Roy Exum
In the past week there have been two separate shooting incidents, both within two hours of Chattanooga, that beg our attention. In Knoxville, Tn., and Huntsville, Ala., the shooters were both teachers, hired to educate and mold our young.
This past Wednesday, moments after he had been told his contract would not be renewed, fourth-grader teacher Mark Foster, age 48, shot the principal and the assistant principal at Knoxville's Inskip Elementary School. One is in serious condition, while the other will hopefully be released from the hospital today.
On Friday, Amy Bishop, a 42-year-old neurobiology professor who had just been denied tenure by the chairman of her department at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, went to a departmental staff meeting and killed three fellow professors, wounding three more.
Now before the gun-control advocates get in a twist, let's be real honest and admit that a gun is simply a tool. The much-deeper problem is that as we struggle to improve our education process, it needs to be recognized that T-CAP scores and truancy and nutritional lunches are valid concerns, but another is that there are some who teach who should not.
In my conversations with educators, I am always intrigued over the fact that as they tell me about the genuine love they have for teaching, for being so instrumental in the magic of watching "that light come on" in a student's noggin, they seem to always mourn the fact there are some of their fellow teachers who obviously don't belong in the same building.
One of the worst maladies that can befall a kid is having a bad teacher. During my time I can look back at the ones who stoked my fire and the other ones who tried to put it out. As much as I adore the "true" teachers, I worry about those calloused ones, those whose fire has also gone out, and what delicate steps we are going to have to take to root them out of the classroom.
Not long ago I was talking to a veteran politician and I asked him the greatest problem in education today. He answered in one word: "Tenure." It has been said that "tenure," which is basically guaranteed employment, is stronger than a half-dozen union contracts combined. Because of it, schools and universities notably suffer, whether you want to admit it or not.
I think a faculty should be like any other business. I think those on faculty should hold their position based on merit and results. On the other hand, length-of-service should mean nothing. If a longtime professor reflects the wisdom and brilliance that only a life of teaching can forge, he should be revered. But if someone has been on the same faculty for 15 years and has become a dragging anchor instead of a billowing sail, put 'em to pasture with the rest of the mules.
I think the focus of any educational endeavor should be the people it produces. The kids come first. Sadly we have so burdened our teachers with senseless paperwork and bureaucracy that theirs is now a 12-hour workday without the pay to show for it. Some of our best minds are avoiding being teachers because we refuse to pay them what they deserve, not to mention what their skills will better bring in a different workplace.
I am excited about Governor Phil Bredesen's education initiative and let's include former Senator Bill Frist's efforts in tackling why Tennessee is 44th in the nation when it comes to educating our young. But in our push for strong test results, let's not forget that often education isn't accompanied by a decimal point and, as America's "family values" slip, we are asking our schools to be much more on "the developmental side" of life.
If you'll read about the Knoxville shooter, you'll find he has spent time in several mental hospitals, that he has been banned from the Waffle House in Clinton because of his atomic temper, and that his own mother requested he not attend her funeral. Hello? Who hired this yoyo?
Our Huntsville professor has a Harvard stamp on her pedigree and was active in stem-cell research, but when the department chairman denied her tenure, there had to be a reason that she soon went ballistic. What was it? Perhaps if somebody had noticed the red flag and looked into the matter, Dr. Gopi Podila, who headed UAH's Biological Sciences, might be alive right now.
Please, it's easy to second-guess a tragedy. Hindsight only comes in 20/20. But if I was keen on overhauling education, I would ask our administrators to take a hard inward look because, as any teacher today will tell you, there are some with grade-books who hardly need to be in a classroom.
royexum@aol.com