Letter: Tenure hurts education and children

To a teacher, tenure means they can do what they want and not get fired — or a slap on the wrist. The worst thing that ever happened to education is tenure.

If the teachers are so good, as they claim and so dedicated to the children, as they claim, how come our children get further and further behind, and rank lower and lower in world standards?

Forty or fifty years ago, the United States was leading the world educationally. Now children coming out of our public school system rank with some Third World countries. (It is understood that there are exceptions.) Go to any university and see who is in the math and science departments.

We have a problem, and in my opinion, tenure is the main contributor to our education problems. If the teachers were as dedicated and good as they claim to be, tenure would not be an issue.

Edward Daigle

business manager

Covington

Comments

1) Comment by teacherguy - 16/03/2013

Why was tenure "invented" in the first place? I can assure you it wasn't invented to protect bad teachers...and all it takes is one upset child wanting vengeance for a teacher giving them a low grade, holding them accountable for misbehavior, and/or a parent that believes their child over the teacher to ruin a career. Noel discussed the protection for the teacher from an administrative point of view...I challenge you from the point of view of a teacher. Most kids will do the right thing, but all it takes is ONE...and they'll do it! In my 19 years, false/twisted accusations have been brought against me, my brother, and a multitude of co-workers...and there is a difference in the way due process is followed during investigations where a teacher is tenured. If you want high quality people investing their lives into education, you MUST provide them with strong protection from false accusations when they deal with so many volatile personalities. I'm not saying allow them to get away with murder...but tenure forces meticulous exploration in the integrity and intentions of the teacher before firing can be an option. Considering how little faith and confidence the general public has in teachers these days...it is no wonder why teachers demand it, and the general public wants to remove it. If this tsunami of teacher bashing doesn't begin to change into support, you people are going to be really depressed by the quality of personnel that begins to replace those teachers that "time out" (retire/quit). Using poverty as the number one cause of poor educational outcomes, I maintain that many of the teachers you are bashing today for being so "terrible" have actually been working miracles in a poverty-stricken population. Many of the "miracle workers" are evacuating the profession due to refusing to be treated so poorly. Good luck with what replaces us...

2) Comment by Clem - 15/03/2013

The author is basically off the mark here in the sense that He implies that all teachers utilize tenure to their advantage. Thats where He is trying to direct his information and what specifics causes Him to view things in that light are what He should bring forth. More than likely He could cite a good case but it may only be one single incident yet it may be something that is widespread. Without more details His letter lacks any valuable substance. And to produce some viable statics to support this endeavor would be extremely difficult to say the least. I'm open for more details then We can evaluate His claim against tenure. @Bowser. Having a spouse for a teacher does count a little more than those who don't have that advantage. True I only get a small dose of the realities of being on the front line as a teacher but consider that if your spouse doesn't have to unwind from the problems in your presence then it can only make life difficult in some of the more trying times. Thats when you grasp the larger picture and get some real insights of the teaching world. But sometimes you are very much engulfed with your own work concerns and thats when the teacher side has to bend and realize that the world is not only revolving around the educational side. I can cite an incident that would stand out at the top of the chart on my job of a deadly disaster in our sister refinery that occurred 5 years ago. My teacher spouse had to put her job aside in a sense to help me get through that trying time. Still She didn't break any teaching rules in those days that would put Her job in jeopardy or have cause for tenure proceedings. Not an easy task without a lot of commitment from both sides.

3) Comment by Bouncer - 15/03/2013

@Clem....Thanks for your service. However, I stand by what I said earlier. As a Vietnam veteran, you would be angry (and rightly so) if someone tried to tell you all about Vietnam and what it was like to be there....even though they had never served a single day in the military. The same is true of teaching. The "experts" that you find on these boards, deriding tenure and scoffing at teachers, are people who have never "served" a single day as a teacher. Naturally enough, teachers do not like for non-teachers to tell them how they should conduct their business in the classroom, and they do not want non-experts dictating to them the terms of their employment. And no, being married to a teacher doesn't count. Unless you have BEEN a teacher yourself, you do not really know what you are talking about.

