Knowing I Don't Understand

I was chatting with a friend today that while I may know things, they still remain hard to understand. This got me thinking about work. Today we discussed what the academic intervention plan would be for the students in our Academy (small learning community). I was shocked, yes SHOCKED, when one of my colleagues said she would not tutor this year if she was not properly paid for it. How naïve am I? That I expect a colleague to tutor without compensation! If I recall, my teachers were willing to tutor after school and they received no compensation. Again, perhaps this is just something I know exists but still fail to understand.

When further discussing our plan, one colleague mentioned that if 60% of the students in our class received a D or F on a unit test we should definitely reteach and retest. Again, I felt that this was a give-in. Of course we would reteach and retest! A 60% no pass rate clearly means our students did not learn, right? Not according to one colleague. He stated that he MUST move on, that there is simply not enough time to reteach, and that he would not be following the pacing plan set by his department and professional learning community members if he took the time to reteach his students to make sure they understood the unit. His reasoning? Clearly his students did not study if SIXTY PERCENT receive D’s and F’s.

Now, I am no saint. I know that I need to assess my students more so I can see where they need me to reteach them. I know that I often do not reteach enough, and feel that if I cover the same concept later they will surely learn it then. Or, as some of my colleagues joke, “You mean talking louder and slower is not reteaching?” But I really was simply shocked that my colleagues even thought these things. No tutoring if you are not going to be paid for it? No reteaching if the majority of your class clearly did not learn what was supposedly taught to them? It crushed me to know that I work among these people. I do not understand why someone who does not believe in the value of learning would become a teacher.

This is exactly why the public schools in America are behind those in the rest of the world, industrialized, developing or unindustrialized. What happened to the idea that education is a means of learning? What purpose has it served if my students clearly have not learned? Again, I am not perfect and I know I am far from becoming the ultimate teacher that I know lies within me, but if my students have shown that they clearly have not learned what I thought I taught, it does not matter if I am keeping up with the department pacing plan or if I am being reimbursed for the time I spent tutoring. All that matters is that I failed at my job.

I may know that teachers want to be paid for their hard work. I may know that there is stress to stay on the timelines presented to and designed by and for us. But what I don’t understand is the teacher who does not see the value in successful learning.