Emily
Emily
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

I’m 100% behind you in that this is horrible, but you actually write that you expected other teachers to help you. Why? Why in the world do you think they are obligated to help you when you didn’t bother to learn *anything* about your job before you started? A quick google search of, say, “the state of public education in the US; charter schools” might have given you some clue.

You have worked in music, with musicians, and taught lessons before. Wow. Great. *You* and *your assumptions* are a HUGE part of what is wrong with education right now. You had no training. NONE! And yet you somehow thought you could waltz in (to the tune played on your viola, perhaps?) and learn to do something on the job that it takes people who actually have education in the subject (teaching) YEARS to master. This is literally like my saying, “well, I know a few notes on the piano, so I’ll pick up the viola as I go — where’s the orchestra?!”

This assumption that teaching is easy, that anyone with “a BA and experience in the business related to the teaching” can do it? That’s what gets us underpaid teachers forced to work 12+ hours off the clock. That’s what gets us teachers expected to work without water. Expected to fund their own classrooms. Expected to work for nothing.

So was your treatment terrible? Yes. Illegal? Possibly. It should be. And I feel bad for what you went through.

But your indignation that no one helped you? When were you reaching out to help them? How many teachers working over time did you do anything for? Was the union supposed to hunt you down? When you work for a place that is avidly and enthusiastically trying to break unions? There were more red flags around your job than a reasonable person could count, and yet somehow you thought 1. it would be different for you and 2. someone else would (should) come and save you.

Go out and tell your story — work to save education.

    Emily

    Written by

    Emily

    prof, writer, hockey fan, cat owner.