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Question: To Stay or Leave Teaching in Public Schools?
I’m thinking about this question, and I’m curious what the Ricochetti might answer: Is it time to for this teacher to abandon the Public School system? Here’s some of the circumstances relating to the question:
- I hold K-8 multiple-subject and secondary Biology certificates, and I have over 20 years of classroom experience in grades 6 through 12.
- I’m also an evangelical Christian, white male, politically and socially conservative.
- My school district has adopted the Progressive doctrine of “Cultural Competence” based upon the philosophy that all social inequalities are the result of institutional “privilege.” Correcting this “privilege” means seeking “equity,” a short-hand term meaning equality of outcome on behalf of identified victims of “privilege.”
- I work in a state that allows the teachers union to withhold 100% of apportioned membership dues from my paycheck, and then forcing me to request to be reimbursed of whatever portion the union decides wasn’t spent advocating on my behalf (typically about 30% of the total withheld).
- I am required by law to teach district-approved curriculum and content. As a science teacher, this has included such scientifically dubious subjects as man-generated global climate change (and the associated advocacy for progressive solutions) and contentious social issues such as acceptance of transgender behavior.
So … here’s where I’m at: A local private Christian school has a job posting for a junior high/high school science position for next year. Do I pursue it? Or, do I stick with the public schools, on the basis that as a Christian, I have been called to be “salt and light” to the world?
What do you think?
Published in General
I’ve never been too worried to not take a risk for something I desire.
Seems like you might enjoy a change of scenery.
Think about telling young minds of God’s great and very scientific world!
I suggest that you go within and seek guidance in prayer and meditation.
I have my own ideas for me based on my finances, history and family, but I will not push them on you; you have your own “Higher Power” and what is right for me will not necessarily be right for you.
I believe that your “Higher Power” or “Holy Spirit” will guide you to the right and perfect path. There is great value for you to be a beacon in a secular world; there is great value for you to work in a school that better matches your faith. Both are good choices.
30 years ago I asked an authority figure for advice on a career choice. He declined and said that he knew that I would find the right path.
I believe that God has a path for you; ask him to guide you on his way.
I would love to hear about your decision and path.
Bless you and your open heart.
Unless such a move would mess up your pension (or other benefits), take the private school job. Why be unhappy in your work? Now having said that, our son and daughter-in-law taught at a charter school (close ties to a large conservative college) and it’s administration was difficult causing mass turnovers every year. Our son is not currently teaching but imagine that he will return one day. He loves teaching and is good at it.
During your interview, ask why the position is open and if the school has a high turnover.
Good luck.
Review your state EO laws.
On the one hand:
If you are required to teach ideological factoids which are in conflict with your actual beliefs, you are violating the call to be “salt and light” anyways. You are, therefore, better off working in an environment that doesn’t impose compelled speech upon you.
On the other hand:
Will this private school take a hands-off approach when it comes to the science curriculum you teach, or will you simply be exchanging one set of compelled speech for a different set of compelled speech?
It doesn’t sound as if the rules which govern you as a public school teacher give you much room to be “salt and light”. I suspect any sign of “salt and light” coming from you could be grounds for dismissal.
Since you are a Christian, pray about it. I would likely take the private school position if it were me, but maybe God has other ideas.
There is a great book about how to be open to the Holy Spirit to give us guidance, “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” It would be worth your time and money to order it on Amazon.
Just a thought:
If you are teaching in a school where you strongly disagree on what is to be taught, are you going to teach your students as effectively as if you are teaching at a school where you do agree with what is being taught.
I look at this not so much as being “salt and light to the world” as giving at least some young people a better, deeper, more relevant education. “Better, deeper, more relevant” as determined by you.
I sent my kids to private schools. My youngest daughter’s favorite teacher in 8th grade was a young man whose wife also taught at the school. Both had taken pay cuts to teach at that private school. I am also impressed to see a male teacher still brave enough to teach elementary grades.
Think not only of the students you will be teaching, but of your co-workers, who maybe could also benefit from your influence.
And if your work environment is still enjoyable, then I’d be hesitant to move on.
It’s important that our schools have “alternative voices” (by which I mean conservative, of course).
That said, I completely understand your hesitation to continue in a system that seems designed more to indoctrinate kids into leftism than to actually educate them. I read about what’s happening in Edina, and I think “this is why we homeschool.” (See also: http://www.weeklystandard.com/inside-a-public-school-social-justice-factory/article/2011402)
I’ve known a few. They all gravitated towards private schools, knowing that it would mean a reduction in pay.
If her voice is silenced, then staying in the public school helps nobody.
My mentor was a career educator (recently retired) who did everything from classroom teaching, middle school principle, Washington Youth Academy principle, and closed out his career as asst. super for for the Bremerton School District. Most of his career he advocated the salt and light approach. He believed very strongly in providing some ballast against the buoyancy of the left’s march through public institutions. At the end, however, his attitude was starting to change. He looked back over a few decades of striving and could find little evidence of efficacy in his mission. He was coming around quickly to the position that Christians should abandon the entire enterprise and especially to pull their kids from it to protect them.
My experience with my two kids going through public schools (North Kitsap is probably better than a lot of other places) is that individual teachers were best judged on their own merits. There were some really good ones and some duds. But, the machines that are our public institutions have been corrupted. I think good teachers really can make a difference, but only for individual students, and I imagine it is a heavy burden. In the waning days of his career my friend told me that 90% of his job was telling the OSPI to pound sand and he was once removed from a House committee hearing when he told the representatives that he would be fine giving the mandated math test to his students the day after every elected official in the capitol passed it.
