-by Crack

So while I rarely watch TV and I rarely comment on it, due to recent injuries beyond my control (no, not the car...this time) I was able to watch this new show "Boston Public", and I honestly don't know whether to laugh or cry.1 If you've never heard of the show, it's on FOX Monday nights and features a Boston Public High School staff and all the intricacies of teaching life, and brought to you by the writers of "Ally McBeal." I must confess that I am not a fan of Ally (apologies to all my friends who are sharpening their rabbit ears at my profanity), but I would have really appreciated another archtype for the main character of this new show. Instead, it is yet another waify, mousey-colored neurotic-empath 30-something whose wide eyes seem to shout to the world "Wow, Like, The World Is Just So... Big, Y'Know?"

But I digress. So here's a show where each teacher embodies at least one "hot button" issue in education today: violence, racism, anti-semitism, behavior medication, popularity (or lack thereof) and the ever-popular taboo sex and contraception. Quite a list, I know. But then there are the students who embody "hot button" issues like... violence, racism, anti-semitism, behavior medication, popularity (or lack thereof) and the ever-popular taboo sex and contraception. You'd think they'd vary the menu a little, but hey, it is supposed to be high school after all. We have a limited palette for change. Now as a former teacher and present-day educator, I can relate to a lot of the issues the show is bringing forward and a bunch they are not highlighting, but do pay homage such as poor pay, lousy status, lost respect, animosity between teachers and administration, administration and parents, parents and teachers, students and teachers and students with students. What I find outrageous is the license these sitcom writers have given themselves in order to keep their plot moving, while they are failing to realize that even stretched believability (like a law firm being really a dating center for psych cases) has to still remain in the realm of believability or you've lost your audience. Hell, they've lost me! Take, for example, the school's main focus: subplots. Listen, I don't care what kind of inner-city squalid corner of purgatory your school wallows in, but if a teacher brings a gun into class, he is fired. (Pun notwithstanding.) If a teacher writes "Gone to kill myself, hope you're happy!!!" on the board, they are at least sent for a "prolonged recess" away from school grounds and put back on medication under a doctor's scrutiny. A teacher kissing a student is not a slap-on-the-wrist offense. A principal physically assaulting a student in the hall isn't one either. And a student caught giving fallatio in exchange for student government votes is not a quiet morality musing in the Teachers' Lounge.2 I'm sorry, but this crew would have been recycled faster than San Francisco newsprint!

It's interesting to see what "other people" think teaching is like. Apparently the public understands schools are underfunded, parents are unusually demanding and rarely complimentary, teaching is more like parenting than ever, and there is no respect for the teaching profession. Thanks to the news, maybe folks understand that the job is thankless with long hours, tough demands from kids and parents and administration officials, and each day is often dangerous, either legally or physically. What no one seems to understand is that being a teacher is being a combination of other jobs that are much better funded, sought-after and admired. A teacher is responsible for creating functional adults of our society out of unruly children, but they have to have far more credentials than it takes to be a parent. A teacher has to achieve measurable results and prove them to a governing body, but what other business would make its management be responsible for almost thirty individuals without a support staff? A teacher prepares people for life on this planet so that they be healthy, prepared and aware of their possibilities, which is undoubtedly just as important as a surgeon attempting to save a person's life -- but without the glory, support staff or pay scale attached. To be a teacher is to have a calling, almost a vocation; you have to WANT to teach above all else (a real teacher says "my kids" instead of "the students") and believes with all their heart that teaching matters, it makes a difference, when very little else does.

I watch "Boston Public" with mixed feelings. I am keenly aware of every issue they raise and quite a few that they don't, but to see it paraded with one-dimensional characters that are designed to be driven, but come across more as pathetic, makes me uncomfortable and too close to ashamed. I know a lot of teachers and their words all sound the same. The government warns that we are losing teachers and are in danger of being scarce, since fewer and fewer young people want to go into teaching as a profession. This comes as no surprise to anyone. I was speaking to the Vice Executive Director for the state's educational resources when he asked me if I would be a teacher again, I said "no" without hesitation. When he asked me why, I told him honestly that I loved my kids, brought their grades up 10-20% and found them a great bunch, even though every teacher and administrator referred to them as "The Hell Class"3, but what I couldn't stand was the politics. Teachers backstabbing teachers, administration backstabbing teachers, the state backstabbing administration who in turn had to stab the teachers, parents backstabbing teachers4 and students actually stabbing teachers...it was all too much. In my opinion, teachers fall under the same category as librarians and saints: they make the world go 'round. Bless them for it and don't you forget it!

1. Although, if I chose to do either, it wouldn't be very hard or even aloud. But it is some junk food for thought. 2. Do you want to know what really goes on in the Teachers' Lounge? They complain about the kids, gripe about the paperwork, photocopy their lunchbreak away and bemoan how many hours it is until they can get drunk. AA should set up shop near the Xerox. It's always broken anyway. 3. The worst part was, these kids knew it and wore it like a badge of honor! The hardest part was convincing twenty-seven fifth graders that the world did not already dismiss them as lost-causes. The administration and staff did me no favors in that department! 4. Funny enough, I had wonderful parents. This is not to say that the parents didn't have problems or didn't cause some unfortunate traumas for some of my kids, but the very first thing I did when accepting my class was to call the parents. Every conversation ran something like this:    Parent:    "Hello?" Me: "Hello, this is Miss K. [I was a miss back then], so-and-so's new teacher." Parent: [pause] [suspicious] "What's wrong?" Me: "Excuse me?" Parent: "What did s/he do?" Me: [quickly] "Nothing! Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to call and tell you that so-and-so is a great kid! Comes to school smiling and talks with friends, likes to play and tries really hard in class. Maybe has trouble with this or that, but I have after-school hours and can help out. I just wanted to call and thank you." Parent: [shocked] "What?!?" Me: "I just wanted to call and say you have a great kid and that's because of you. I wanted to thank you for being such a great parent and giving me a great class." I never had a problem with any parent after that. Let me heartily recommend that teachers AND parents don't have nearly enough people telling them they are doing a good job...only pointing out when they are doing a bad one even if they are trying their best without a manual. Next time you speak to one, thank a teacher or parent for doing something that really matters. It makes a difference!