I’ve posted before about this topic, but I wanted my readers to know that The George Lucas Foundation’s Edutopia.org has just posted my article on “The Truth About Tenure.” You can read it here.
Tenured or untenured. I hope you all feel appreciated all year long for what you do for our students, our schools, and our future.
Hope you all have a happy holidays.
-Heather Wolpert-Gawron
aka Tweenteacher
I have been interested in the ever-evolving discussion over tenure for some time now. As a career switcher I look at the issue a bit different than many of my fellow teachers. The one thing that I have focussed on is that it never seems to be a debate with any sense of resolution to any objective. Rather they tend to be more of a collection of rantings with no real end in sight…? Often times the ‘ranters’ are clearly misinformed or out to grind an axe of a different color, but felt the need to vent all the same.
I believe that as a professional community we have a stake in the debate over tenure, but there are many other stakeholders that are rarely heard. I am a strong believer in earning recognition, that way it has greater meaning to not only oneself but to all that see the value in the award. Until we organize a true debate with objectives and wieghted endstates this effort will only tend to be seen as circular and thus pointless.
Happy Holidays to all
Kevin
Puyallup WA