Walk in a teacher’s shoes

Your recent articles on Fresno Unified’s “troubles” reminded me of a T-shirt I saw at a teacher conference. It read “Those that can, TEACH. Those that can’t, pass laws about teaching.” That second part could just as easily read:

▪ Those that can’t, get the district to help them write newspaper articles about schools.

▪ Those that can’t, form a committee to study classroom discipline.

▪ Those that can’t, take a few more classes and become administrators and make more money.

For 2016, I suggest the superintendent and his school board minions be required to spend six days a year as substitute teachers in freshman, core-subject classrooms at each high school. Three of these assignments must be at block-schedule school sites with classes of at least 116 minutes each and no less than 40 students per class, seats optional. Then we can realistically talk about needed changes.

Large classes of low-performing students make everything tougher. Add the explosion of cell phone nonsense (i.e. cheating, plotting YouTube videos, defaming and bullying others, constant distraction) and you get the current chaos. The district has the money and technology to change this.

Good luck teachers – you are heroes every day!

This story was originally published December 25, 2015 at 7:24 AM with the headline "Walk in a teacher’s shoes."