Powerful Teachers in Our Schools

I left teaching in part because I felt stifled. Particularly as a young teacher in public school (and a recent graduate of the very progressive Teachers College @ Columbia), I was stunned by the lock-step obedience of teachers even to things they didn't agree with. In that setting, teaching wasn't about collaboration and ideas; it was about doing what everyone was doing.

A recent article in Teacher magazine presents an intriguing argument for empowering teachers. It's a topic so rarely discussed in the field of education, but I think it might lie at the heart of great teaching--something we all want for our kids.

For sure, there's a place for routine and compliance in any field. (?) But, as the article points out, part of educating children is helping them make good and often very tough choices. In order to make those choices, they have to be able to hear themselves, figure out what's right for them.

If teachers don't feel they can make choices--about how they teach, what they teach, and so forth--they cannot model this. Or so the article states. (And I believe.) In the article, teacher Ken Bernstein puts it this way:

Teachers are limited in their ability to exercise power, and there are those outside the profession who want to further disable us, who are not interested in hearing either our individual or our collective voices. Even so, I exercise an important influence every day in which I interact honestly with my students and challenge them to be the best they can, to take risks, to learn from their mistakes.

How do we, as parents, empower teachers?

Do you know a teacher in Montclair like Mr. Bernstein or the other teachers in the article?

Without naming names, tell us about that teacher and how you support him or her. What does your kid think about this teacher? Are empowered teachers the exception or the rule in Montclair?