Pernille Ripp

Dear Educators,

I write this post not as an educator, but as a parent of 4 young children.  4 young children that despite our insistence are all growing up.  4 young children that have hopes and dreams bursting out of them and none of them involve sitting still.  4 young children that will all have teachers that will shape them into the future of our country.

So to all those teachers that have or will have our 4 children; thank you.  Because teaching can be a lonely job.  Teaching can be exhausting.  Teaching can make you cry and lose your faith.  Teaching can make you fight so hard for something that may or may not make a difference and yet you keep on fighting because there is a chance that it just might.  You keep on fighting even though the kids you call “your kids” are not really yours and may not even remember you when they are adults.

To all those teachers that will take the time it takes to really know our children, thank you.  For the time you will spend pondering what will make our child learn better, fit in, be happy, and love school.  For the time you will spend planning lessons that will protect their curiosity and their personality.  For the time you will spend meeting with others to discuss the needs of my children so that school will work for them.  For all of the little things you will do that they may never notice, just because you think it might make their day better.

To all those teachers who fight behind closed doors or out loud as they see the injustice happening in our public school system.  To all of those teachers who dare to speak up.  To all those teachers who cannot stay quiet when the love of learning may be damaged, when the love of reading may be killed.  To all of you; thank you, because without you there would be no promise of a better day.  No promise of a better way.

So when you feel worn out.  When you feel it doesn’t matter.  When you feel like you have the most thankless job in the world; remember this…  That kid you helped that day.  That student that you stood up for.  That colleague you helped give courage to.  You made a difference in their day.  You made a difference in their life.  So thank you for loving your job.  For making our oldest daughter believe that teaching is the very best job there is because “You get to have fun every single day, mom.”  For making this terrified parent believe even more in the power of all teachers to help all children, even the toughest ones.  I see it, we see it, and we are so grateful.

Thank you for making our oldest daughter believe she is a reader, that she is a writer, an artist, a person whose opinion matters.  For helping her see her learning preferences not as obstacles but as opportunities.  For letting us know how we could best help her and for having a world of patience with her when she got frustrated.  Thank you for simply seeing her as a whole person rather than the labels we can so easily attach.

So this teacher appreciation week, I hope others will reach out as well and not just say thanks for the big things, but thanks for all of the small ones too.  Being a teacher is not just about the time you stand in the classroom, but the life you live, the choices you make.  So thank you for seeing more than what the data shows and the test says. For being more than we could ever hope for.

Best,

Pernille

Across the United States, our testing season has begun.  Walk into our classroom and you will see bare walls and desks in rows.  Students engaged only with their computer.  Utter silence only broken by nervous sighs as students either concentrate or give up.  How many days of this depends on the age.  And I get that this is supposed to measure how well I do as a teacher, I get that this is supposed to be able to compare my students with all those others taking the same test.  I get that this is supposed to be objective because it is the same test for all of the kids.  And yet, as a parent I fail to see the purpose of this test.  As a parent I would not subject my own child to this.  So as a teacher I thought I would share a few thoughts of why I question the test.

We won’t get the test results this school year.  As we speak, I have no idea when the test results will actually be released for these students.  So the tests does not help me teach these kids better, but perhaps it was never supposed to.  Instead come fall the scores will be released and we will look at percentages.  We will make decisions based not on children but on those percentages and hope that we made the right decision.  We won’t know until the following year’s test.

We won’t learn much new information. There are few surprises when scores are released.  They usually only happen when an otherwise capable child did terribly on the test, usually by choice.

Not all students care, even when they like the teacher.  We assume that all students will take their time, do their best work, and actually care about the test itself, yet this can be pretty far from the truth.  I have seen many students simply click through and answer all of the questions because they saw no value in the task.  Their carelessness now determines my evaluation.

The test is not fair.  We pride ourselves on how we teach all students by giving them the tools they need at that time to be successful, yet the test removes most of those tools.  Even students with special education IEP’s are limited in their supports.  How does that actually translate to a worthwhile test measure?  If we wanted to know how all children would do with the same text and questions, I would not need a 4 day test to tell me that.

If we want to know how teachers are doing make it a community exploration.  Look at results from throughout the year.  Ask administrators who observe.  Ask parents who experience their child’s frustrations or successes.  Ask the very children that we teach.  Are they learning?  Are they growing?  Are they more successful now than they were at the beginning of the year?  Are they more developed as human beings?

