere in my long-winded, happy discourse on the joys of teaching adolescents, my friend stopped and asked, “So…how ‘out’ will you be at this new school?” Amazingly, I was a bit surprised at the question – afterall, this is me we’re talking about – does the question truly need to be asked? My response echoed this sentiment. Simply put – “I’ll be as out as I always am.”

The question, though, does linger because it is something we have to consider, unlike our heterosexual counterparts. No one asks them how open they will be about their sexuality in the classroom or at the school. Pictures of their spouses, families, and friends can be found on their desks or classroom walls, yet we have to consider the implications our personal lives may have on coworkers, students, and even the students’ families. Have I gone soft or dumb? Did I allow myself to think that because I live in a state that has legalized gay marriage that my personal life would not be an issue? Does the fact that I’ve been asked by a straight friend say more about her discomfort than the reality of the situation? Or is it reflective of the general attitudes we face each day? The fact is, being out is never simple, yet it is, in my opinion, necessary.

One of the greatest joys I’ve had during the last three years of teaching is the number of students who have come out to me, asking for advice or just needing to tell someone and feel accepted. The journey to discovering one's self, whether it centers around one’s sexuality or life circumstances, isn’t easy. We can all remember the awkwardness of our teen years, the need for acceptance, the desire to be loved, and the overwhelming weight with which everything is felt. Adolescence, in this sense, has not changed. Our teens, however, do face changing circumstances. The internet has altered the social landscape, extending the arm of friendship across borders, but also lengthening the reach of bullies and wrongdoers. This has been clearly evident in our schools and especially among LGB T teens.

The increased visibility of the LGBT community has been both a blessing and a curse. Greater acceptance with one hand comes with the invariable slap-down from the other. The numerous suicides and violence towards gay youth in the last year highlight the ongoing struggle faced both in and outside of the classroom. Technology has only added another dimension to this struggle as social networking and internet videos play roles in the support of and damage to LGBT youth. While bullies use the internet to spread gossip, to out individuals who are not ready for the emotional consequences, and to ostracize those the bullies feel are different, there are those that have used it to build pathways to support our LGBT youth. Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” movement is one prime example of the latter. I like the idea, but I’m not sure I’d go with “It gets better”…but with YOU get better. When you make the choice to live, to face your life, to resist the taunts, the jeers, and the violence, YOU get better. Your resilience grows, your life changes, and you find yourself among the living. The hate remains, as much as I wish it didn’t. Fear and bitterness will continue to infect the minds and souls of some – masked in the litany of religious passages and moral epithets. YOU, however, will learn to accept it for what it is and allow it to fall to the wayside, because in the end, it doesn’t matter – YOU do. Your life blossoms and what awaits you can be wonderful.

This is the reason (or one of them) that I will always be an out teacher. For those who are concerned by such an act, let me be clear: my private life has as much place in the classroom as that of my heterosexual peers; in other words, NONE. It does NOT play a role in my teaching, I do NOT wear it on my sleeve, and I do NOT act as a poster boy (although I do have a cute smile that would look good on a poster). What I AM is honest when I am asked the right questions by students. I will not shy away from who I am and I will not lie when confronted about how I live my life and with whom. I am proud of my partner and the life we share. If someone doesn’t want to know, then don’t ask. I do not espouse for one group or another, but promote equality for everyone. My role as an educator is not to teach what to think, but how to think: with clarity, with logic, and with respect. What I want my peers, my students, and their families to recognize is that I live my life as they live theirs: openly, honestly, and with dignity. Shouldn’t that be the example we all lead with?

Resources, not Punishment

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html?emc=eta1

An interesting article.  If we put the salaries aside, teachers currently in the profession are not in it for the money, we are once again reminded that equal access to resources is what schools, teachers, and students need.  In the end, the greatest roadblock to student achievement is poverty, not teachers.  If we can alleviate it, perhaps those students will once again see the value to education.  We have a long way to go yet!