4) Comment by Clem - 14/03/2013

@Bowser. Look Mr. Daigle doesn't have the solution to the problems in the current complex educational environment by proclaiming tenure as a front burner item. But, you do have to consider that there is a dark side to tenure which He is attempting to bring out although He overshot his target by condemning teachers in his analogy. Bowser and the rest of you here who think I need a Masters in English to exist are off the planet my friend. I've been around maybe more years than some of you and proficient English wasn't always what got me through the ragged times - like Vietnam. English was as I would say a back burner need in those days - but I doubt that you can handle what I'm trying to insert into your mind here. And if you think handling students is above the realm of teachers then you should try to be on the other end where you have to receive this raw product and shape it into something of use in a work environment or even better in a military environment. When I graduated tenure wasn't even a word in my vocabulary. But along the way tenure got into the picture especially since my spouse taught in the public school system for 35 years. Believe me I know some inside info about both sides of that issue. But for me just knowing that the 1st day of the 4th year constitues tenure rights to teachers in the Parish I reside in is an important milestone. In some cases a lot of behind the scene moves can happen prior to this confirmation time. But I'm not here to try to harp on tenure in great detail as I know its not the major hurdle in the education system at this point - but it possibly could be looked at in a different light for maybe there could be some adjusting in that area. If its not of any importance I have to wonder how it brought about 29 comments. Ha LOL my friends because I am doing so too for I can see through the smokescreens that are upfront here sometimes. Wasn't easy to see through the jungle in Vietnam but when you're on level ground with just a minor amount of English background you can see clearly through the human jungle that surrounds you. And look thanks for the constructive comments which are the most valuable to all in the conversations. LOL isn't always the way to go.

5) Comment by nimby? - 14/03/2013

fame , fortune , comfortable work environment , short hours , yeah right . from a retired teacher to way too many parents : wanna blame someone ? take a look in the mirror . we can only do so much . we're fighting a losing battle with our hands tied . suggest YOU spend more time with YOUR child/children ....

6) Comment by coachblades - 14/03/2013

We teachers may not have legal tenure anymore but we still have another form of tenure......Its called having a job that no one else wants...Just ask your local principal how many teachers have put in applications. FEW if any! There are very few people that want a job that everyday students, parents, administrators, Department of Education flunkies, politricktians, and the genral public beat you over the head because a kid that cant spell his own name and cant pass your class, cant score an 18 on a COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAM. If teaching is this easy, good paying job that some believe it to be why isnt there a overabundance of teachers?

7) Comment by Traveler - 14/03/2013

Edward, let's get specific. In pre-tenure days, if a principal made a pass at a pretty, young teacher and she rebuffed him, then he could (and probably would) fire her. It happened. If a principal wanted to find a teaching job for his unemployed niece, all he had to do was fire one of his current teachers to replace her with the niece. It happened. If the child of the principal's best friend had an "F" in math and the ethical teacher refused to change the grade at the demand of the principal, all the principal had to do was fire the teacher. It happened. These injustices happened regularly----which was why the tenure law was established. Tenure never did guarantee job security----it merely provided that a teacher could not be terminated without just cause. Now, you may make the argument that employees in private business don't have tenure to protect them from arbitrary termination. That's true. It's also true that employees in private business don't have to move to a new city in order to find employment if they are fired in one place. For example, if a salesman is fired from one job, all he has to do is go down the street to another company. There's only ONE public school system in most cities----so if a teacher is arbitrarily fired and still wants to teach, then he/she has to pack up and move----not so easy to do. Ed, it's very clear that you don't know what you're talking about.

8) Comment by e.ducator22 - 14/03/2013

OMG, the level of stupidity here is off the charts. Ed, has anyone ever told you not to speak if you are not versed on the subject, for you might make a fool of yourself. Tenure is not the problem. Spend some time in the schools Ed, then come back and tell us what you think.