For the next few days, learning will continue to be at a standstill in our classroom as I hope my students give the test their best effort, because they have grown.  Because they have worked hard.  Because they do know a lot.  I am not sure the test will measure it, I can only hope, after all, I am not allowed to see the actual test that they take.  But I do know that I wish there was a better measure for me to become a better teacher.  That I hope that my knowledge of my students would be counted and measured as diligently as that of a test.  Perhaps some day we will trust the teachers more.  Perhaps some day we will realize that a test will never tell us the full story of a child, that our student’ experiences can never be reduced to that of a percentage.  Until then, I will keep my fingers crossed.

If you like what you read here, consider reading my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students.  Also, if you are wondering where I will be in the coming year or would like to have me speak, please see this page.

Several years ago Edutopia asked me to write an article for them and I chose to write about the seeming dismissal of veteran teachers because of their age.  Now, 5 years later, it is still happening, so I thought it would be fitting to re-post the article here.

“You know I was worried at first, because she was so old, but it turned out she was really good…” A friend and I are discussing her child’s teacher. Her words resonate with me because I have heard them a lot lately; she was so old…old… and I wonder since when did being a veteran teacher become a negative quality in America?

Rewind to my first year of teaching and how I wished to be a veteran, how I yearned for years of knowledge and experience that could really wow parents and engage the students at such a high level that they would love coming to school every day. Instead, I bumbled my way through, figuring out my style, using the students as test subjects to all my untried ideas and staring wistfully into veteran teachers’ classrooms. I envied their orderly, calm lessons, their seemingly endless project ideas and angles to reach every child. I could not wait to be a veteran.

The Case for Veteran Teachers

Now it appears a new trend has emerged; veteran teachers are no longer “experienced” — they are simply “old,” with every negative connotation of that word. The media and politicians portray these older teachers as stubborn and stuck in their ways. They are labeled static and washed out. The way to resuscitate America’s “failing” education is now to get rid of the veterans and pave way for the new teachers, those with boundless energy, passion and fresh ideas. It’s truly a case of out with the old and in with the new.

But those working in education can see just how flawed this method of thinking is. Those of us who breathe education recognize what these veteran teachers really bring to us all — knowledge, expertise, methods that work, and a deep-seated passion for a job that has done little to reward them. We realize that by creating a bias against experience, we are all losers in the world of education. Now before I forget: yes, there are experienced teachers that do fulfill the stereotype, much like there are new teachers that do. However, the majority of experienced teachers do not.

Thanks in part to the rhetoric of the “reformers,” the anti-veteran bias seems to be taking root in society, too. Now when teachers are searching for work, the more years they have, the less likely it seems that they will get an interview. Some districts say tight budgets are to blame, which as a teacher in Wisconsin I can appreciate, and yet, you would think that a district would spend the bulk of its money on getting experienced teachers in front of our students. Instead, we see a stigma that says the more years of teaching you have, the less open to new ideas you must be. Parents eagerly tell us how they want that new young teacher because he or she will have something new to offer. Students hope for the young teacher because they are sure he or she will be more fun.

Our Most Valuable Asset

So what can we do? Youth is the ultimate desirability in America, and it is warping the educational world as well. Youth now seems to be the one trait that everyone agrees will save our schools. Get rid of tenure, and with it the more experienced teachers, which frees school districts to hire as many brand new teachers as they want. Brand new teachers that also happen to cost less. Brand new teachers that come off as confident and brimming with new initiatives. Brand new teachers that lack the foundation that only years of teaching can provide them with.

I think back now to what I put my students through my first year — and I shudder at the thought. There were the make-no-sense rules just to ensure control, tests upon tests because I thought that was the only way I could assess, and just a small stockpile of ideas to pull from. I had the confidence but lacked experience, and the only thing I knew that would make me a better teacher (besides more years) was turning to my mentors, veteran teachers that shared their knowledge and inventiveness. In those master teachers I saw everything that had drawn me to teaching: passion, dedication, innovation and an unstopping sense of urgency to reach all students.

That is what we’ll be removing from our educational system — experience; because in the view of society, old = bad. So when we dismiss and run out our master teachers, we drain our schools of one of their most valuable assets — knowledge. When we place teachers with experience at the bottom of our respect pole, we set students up to be every new teacher’s test subject over and over, throughout their years of schooling. Yes, new teachers bring new ideas to the table, but so do veteran teachers. How anyone can claim otherwise baffles me.

Thankfully, there are others in our profession who agree with me. Veteran teachers are joining social media such as Twitter to reach out to new teachers. They are blogging about their experience, thus creating a database of knowledge accessible to anyone in need. They are creating networks within their schools, ensuring that new teachers have someone to turn to. They are not being run out of education quietly, and we should all be grateful for that. We are only as strong as the weakest link in our schools, and our mentor teachers are doing everything they can to empower the people they work with. That power transfers to our students.