I saw a debate yesterday about the pros/cons of tenure. Tenure is basically after a period of time (a few years mostly) A teacher usually unionized, will have the position to not be fired no matter how badly they teach until they leave for their own reasons. Usually this extends to immoral and illegal things that they do because the school doesn't want to deal with the problems associating with said firing. Granted, I have had some excellent teachers who are part of tenure. Some of my best teachers were tenure, one especially after the train wreck of third grade for me. (More on that later.) Didn't take flak from anyone and abolished bullying in the school in a few years. Starting with my class, she actually threatened expulsion if the bullying got too out of hand after several chances and higher penalties each time. A lot of other teachers encouraged in depth thinking and thinking for yourself while talking about their own beliefs and opinions. Which a lot of parents, even back then, would raise hell about. The biggest problem with tenure is that it allows the bad teachers, especially ones who take it as permission to assault and bully students amongst other things, a free pass. My first memory of school clearly was third grade. The teacher made it her personal goal in life to not only make my life a living hell in the classroom, but to encourage my classmates to do everything in their power to bully me outside it. One of the first few memories was her screaming insults non-stop at me, and my best friend joining a club dedicated to hating me which the teacher at least knew about. This happened for several months before a furious teacher found out and complained to the school and district. They didn't do anything until the teacher decided to tell my mom. My mom came in and threatened to make her life hell if the teacher decided to even look at me ever again. My mom said she almost hit her considering how I was being treated. The teacher left me alone after that, the bullying continued until I was in fifth grade when one of the bullies went too far when she stuck a stick in my spokes and sent me flying over the handlebars. The neighbors nearby heard me screaming and called my parents. My mom threatened to call the police and press charges if she ever saw the girl or her friends close to me again. They left me alone after that. The teacher was never fired or warned for her behavior against me. I have a lot of other examples: Teachers turning their backs to bullies going after others, threatening students, screaming obscenities at them in their face even when they're trying to leave the classroom to get away from them, threats, assault (one student said a teacher dumped a whole deskload of books on their head for forgetting a paper), abuse, humiliation (my brother who had a learning disability in math was publicly humiliated by his teacher outside of class in front of his friends because he didn't understand what she was doing I later saw her in a public screaming match with a kid with a disability because the kid couldn't figure out the math. I used her once and dropped her right afterwards because of her condescending attitude towards students.) and several other things. I think Tenure really needs to be fixed, it works from some teachers, but the abuse of it is rampant. A lot of unions and even school boards don't support the program. So... Thoughts? Do you think Tenure is a good program for teachers?