9) Comment by Bouncer - 14/03/2013

LOL@Clem. Oh, does it really "cease to amaze" you? The idiom is "It NEVER ceases to amaze me....." That's the phrase used when one wishes to express ongoing wonderment, sarcastically, of course. Obviously, given the poorly-constructed sentences in your post, what we have in you is another one who didn't pay attention in class, most especially English class. Was that because the teacher had tenure?

10) Comment by twinkie1cat - 13/03/2013

LJ100: Listen up. First the private schools are not necessarily more successful than the publics. In fact in many cases the charters receiving our tax money do WORSE. Second The privates that do better have what is called "selective admissions". They have standards students must meet before they will take them and they often make it as difficult as possible for the kids most likely to need more help to meet their standards by requiring extra fees, uniforms that fit and carry the school logo so they cost a lot more than the charity and Family Dollar outfits, and they often don't provide transportation and sometimes not even free lunch. They also don't take kids with behavior problems or obvious learning or cognitive disabilities. In other words, children who can't keep up without a professional teacher don't get in. Then they can kick them out anytime the want to. Charters are especially notorious for kicking out their low performing students shortly before standardized testing time, loading up the classes at the publics and then not being responsible for dropping the scores at those schools because the charter did not teach right. This happened about a year ago when low performing kids were forced out of Capitol Charter and transferred, against their will, to Tara. The classes got so overloaded that a young teacher I was trying to keep in K-12 education left at the end of the school year, even though it meant moving to another state to teach at a community college. Until that happened I thought I had convinced him he could do the job and at least give Tara a few years because male teachers are still a minority. So the charters and privates are not working on an even playing field with the publics. At least the Louisiana High School Athletic Association has recognized this. The public school principals wanted their kids a chance of winning the tournaments so the private and magnet schools that have selective admissions were put in a separate league to play against other students who have lives with privilege. Now if the coaches know, why don't the writers and why doesn't the governor get of the real teachers' backs, give them what they need to be successful, which means tenure and supply money and support, and then turn them loose to teach! We can fix the schools if they will let us. But then studies have shown that ignorant people are conservative.

11) Comment by Scrooge - 13/03/2013

LJ 100 writes: "indeed, it is likely one of the reasons private schools so greatly outperform their public counterparts." Disregarding the difficulty of providing evidence for such a claim which is supported by presumption and ignoring the overwhelming impact of socio- economic circumstance, there is also no evidence that lack of tenure and political nepotism causes increases in academic performance as well. An examination of Louisiana ACT scores indicates that a large percentage of those scores which would likely be from greatly outperforming private school students that are greatly underperforming on a national scale. It is not just public schools in Louisiana that are underperforming, the entire state is a model of underperformance. BRHS has twice as many national merit scholars as all BR private schools combined, making a mockery of claims of superiority and if private schools are so superior, why bother with the creation of another underperforming public school district especially in this age of the savior or education, the voucher?

12) Comment by Clem - 13/03/2013

Wow! It ceases to amaze me from the numerous comments here about how great tenure is to the teacher. Surely, no one can now say that public schools are on the decline after listening to all the how great thou art Me Me's here in our area. Right on brothers. Keep the torches burning. 'Don't Cry Be Happy' should be your motto - but from what spills out here in book form sometimes doesn't sound like a happy crew. Maybe you all should try another profession - like joining the Military for a full career. That would be a real tenure test.

13) Comment by Bouncer - 13/03/2013

Anyone who supports Daigle's woefully misinformed view, or even worse, actually BELIEVES what he says, is as big of an idiot as Daigle is. Pay attention to what professionals such as NoelHammatt and others here have said about tenure. Believe them. They know what they are talking about and have no need to be condescended to by a pack of detractors who have never spent a day in a classroom as a teacher. All available evidence suggests that the likes of Daigle and his supporters didn't make much use of their time as a student, either.

