Letters to the Editors
End teacher Abuse
To the editors:
As most teachers know, the climate of a school is set by the principal. When she or he is intelligent, friendly, and respectful, has integrity, or even is demanding, most often the staff will follow.
In every school there are staff who could do more or perhaps are trying to take advantage of “the system.” The administration has the tools to address those situations if they choose to.
However, if the principal is demanding but is lacking intelligence, friendliness, respect, or integrity, she or he will have a staff that does the job but is unhappy. In those situations, the principal may become a tyrant who gets results by pressure. Teachers, wary about their jobs, don’t speak out. If they do, they become targets for removal from the school by discipline or intimidation. We call that “teacher abuse.”
If you are in a school with a tyrannical principal, you know stories of staff that have voluntarily transferred, been forced out, or quit to escape abuse.
We are working with a nonprofit group, National Association for the Prevention of Teacher Abuse, and its website, to form a chapter for mutual support and to speak out about teacher abuse.
To learn more, attend a meeting at the Northwest Regional Library (Greene St. and Chelten Ave.) on Sunday, March 30, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. The meeting is open to interested teachers, parents, students, and the general public. Your privacy will be respected. Please join us!
For more information write to P.O. Box 44332, Philadelphia, PA 19144, email Teacherkh@aol.com, or call 610-664-7211.
Jeff Smith and M. Shapiro
The writers live in Germantown and Montgomery County respectively.
Middle years: good focus for mayor
To the editors:
Of all the priorities set for education by Mayor Nutter (see Nutter's education to-do list), the one that caught my eye is his focus on our middle schools. I’m happy to hear Mayor Nutter is interested in middle school students because then children are like soft clay – easy to mold. If we mold them the right way before they harden, we can shape them to be good students and even better citizens.
Norman Saunders
The writer is a first-year corps member in City Year Philadelphia.
Walls aren’t the answer
To the editors:
I teach biology at Martin Luther King High School. We are feeling the push in these weeks before the PSSA, but that is not the only test on King’s plate this year. We have faced fights, lockdowns, and a fire. Despite these obstacles, most of us continue to faithfully and passionately teach our students.
My department, science, is no exception. On the PSSA, our students will be assessed on using the scientific process in investigating real world problems. The response of my department is to integrate as many lab experiences as possible into our instruction.
The science wing of the building has long been a retreat for wayward students fleeing our school police – a source of trouble for our school climate. This trouble, though it may take refuge in the science wing, does not originate from the classrooms within this wing.
But after the fire, the District has proposed abandoning the science wing, closing it off with cinder blocks and moving our classrooms to other parts of the building. We would lose our proximity to one another, our centralized store of science supplies, and the lab rooms we depend upon.
I would ask the District how they expect us to fulfill our duty to our students in wake of such a drastic measure.
Instead, let us address staffing issues so that we have teachers to fill our vacancies and security to patrol the science wing. Allow us to provide interventions and discipline for students who continually disrupt instruction. Afford us proven programs to reach those students.
Let us look at the root causes of our climate issues and do something about them, instead of depriving the majority of our students a rich and competitive science education.
Raymond Mount