As I watch the news unfold about the Chicago Teachers strike, I think about what is said vs. what is done. Everyone always says "teachers are so important." "Our children are the most important thing in our nation." That is wonderful, right? Then I hear that teachers went on strike and the first words on national news is "Parents in Chicago scramble to find child care for 400,000 children." There is nothing about children losing time in a learning environment, seniors losing valuable time in preparation for their college entrance, education is important enough for us to settle this problem quickly so the teachers can go back into their classrooms quickly and return to educating our children.
So if actions do speak louder than words, again, school is a "low cost daycare". Nothing is really lost as far as reading, math, science etc. You don't hear about parents scrambling to find tutors for their children so they do not lose valuable learning.
I also hear "teachers are not paid enough for the important job they do." Then the actions say, these people are a drain on our taxes. When we "need" to cut costs because of mismanagement of funds by those who are supposed to have our best interest in the forefront, we say "well, class size does not really matter."
I am not a researcher but I can say from experience that there is a huge difference in the quality of education possible between an elementary class of 25 students and a class of 35 students. One thing that is pretty visible is the size of the classrooms. If a classroom is built to hold a maximum of 25 students, putting 35 students in that room is going to have a negative effect. Just think of the last time you took a flight in those planes that were built to hold 250 passengers and then "redesigned to hold 300 passengers. The redesign had nothing to do with the size of the plane but the size and number of seats in that plane. Take a classroom that is designed to hold 25 students and add desks and chairs to hold 35. You better hope that none of those students are large, long legged or have special needs that require extra space.
I worked in a school once that had 40 students in the classroom. The children had to crawl under the desks to get out of their row. Teachers could not walk around the room to "get to" a child in need without asking several students to get up and move away.
One problem is that elementary school teachers are very creative but not too pushy. They adapt to the situation rather than screaming about the injustice. So people do not "see" the problem until teachers can no longer adapt.
Maybe Parents, Mayors, Governors, Senators, School Board Presidents and even School Superintendents should be required to spend a week a year in an elementary school classroom that is overcrowded. They should have to make their own lesson plans, deal with the myriad of interruptions, questions, lack of materials and required paperwork, excuses for not having homework, materials, or lunch, required meetings and extra assignments. They should have to deal with all of these things with no help, 20 min lunch periods and bathrooms that are too far away to dash to during the school day.
Interestingly enough, if they did this and actually interacted with those wonderful little people with a variety of experiences, problems, interests, ability and self-motivation, they would say "This is the hardest job I have ever done and I LOVE it.
Trust me, those teachers in Chicago want more than anything to get back into the classroom with their children.