Being Educated

Students in my composition class have been busy working on a cultural critique essay.  As with much of the work I assign at the college level, I do the essay as well to provide them with a working example.  What follows is my essay on "Being Educated" - it hopefully provided my students with a sense of what I was expecting them to write - based on my model and others that we read in class.  As always, I focus on writing about issues in education, so it fits that I would post it here.

Being Educated

     “Teaching? Why don’t you choose something that will pay better?” This was my father’s advice when I expressed my interest in teaching as a career. While he respected the field, he wanted something that offered me a better chance of financial success. That was twenty five years ago, yet those words echoed in my mind as I left the business world four years ago to finally pursue my original desire. Education is still getting a bad rap, and my timing, it appears, is impeccable…NOT! According to Eggers, Calegari, and Moulthrop, “Teachers are highly educated professionals, but they are often treated as a strange hybrid of babysitter and civil servant…” (3). As it turns out, Americans simply don’t know what they want from their education system. In the public’s desire to fix our education system, teachers have been on the receiving end of the hammer. Scrutinized, blamed, and berated, many educators are limping back to their classrooms carrying the bruises and wounds inflicted by policy makers and politicians. Does any of it actually fix public education? Hardly. In fact, the continuing debate only incites anger, disagreement, and bad feelings rather than address the real issues in education. Theories abound on what the problems are and the trendy solutions rise and fall in response. Despite this hubbub, one essential question remains unanswered: what exactly do we mean by “educated?” If we define what it means to be educated in our 21st century global environment, we may provide the foundation for building a lasting and dynamic system that responds to the needs of those it serves. Perhaps this will allow us to discern answers and solutions rather than maintain our quick fix mentality.


     At its very roots, the public education system was not seen as a “quick fix,” but rather as a way to maintain our democratic society. Thomas Jefferson upheld that “a democratic society could not be sustained unless free, public education was available to the citizenry at large” (Rockler 26). It would take over a century and a half before our modern system took shape, but this premise held as states grappled with the purpose of free education. So why are we still struggling today? It turns out that like so many American ideals, our education system was built on a myth. “The Great School Legend,” as it is called, refers to the belief that our public schools act as “the great equalizing force in U.S. culture” (Provenza 33). They would provide the less fortunate with the opportunity to climb the socio-economic ladder. It turns out that this legend, as most legends are revealed to be, is more hype than reality. Of course, leave it to America to replace one hype with another. The inequalities that run rampant in our education system are still a focal point of discussion today. The failure of the system to teach and support all students has found a new home under the title of the ever widening “achievement gap.” But is that all there is to it?


     While the widening achievement gap is garnering all the attention these days, should we not be concerned with what we’re missing? Any educator will tell you that no two students achieve the same results. Classrooms, even when homogenously grouped, do not result in every student ranking the same scores, rather they fall differently along a continuum. Is it not reasonable to say that a natural achievement gap should be present in any given class or school, based on students’ abilities and efforts? This does not mean that other factors that affect achievement aren’t present and worth battling. However, with all the publicity surrounding this gap, Americans are, once again, distracted from the key issues. Yes, some schools along with their students are more favored than others. Yes, those schools are predominantly suburban “white” schools. Yes, those schools are in neighborhoods and towns with higher socio-economic status and means. Yes, we should make every attempt to equalize the quality of education in urban inner-city and rural schools. Will that solve the problem? Uh, no. Quality in education, it turns out, is related to the quality of available resources. Poor resources often equate to less quality. While policy makers haggle over teacher competency, standardized testing results, and privatization of our public schools, no one appears to address the rampant inequality, classism, and poverty that affect and influence our student outcomes. Perhaps if all schools had access to the same sufficient resources, and provided the same teacher-student ratio, we would then have the means to decisively look at the quality of a teacher’s efforts. The question now raised is: how do we do that?


