11/5 Letter: Education commission needs teachers

I read with interest “Panel designed to improve education of NC residents” (Oct. 20) on the new education commission My Future NC chaired by Margaret Spellings, UNC System president. I find it extremely telling that of the 42 listed members of the commission, not one is a K-12 classroom teacher, not one is a K-12 guidance counselor, not one is a K-12 department head and not one is a K-12 administrator. The mission of the commission is a “shared vision” for getting more people better educated. This group falls far short of that mission as the real experts on education who are involved 24/7 in the education of our K-12 public school students are not part of that sharing. Instead it is a collection of people with impressive sounding titles who have not stepped foot in a K-12 classroom except for an open house on back-to-school night for parents or a meet and greet with their child’s teachers.

The educational concerns of our public schools float in the wind as whims of the state legislature, another body of people with impressive titles that fall into the “never been there” bunch of experts who believe they know what is best category of superficial intentions. This is compounded by their fanatical belief that funneling public tax dollars into private for-profit charter schools to educate a small percentage of privileged hand-picked students will improve public school education. If Spellings was truly interested in an open, shared vision then her efforts would be better served if she hosts the first of an annual statewide symposium at a rotating N.C. System school featuring the true public school experts – the full-time active educators who work daily in our K-12 schools and face the problems daily.

I am a retired high school math teacher of 47 years and have experienced first-hand every new program and idea generated by people outside the K-12 classroom. The best ideas and the best practices I was able to incorporate into my classroom came from the workshops that featured classroom teachers. The only things new outside programs bring to the teacher are more paperwork, more testing (which has not, is not and will not be effective), more accountability for situations not under the teacher’s control and more responsibility as a de facto parent, counselor, adviser, social worker and friend. Add to this the fear that the slightest miscalculation in an innocent situation can result in termination.

I challenge Spellings to stop being an administrator in search of convincing her peers, bosses and the public that she is doing something of importance that looks good in her resume and do something that will actually make a difference.

This story was originally published November 4, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "11/5 Letter: Education commission needs teachers."