Fix Education by Uplifting Teachers

Charles M. Blow of the New York Times argues that while education may be failing in America, it's unfair to simply blame the teachers. Using his mother, an educator, as an example, Blow argues that during this month's National Teacher Appreciation Week Americans should uplift instructors, take a hard look at increasing their pay and support their unions because it might just solve our educational woes.

She showed me what a great teacher looked like: proud, exhausted, underpaid and overjoyed. For great teachers, the job is less a career than a calling. You don't become a teacher to make a world of money. You become a teacher to make a world of difference. But hard work deserves a fair wage.

That's why I have a hard time tolerating people who disproportionately blame teachers for our poor educational outcomes. I understand that not every teacher is a great one. But neither is every plumber, or every banker or every soldier. Why then should teachers be demonized so much?

I won't pretend to have all the policy prescriptions to address our country's educational crisis, but beating up teachers isn't the solution. We must be honest brokers in our efforts to fix a broken system.

Read Charles M. Blow's entire column at the New York Times.

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