14) Comment by GardenVariety - 13/03/2013

It's courageous to jump on a HUGE bandwagon? Really? Courage is showing up to help other people's children, all the while receiving little to no support from most parents, administrators, and politicians. Courage is working with students who are dealing with hunger, abuse (physical, psychological, and sexual), and a wide range of needs. Courage is trying to remain a professional even when your profession is mocked, degraded, and outsourced to unqualified people. Courage is standing up for oneself as a teacher and for education when you know that some sort of retribution is likely. Courage is going on with relative grace when uninformed, misinformed (non-)"Experts" rhetorically kick you and spit on you. America is going to pay a dear price for how it treats its teachers, first responders, charity hospital workers, returning military personnel, and the like. We people in the "caring" and "public service" professions might lose our "courage" and not be there when you need us.

15) Comment by LJ100 - 13/03/2013

Thanks Mr. Daigle for having the courage to take on the special interest groups and tell the truth. Teachers are not subject to any greater pressure from arbitrary bosses than employees in the private sector. My understanding is that teachers in private schools do not have tenure, yet I see no evidence that private school education suffers on that account. Indeed, it is likely one of the reasons private schools so greatly outperform their public counterparts. The tenure system generates terrible perverse incentives and is bad for any organization, public or private. The main effect of tenure is to protect employees who should be fired.

16) Comment by bigfatman - 13/03/2013

Mr.Daigle let me remind you of the old saying"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. These children are given all the tools to learn and achieve. Maybe you should come and sit in an english class of 9th graders say at Istrouma H.S.(which is run by the RSD. Seat for a week and then come back and write another letter. Don't forget to wear you bullet proof armor.

17) Comment by twinkie1cat - 13/03/2013

Teacher tenure allows teachers to be creative, to try new techniques to speak out and aggravate the principal without fear of reprisal. This does not always work, but if a teacher does not have either a well-off husband or a lottery winning, I doubt if many would say in signed letters what they say here. Tenure allows freedom of speech in an open and bold way that directs our often politically appointed administrators to behave appropriately>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Principals became aggravated with me more than once for demanding my severe/profound multihandicapped students be included in assemblies, music, field trips and activities despite the fact that some made noise or sang along with the music and looked very different from the ones they considered worthy of a free, public education. One could not understand why I could not wear dry clean only suits and high heels to work. ( It was because I sat on the floor to teach my kids and also changed and fed them.) She could not stand to look at my children and, therefore, me. But a good special education teacher does that. Advocacy is part of our job and we take it seriously. Another principal tried to require all the male teachers to wear ties. He was the three-piece suit type. The two tenured severe/profound/autistic male teachers, who were tenured had to explain what would happen if one of their students grabbed the tie, which they absolutely would, no question. (One of mine snatched my glasses and threw them across the gym.) Had they not had tenure they would have had to go through a coordinator and perhaps endangered their lives for weeks. The Adapted PE teacher did go to the coordinator when he wrote her up for wearing a jogging suit to work, appropriate for her job, and he had to apologize to her. >>>>>>But with all my special education stories I will provide a regular education story that will bring home the value of tenure as well as advanced degrees. A teacher with a Ph.D asked for a special class of overaged young men who were behind in high school, had disciplinary problems and who would probably not graduate. (This was at an inner city school, all black except for 3 students, one of whom was special education.) She taught those boys all morning for 2 years. She taught them black history and culture, and took them on field trips. She got grants to pay for trips and materials. She got one into night school to help him catch up and got mentors for all her boys. I don't know how the others did, but one young man I got to know his senior year. He was nearly 20 and thought he was just 18 because no one had ever celebrated his birthday. He was homeless much of his junior year because his mother was on drugs and his daddy was a drunk. He fought. He cut class. He tore his Biology book in half. He could not read very well. He was incredibly hyperactive and sexually active. He had a son at age 16. The teacher got him a mentor, taught him and nurtured him. He turned around. His senior year he was recognized as the most improved student in the school and got a trip to Colorado with the most improved from the other high schools. He met former President Jimmy Carter. He graduated and went to work as a security guard and eventually got on with the Atlanta Police Department where he has been for about 12 years.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> A teacher without tenure could not have taken the risk of a special class with VERY high risk students clearly headed down the prison pipeline. She could have lost her job for eschewing conventional wisdom that we would lose many poor students to pregnancy and the drug trade. But she was able to save my friend and his classmates because she had the freedom to do what she needed to do to accomplish her goals. A tenured teacher is usually a quality teacher. And that, Mr. Daigle is why teachers must be free to teach without being fired!