I teach History at a private Christian school. I subbed at the public schools 20+ years ago – and I would not want to go back – for all of your reasons and more. Shall I pass along your CV to my Principal?
When I moved to Flagstaff from the Phoenix metro area in 1992, I was told by a local attorney, that while I would make less money, I would live longer and happier. All three have been proven to be true.
This is not an easy decision for you. I went to public school, in what people would consider a “good school district” but really good teachers were rare, in my experience. So for the kids in the public school you may be the only conservative teacher they will ever have, although I’m sure none of them even know your politics because that would never be discussed, but i’m sure there are kids that know.
I’m sure teaching at a private Christian school will give you more freedom with the curriculum and the fact that you can pray in school is a big bonus. I send my kids to Catholic school and they start the day with prayer, the pledge and the national anthem (in Connecticut too.Amazing right?) But to start the day with prayer for a lot of the kids can be helpful, they can give their worries to God and it can actually make a difference in their attitude throughout the day. Also you won’t have to worry about perhaps have a lawsuit taken out on you for telling a student to God Bless them after sneezing on government property.
Like was said before, it is best to pray on it and see where the Good Lord will take you.
I served on a Christian School board for a number of years. Most of our teachers had previously taught in public schools. You would be surprised at the number of our students who were offspring of teachers still in the public schools. It isn’t as bad here as it is in your state / district. But I’m sure it will get there.
You are caught in a growing dilemma. It’s hardly a secret that the political / philosophical intent of public education is to banish politically incorrect ideas, particularly Christianity. Being salt and light is a very real challenge, and an important mission. But when doing so would result in discipline or dismissal, then at some point one has to say, “enough.”
Leave. Now.
At my children’s school we have a lot of kids who have parents who teach in the public schools. I always found that interesting. Then again I have a real contempt for public school one that is not shared by many of my peers.
As it seems to be all over the place nowadays, you must decide whether you want to withdraw from a corrupt system or attempt to minimize it’s harms and change it from the inside. Only you can weigh the risks and benefits (for yourself and the community) of each approach.
Whatever you decide the important thing is to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT1ircqQklo
At university I lived with some law students. It was not the most prestigious university in Ontario, and that lack of prestige applied to the law school as much as the rest of the university.
And yet, I was struck by the intelligence and drive of my roommates. So I asked them, “why are you at this law school instead of one of the more prestigious schools like the University of Toronto?”
Their reply was that if they were at a school like U of T and they did really well, they could get a job at a prestige law firm in Toronto, work their asses off, spend most of their pay on living expenses, and hopefully maybe one day make partner if they were really lucky, but probably not because all those partnerships go to people with family connections.
At my university’s law school, however, there was a joint program with a law school in Detroit. They could use their law degree as a stepping stone to passing the bar somewhere in the USA, and then make way more money and enjoy a much better quality of life in a smaller market like, say, Kansas City or Albuquerque, than they ever would in the machiavellian snake pit of Toronto.
I work with our high school boys at church, and almost every one of them is in the public school. They are salt and light in their school and would benefit from the support of a teacher who shares their beliefs.
My boys attended a Christian school through elementary and frankly we pulled them after 6th grade when we realized that it wasn’t the school’s responsibility to make them strong Christians. The school’s responsibility is to educate them, and it’s our jobs as parents to bring them up in Christian values. While I appreciate Christian schools, my personal opinion is they aren’t the panacea of education we want them to be. Within our network of friends we’ve heard of similar issues at local Christian schools that are heard of in public school.
If you do leave, I hope you will write to the administration and let them know why.
I taught in private Catholic schools for three years. I loved it.
I don’t see that there’s any harm in simply looking into it, since you don’t necessarily have to accept the job. More information about the private school would help you have a better idea of whether or not you should stay at your current job.
I’ll take “phrases I never expected to hear” for $1000.
Very true. Male teachers tend to be less suited to the emotional demands of elementary grades (particularly the primary grades K-3). Be that as it may, they are needed more now than ever, as families in our society become increasingly fragmented by divorce and out-of-wedlock birth.
I feel like critical context is missing from your post. You identify 5 specific things that are driving this decision, but of them only the third one sounds like it’s “new”, but even that just seems like this week’s flavor of leftism.
Why are you asking this question today?
I mean, I’m in my early thirties, and I remember public school (as a student, in Massachusetts) as largely being intolerant to white male conservatives already. You have over 20 years of experience in this kind of environment already, so you were clearly able to cope with that until recently. What exactly changed?
I think if you can answer that, you’ll find your answer on what to do.
I say punch out PH. It’s a hostile environment and you could lose your job. Go to a place you can really influence the kids and spread salt and light through that and as much as possible across all other areas of your life. Prayers out.
I think male teachers are critically important these days to small boys. That said, I have great respect for male teachers who willing to risk all they have to teach kids who need them.
I followed the case of a male middle school teacher in California who was accused of sexual misbehavior by two girls. The fact that it was two made it more credible. He was finally acquitted after what must have been a nightmare. After the acquittal the girls admitted they made up the story to get even for being scolded because they refused to dress for gym.
Fair question, certainly. Yesterday I had to sit through the latest mandatory district in-service regarding “cultural competency” and I realized that:
a) I’m sick of being treated like I’m a disease that has to be “cured”, and
b) I have serious doubts that I can make a positive difference in changing the glide-path the district is on currently.
Last week my wife forwarded the private school job posting mentioned above. So, it seems like a good time to ask the question.