The way I teach is, In the space before us
I hold the topic and invite you to
its beauties, and attend gently to you…
In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Etta Place, played by Katharine Ross, memorably says: "I'm 26, and I'm single, and a schoolteacher, and that's the bottom of the pit." That line was said 42 years ago in a film set in the early 1900s, but the lowly status of schoolteachers hasn't changed much. Smart and ambitious men and women tend to prefer careers in law, medicine or hedge funds rather than classrooms, the result being that now almost half of the teachers in our public schools come from the bottom third of their college classes.
America's in a funk. Unemployment's not about to turn around soon, no matter what President Obama — or anyone else — tries to do: the ship's too big. Obviously, some combination of stimulus (requiring more taxes) and entitlement adjustments (requiring budget cuts), is called for, but our current Congress isn't up to the job. Obama would be, except he can't move the Tea Party — and neither can Boehner or McConnell.
Although our higher education system is still healthy and internationally admired, the scores of our kids in kindergarten through 12th grade have fallen behind students in most civilized countries, especially in mathematics and science. The world still sends its youth to our colleges, but you won't find anyone sending their children to our grade schools and high schools. If we don't quickly make an investment in our classrooms similar to our earlier investment in space — or in the Iraq war, for that matter — we're in danger of becoming permanently second-rate, as far as anything in history can be called permanent.
Let's face it, good teachers have to be book lovers. They need to be verbal, witty, lively and interested in the arts and sciences. They need to be passionate and knowledgeable about their subject, and — in the lower grades particularly — about their students. But in today's financial bind, how can we attract those bright young women, and men too, back into teaching?
Our Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, has suggested paying teachers comparably to doctors and lawyers — Yes! But that's not going to happen soon enough, so one suggestion is to concentrate on raising their starting salaries, on the minimum wage principle. To stimulate our economy, we need to invest in many things that will affect our future, but especially Jobs Jobs Jobs, as the Republicans constantly shout while cutting programs, including education. Jumping a teacher's starting salary to $50,000 or $60,000 should be part of that investment. Who will affect our future more than those who educate our children, beginning in pre-school programs like Head Start? That money will be repaid in compound interest. Good education is tied to jobs; lack of it is tied to economic stagnation, welfare, illness (including obesity), and jail, all enormously expensive.
This investment wouldn't break us. America's not going to collapse. Social Security is solid for decades to come (unless it gets privatized). Health care can be trimmed (unless it gets privatized). Jobs will slowly come back, and the government will slowly find a way to rebuild our infrastructure.
Of course, we need a president to lead us in that direction, one who's not a boaster, blusterer or bottom-pincher spouting non-facts. I wish Obama had a better punch, but he did get Osama bin Laden, after all; and he (and Michelle) are still book lovers. From his very beginning he's been nurtured by teachers, recognizes them and their value. Most of us older folks had good teachers, which is what made America #1 for so many decades. On this Thanksgiving, we should offer our grateful appreciation to them, with the hopes that our children and grandchildren will be as lucky.
…What is the prize
we seek with sweat and effort, I and he
looking trusting in each other's eyes?
—Both quotes from "The Way I Teach,"
by Paul Goodman (1911-1972)
Peter Meinke has taught at all levels, and looks at the teachers in our public schools as potential saints and martyrs.
This article appears in Nov 24-30, 2011.