18) Comment by GardenVariety - 13/03/2013

1ryben--no need to apologize. You're not writing a letter for mass publication--a letter which demands a higher standard for trained professionals, all the while exhibiting the lowest common denominator. To be honest, comment sections depend on a free flow of ideas, so the grammatical standards that apply to formal letters shouldn't apply here. Great insights provided by many here today, interrupted by the predictable pot shots from Chancellor Jindaltine's Sith apprentices (which provide their own unintended insights).

19) Comment by twinkie1cat - 13/03/2013

Teacher tenure protects competent teachers from being railroaded by administrators who would discriminate against them based on weight, age,disability sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ethnic background, or not buttering right tails and the other factors that administrators love to control in their schools. And sometimes they manage to do it anyway for things such as "teaching while white".>>>>> I am not saying there are no bad teachers. I have known one who could barely read but was so highly connected that no one could touch her and another, in a neighboring parish who was a bully. That is 2 teachers in 27 years in 2 states. Some are burned out from administrative harassment, too much work, or teaching the wrong grade of disability for their teaching style and personality. Burnout can often be readily resolved by a change of assignment. It is not a reason to dispose of them and waste their education. There are a few teachers with mental health or substance abuse problems. They are still good teachers but sometimes their after school activities interfere with their work. They need help, as any other professional does. They don't need to be replaced by a Teach for America. Without teachers we would be like Afghanistan, taken over by the religious extremists, tribal, impoverished and our children left with nothing in life to look forward to if they lived past the age of 5. Remember, Afghanistan, before the war had a 20% literacy rate overall, 5% for women. Our soldiers had to teach the Afghanis to read in order to train them to fight the Taliban. The more educated Al- Quaida terrorists had come in, took over, taught them to fight and hate and turned their nation into a terroristic country. Dictators cannot consume countries where the people can read.

20) Comment by twinkie1cat - 13/03/2013

Mr. Daigle is seriously drinking the business and religious right Kool-Aid being liberally (the only thing liberal about him) dispensed by Bobby Jindal, John White, Michelle Rhee, ALEC and other endeavors to destroy America's public education system and risking our democracy's decension into the kind of chaos that occurs when the communists take over a country (as in Vietnam) and kill off all the educated people.

21) Comment by DMJ - 13/03/2013

Yeah, why would teachers need tenure? It's not as if they're subject to constant arbitrary standards and politically-motivated "reforms." I mean...the nerve of them trying to protect their cushy, 40K/year jobs! Once again...when all else fails, just blame the teachers.

22) Comment by crazycajun - 13/03/2013

Edward, teaching has become like nursing. Because of a heavy layer of upper management ignorance of what's really important to patient care and mountains of paper work, nursing in the true sense of the word is becoming extinct. Teachers are in the same predicament. Ed, if you haven't been in a classroom lately maybe you should. I can promise you you'll have a totally different out look on the situation. The reason I can say that is that I have three nieces in the profession. This has allowed me a window into the real problems that I didn't know existed.

23) Comment by Riroon - 13/03/2013

@ Mr. Daigle -- 1/ Over 50% of public school teachers quit the profession before their fifth year. This is a stat straight from Bobby Jindal's pamphlet on education policy when he ran for governor in 2008. If teaching was such a cushy job, why do over half leave this dream career. 2/ Noel is right. I've seen many a teacher resign prior to a personnel hearing, and others counseled out of the profession. 3/ Look at tenure this way. Your child sick as a dog. The principal has a school rule no using the restroom during classes. Do you let the child throw up in class, embarrass himself, and get the others in the class sick, destroying textbooks and materials in the process? With tenure, your duty is to the child. Without tenure, your duty is to the principal and holding on to your job. Tenure gives the freedom to take care of the child's needs, even if it means overstepping a principal's whims......................... @ BeingStupid -- Yes you do fit your namesake. Every cent of union dues I've ever paid has come from my own pocket. I am very surprised that if you are concerned about wasting taxpayer's dollars that you are not complaining about Teach For America (multi-million dollar yearly contract with the state PLUS a $3 headhunting fee per TFA teacher hired) or K12inc (a private online homeschool entity, paid for by tax dollars, that use 1/3 of these tax dollars to advertise their FOR PROFIT business).

