By Anonymous
Filed Tuesday, January 10 at 9:54 AM
by Disgusted teachers who must remain anonymous
The word is out in many of the St. Louis Public Schools! "Make sure your closet is clean and ALL children's coats and book bags are hung on hooks". "Dr. Williams is visiting schools and all he wants to see is if your desk is clean and if the above is accomplished"!
Williams, superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools, has visited schools this first week back after the Holidays and is looking for cleanliness - he is not interested in instruction or whether the class is engaged in learning - NOPE - he is looking for CLEAN and NEAT classrooms. We would like to see any research showing the correlation between a neat room and high student achievement. Does a neat room mean the teacher is doing a great job?
This is so ridiculous, it's sad! Teachers have been told to stop teaching so they can tidy up. Several teachers had to interrupt their lessons while Williams was in their classroom to straighten up the offending area he pointed out! Williams is not interested in commenting on the excellent lessons he has "inadvertently" observed (while he was searching for dust particles or untidy closets). Yes folks - our supreme leader is on the hunt for dastardly dirt! Yup - he's going to fix our schools all right!
This is disheartening to say the least. We had four days of school this week. Report cards are due today (Friday), and we are involved with the business of TEACHING - not CLEANING!!! If our rooms are somewhat disorderly, perhaps that is because we are busy using every meaningful manipulative or materials we can get our hands on. We don't feel it is in the best interest of our children to clean and tidy up during school hours with our students. This time is for teaching!
Perhaps Williams should stop being a neat freak and start looking at the real problems facing our children. There seems to be such a huge emphasis on surface appearances. We suppose the Administration and some Board Members think that if you print an expensive, glossy brochure, put in lots of photos of smiling children, and hire slick PR people to use just the right words, the people will believe it. And if our classrooms are tidy, that means we have everything we need (except a decent curriculum), and the students are doing great. We're not dumb. We will get the word out to our parents and anyone who will listen. We do not need a superintendent that is just full of wind and bluster - using the rousing catch words that are so often found in his sermons (er speeches).
We need real leadership in this District. Many of us love and care about the St. Louis Public Schools. Many of us have worked hard, long, hours for many years to help our children. Williams insults every teacher in the District by coming in classrooms and sniffing around with the white glove test. Look at us - look at what we are doing! We are teaching children in difficult situations! Do you even care a little? If you did, it seems you would be human enough to pat a teacher on the back and tell them they are doing a fine job - that you enjoyed their lesson - that their students seem on task, engaged, and well behaved. Instead, all we hear is that our desks need to be neater. Why in the world can't you ask us how things are going, if we need anything, if we have any suggestions, etc.
Mr. Clean (we mean Williams) needs to focus his attention on what we teachers are doing with our students - not how clean and neat we keep our classroom. What in the world is he thinking?
We are sick of the insults and the insensitivity toward teachers! Get out of the way if you don't want to help us help the children. If you don't want to get down on the floor with us and try to reach these children - get out of the way! We don't have time to waste - get out of our way and let us teach!
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