Somebody asked me the other day if I wished I received merit pay. My answer was an unequivocal and resounding, "NO!" How on earth could you measure the work that a teacher does and then determine a comparative pay scale? The idea is ridiculous. Merit pay is based on measurable results, i.e. test scores. So much of what teachers do everyday in and out of the classroom simply cannot be measured.
Until you have actually been teaching in a classroom, you can't possibly even begin to understand the complex nature of our jobs.Why would you want to pit one teacher against another when what is required for schools to be successful is co-operation and collegiality amongst staff? Why should the teacher who does nothing but teach to the test be paid more than the teacher who coaches all the teams?
How can you compare the dollar value of the teacher who spends countless hours organizing the production of a school play, to the teacher who counsels a troubled student, to the one who fights tooth and nail to obtain a psychiatric assessment for a student that might have a learning disability, to the teacher who spends hours of time online scouring the internet for web resources, or who takes a grade 7 class on a 4 day ski trip to Quebec?
How can you possibly determine the dollar value of the teacher who runs the track meet compared to the teacher with the gentle, kind, and caring nature that children adore? Why would the teacher who maintains a communication book between home and school for behavioural students, have greater or lesser value than the the one who spends months and months working with a troubled student trying to turn a life around? Or who connects a family to an outside organization so they can receive the help they need, or who delivers a knock your socks off lesson that changes the way a child views the world - or himself. How can you say that the teacher who comforts an anxious child whose mother is in the hospital is worth more or less that the teacher who taught math well? How can you possibly reduce our value to a test score?
Until you have actually been teaching in a classroom, you can't possibly even begin to understand the complex nature of our jobs.Why would you want to pit one teacher against another when what is required for schools to be successful is co-operation and collegiality amongst staff? Why should the teacher who does nothing but teach to the test be paid more than the teacher who coaches all the teams?
How can you compare the dollar value of the teacher who spends countless hours organizing the production of a school play, to the teacher who counsels a troubled student, to the one who fights tooth and nail to obtain a psychiatric assessment for a student that might have a learning disability, to the teacher who spends hours of time online scouring the internet for web resources, or who takes a grade 7 class on a 4 day ski trip to Quebec?
How can you possibly determine the dollar value of the teacher who runs the track meet compared to the teacher with the gentle, kind, and caring nature that children adore? Why would the teacher who maintains a communication book between home and school for behavioural students, have greater or lesser value than the the one who spends months and months working with a troubled student trying to turn a life around? Or who connects a family to an outside organization so they can receive the help they need, or who delivers a knock your socks off lesson that changes the way a child views the world - or himself. How can you say that the teacher who comforts an anxious child whose mother is in the hospital is worth more or less that the teacher who taught math well? How can you possibly reduce our value to a test score?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Heidi invites you to comment on your attempts to transform your teaching practice.