Education

Martryred?

By Anthony Rebora — May 22, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

TMAO of Teaching in the 408 explains (sort of) why he’s quitting. Sounds like, to carry out a metaphor he uses, he was consumed in the fires of his own dedication to his disadvantaged students—which apparently had him working 80-hour weeks. He puts it in typically poetic fashion:

I'm not happy unless I'm being the teacher I see in my head, but the process of finding that guy and living as him no longer makes me happy.

.

Commenting on TMOA’s decision, Chris Lehamn, a Philadelphia high school principal, decries school systems’ perpetuation of the notion that young teachers can and should take it on themselves to save the world:

Too often, the rhetoric of schools does delve into the heroic martyr teacher succeeding against all odds. That's not sustainable. That's not even useful.
We have to create school systems where teachers are valued, where we support young teachers, where we find ways to ensure that teachers at all levels of their career are given the opportunity to continue to grow and learn, and we have to find ways for teacher to reach the highest of expectations - their own expectations and others - in ways that allow them to work fewer than 70 hours a week.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Blogboard blog.