     As a teacher, one of the first things you learn is to define the objectives of a lesson and unit. It turns out that when you can define what you want your students to achieve, you can easily map out the path they’ll need to take to get there. Imagine what would be possible if we could simply define what it means to be educated in our modern society. From that definition, we can create the parameters for what an educated person should be able to do, which then informs how we measure a student’s achievement of those parameters. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Oh, wait, did we forget something? The American ideal of individuality – it turns out that the “one approach for all” solution creates mindless hordes rather than individuals. While that worked for the “old” America, it runs into problems in today’s culturally responsive America. Although no doubt that our politicians would prefer gangs of zombies that vote mindlessly, most Americans seem to desire a bit more from their education. They may not know what that is, they just know it’s more. Why doesn’t one simple definition of “educated” work? It turns out that all Americans are not the same. Shocking, right? The notion of America’s “melting pot” was tossed out with the myth of the American dream when it was discovered that there is more strength in combining our differences than in smoothing them away. America, it turns out, works better as a tapestry of interwoven layers than a bar of smooth, silky, but highly “melt-able,” white chocolate. Food and weaving metaphors aside, where does this leave us?


     While a “one-for-all” solution doesn’t fix the problem, it is a starting point. If we, as a nation, can clearly define what our children need to be able to do in their new global community, then each state and school district can differentiate for its specific population. Why should we allow this? Once again, common precepts in teacher education point the way. Teachers, it is proven, need to understand “the context in which the schools they teach function. They need to understand the cultural background of their students and the ways in which their families and communities understand and organize knowledge” (Provenza 37). This is the dynamic nature of teaching; it is constantly changing, evolving, and rebounding based on the ebb and flow of students through a classroom. No two classes are the same, so what explains why policy makers and the public expect them to achieve the same results? If families and communities have different approaches to learning and knowledge, then doesn’t it stand to reason that they would have a different idea of what it means to be educated? Their definition would be different from those families and communities that enjoy socio-economic freedoms based on the higher level of education that is standard among their group. Allowing each district to differentiate a commonly held national definition to meet the cultural attitudes and norms of its “users” would result in a more satisfying and successful experience for all involved. Why don’t we do this?


     It turns out that Americans like the quick fix. Got cancer? Cut it out! Tainted meat? Throw it out! Bad president? Vote him out! Feel depressed? Pop a pill! Ah, all better! A few years later, we raise our heads and discover the problem still exists. Lo and behold, it isn’t so easy to get rid of the problem and we, in response, act shocked. “I thought I beat that!” we think to ourselves. The slow fix, the one that could actually correct and alleviate the issue, is just too, well, slow. In the age of cell phones, instant messaging, and microwave dinners, who has the patience for “bake for 30 minutes then reduce heat and bake for another 60 minutes” approach? We used to be able to do this. Rome, as they say, was not conquered in a day. The Great Depression didn’t end in a year. The Nazis weren’t defeated overnight. The steadfast patience and stick-to-it-ness that helped create our country has fallen by the wayside to make way for drive-thru fast food and downloadable music. Perhaps this mentality was a result of exhaustion from the long, drawn out Vietnam conflict or a natural outgrowth of the cocaine-induced disco era. Regardless of its origins, the end of the 20th century spirited in the instant gratification era. We grow frustrated that education isn’t quick and easy as well. But then again, are the things worth having ever easy?


     At the end of the day, hard work does have its own rewards. Most Americans would agree with this statement, even if they have different ideas on what “hard work” looks and feels like. That, it turns out, is precisely the point. Determine the commonly held belief and adjust it to fit the needs of the individual community. Continuously and consistently assess the results against the larger picture and tweak it as necessary. It will take time and will, most likely, remain a work in process, but that’s the nature of education. That’s what makes it fascinating. It’s the very reason I became an educator. It’s the reason I’ll remain one.

Works Cited

Eggers, Dave, Nínive Calegari and Daniel Moulthrop. Teachers Have It Easy:

     The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America’s Teachers. New York:

     New Press, 2005. Print.


Provenza, Eugene F. Jr. Teaching, Learning, and Schooling: A 21st Century

     Perspective.  Boston: Allan & Bacon, 2002. Print.


Rockler, Michael J. “The Privatization of Education: Can Public Education

     Survive?” Free Inquiry 1996: 26+. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 April 2011.

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System | Common Dreams

Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System Common Dreams