24) Comment by Old Man Kensey - 13/03/2013

Terrible letter, but there are some good insights in the comments. Well, at least until the party of stupid showed up.

25) Comment by [e-mail] - 13/03/2013

Daigle is right when he says that our teachers aren't teaching properly; tenure protects the status quo and nothing else. If tenured teachers had insisted on teaching with an ethical awareness of what they were teaching, and refused to be diverted from an honorable profession by the lure of inflated benefits then we wouldn't be where we are and administrators, unions, and educrats wouldn't be stealing taxpayer money. If you're a part of something and help it to go astray, no matter the reason, then you're a part of the problem that has to be cleaned up.

26) Comment by Being_Stupid - 13/03/2013

Steve Monopolyman and his Leachers Union do not care about the kids or improving public education. They obstruct any hint of public education reform. They only care about stealing our tax money $$$ that is supposed to be used to fund public education for the children via their Government Monopoly on public education.

27) Comment by Being_Stupid - 13/03/2013

Steve Monopolyman and his Leachers Union does not care about the kids or improving public education. They obstruct any hint of public education reform. They only care about stealing our tax money $$$ that is supposed to be used to fund public education for the children via their Government Monopoly on public education.

28) Comment by Bouncer - 13/03/2013

Daigle alienates and offends me from the very first sentence of his letter. It reveals an abysmal ignorance of the purpose and history of teacher tenure, so it is no surprise that the rest of the letter is chock full of misinformation and distortions. Sure, he's entitled to his opinion, but an opinion should at least originate in some solid factual grounding.

29) Comment by spqr - 13/03/2013

I, too, am a lazy teacher. I walk a duty post each morning at 6:45, teach three preps five hours on my feet to over 120 students, attend meetings an hour, gulp down lunch in 25 minutes, helped break up a fight in a classroom yesterday, coached the track team until 5:30 pm, washed some uniforms and left campus at 6:30, and graded some papers after supper at home arounf 8 pm. At least I did not have to wash blood out of my clothes as I have four times this year. Today, more of the same. Count me as lazy, too. Edward is another newspaper-knowledgable education critic.

30) Comment by 1ryben - 13/03/2013

GardenVariety, you can have a field day with my previous comment. Wow! So many errors there. I do think the points of my argument are valid though. It's 1:30am and I'm jest finishing grading papers. (I'm one of those lazy tenured teachers) Can I beg for some mercy?

31) Comment by 1ryben - 13/03/2013

Such ignorance. USA has NEVER lead the world educationally! At least not according to standardized testing. Now if you use other means of evaluating our educational system, we still do lead the world. If you inure things like Nobel Laurates, patents issued, medical and scientific advancements no other nation comes close. Even when we were proving our i intellectual prowess by landing (and returning) people on the moon we were lagging behing many other nations n math scores. Those folks were educated somewhere. Yes sir, in American schools. TENURE DOES NOT PROTECT BAD TEACHERS!! It doesnt. Never has. Never will. This is a lie constantly repeated until you believe it as fact. Those repeating the lie meep telling it in order to turn the public's perception twoard teachers to push an agenda. If there is a truly bad teacher (yes, there are) in the school it is the fault of poor administration. As stated earlier, tenured teachers are forced out quite often, many times without the need of a tenure hearing. Tenure does protect good teachers. Protects the good teachers from being lumped together with the bad ones. Protects the good teachers from lies and slander and vindictiveness. It protects us from people like you sir. Peoe with no idea about what it takes to be a teacher. People whose only education experience is from the other side of the desk. Mr. Daigle, I suspect you are more intelligent than your letter reveals. Please, before perpetuating stereotype and lies, investigate these claims. Pretty soon you'll be claiming that unions are the reason for the demise of our educational system.

