In the News
For Teacher Appreciation Week, MƒA President John Ewing reflects on how we currently “appreciate” teachers and how we should take real action to show genuine appreciation. In his opinion piece in the Huffington Post, Dr. Ewing examines the way our country treats teachers, arguing that conversations about education often leave educators out of the discussion and that true appreciation means we must treat our teachers like the trusted professionals they are.
Below are some excerpts from the article, “Appreciating Teachers.” Wishing all of our outstanding MƒA teachers, as well as all teachers across the country, a Happy Teacher Appreciation Week. We are committed to you and we’re working tirelessly to change the way we talk about teachers and the teaching profession:
When it comes to talking or writing about education, we do not view teachers as experts. We do not trust them as professionals. Can you imagine an engineering conference without engineers as speakers? Can you imagine a science article with no input from scientists? Or a report on some breakthrough in medicine without a quote from a doctor? We treat the profession of teaching differently from all others.
The teaching profession needs two things in order to thrive—respect and trust. The two go together. You can say nice words and be grateful to teachers, but if you do not trust them as professionals, you are not showing them respect. Trust means giving teachers (appropriate) autonomy in their classrooms, but it also means giving them influence over policy—real influence, not a few token teachers on some committee—and it means giving them control over their own professional growth. We need to stop fixing teachers and create environments in which teachers themselves fix their own profession. We need to trust them to do so.
Read Dr. Ewing’s entire piece on the Huffington Post website.