32) Comment by GardenVariety - 13/03/2013

Even before reading Noel Hammatt's spot-on critique, I knew this letter was DOA. The first sentence of the letter discredits immediately the opinion expressed. Hammatt briefly mentions the grammatical problems, but as a student of language and rhetoric, I find the problems with grammar to be indicative of the deeper problems addressed by Hammatt. The opening phrase, "To a teacher," indicates a singular subject; however, the rest of the sentence shifts to the plural, "they." What’s happening is that Daigle is generalizing from a singular experience or small number of experiences, thereby painting all teachers with the same broad brush. Let’s turn to a point of rhetorical ethos, as it relates to grammar’s larger effect: If someone is going to criticize teachers, implying that they are mediocre and child-like, then that person should present himself or herself as more-than-mediocre and as mature. I don't doubt that Daigle had English teachers who insisted that he watch pronoun-antecedent agreement. I'm sure they also covered comma usage, even though his letter fails to show it. They probably also asked that he and his classmates to be respectful AND respectable. (Food for thought: Maybe he dislikes teachers because they were actually doing their jobs, such as requiring that he study his grammar and write credible papers.) It follows, even from this brief rhetorical analysis based on Daigle's grammar, that tenure and teachers might not be the problem. A mirror might reveal the real problem. The previous point leads me to these final points. Two decades ago, when I began studying education in college (including the history of American education), I came to this conclusion: it's more probable that America has failed education, not that education has failed America. Letters like Daigle's, policies like those espoused by U.S. Education Secretary Duncan and Governor Jindal, and the anti-intellectualism that seems all the vogue among a growing number of Americans add credence to that hypothesis. Sadly.

33) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 12/03/2013

I suspect Mr. Daigle is reading too many silly websites, and is drinking some Kool-Aid. He has none of his "facts" correct. Sorry Mr. Daigle, but you fail American History, Sociology, and Philosophy. I'm not sure about your reading score, but you certainly do not get credit for critical reading skills.Tenure never has meant "they can do what they want and not get fired-or a slap on the wrist. Not sure of the grammatical structure there, but that is enough to drop your English score. Now, a bit of truth. Tenure was granted to teachers (I argued it was too easy to get, but that is another story) that guaranteed that they could only be removed for cause. The legislature identified what those causes were, not the local school boards. Now, as a former school board member I can assure you that there was more than a slap on the wrist involved. By the way, you never have heard of the many teachers who were let go without ever going through a tenure hearing. The tenure hearing was, and is a last resort. Many teachers I am personally aware of, when they did something high inappropriate, were counseled out of teaching. That is to say, they were shown why what they did was wrong, and often left, sometimes under threat of a tenure hearing. I also know of teachers who refused to leave, were called before a tenure hearing, and resigned right before the tenure hearing. In addition Boards that I served on fired people with tenure, and in other cases listened to the facts, and decided that 5 years leave without pay was an appropriate punishment. I think that is a bit more than slap on the wrist, sir. Tenure is a form of due process, something that most larger companies have. Due process protects a teacher who refuses to change a student's grade at the request of a principal, or who is fired because the principal is caught up in a bit of drama and doesn't want to deal with a problem. In other words, there is a variety of reasons that teachers get fired. I was fired because I caught the Dean of my College of Education in a lie, and exposed it. Not really a legitimate reason for being fired. But I had no tenure. As to your claim that the US was number one in the world? I hope you are not referring to any form of standardized tests, for we were never number one, and actually have been rising in the rankings in recent years. Yet, some countries higher on the lists actually wish their students had as much creativity as our students. But have no fear, under the reforms issued by those as uneducated about public education as you, Sir, we are losing the creativity part, as more and more focus is placed on totally misleading "accountability" systems. I can be an excellent teacher, and still get caught up in the politics of truth and deceit. Has nothing to do with my teaching quality. Please, try and learn your history. Then try to write a letter grounded in truth, and THEN give us your opinion.