“Let Teachers Teach” – Our District 75 Mantra

The publishing corporations shareholder profits skyrocket while the child’s cognitive learning windows slowly but inexorably shut - Its well past time city educrats Let Teachers Teach!

David Doorga is UFT Representative for District 75

When President Mulgrew spoke about ‘letting teachers teach’, it is an idea whose time has come. Again. One would think the concept is so fundamental that the importance of it would be acknowledged across the entire New York City public school system. Unbelievably, common sense continues to be a rare commodity in the Department of Education. All too often, bureaucrats who haven’t set foot in a classroom in decades seem to think that positive change can be conjured up by increasing the time devoted not only to assessments, but to the training involved in teaching our already overworked teaching staff to navigate the latest technological wizardry.

The fact is that no test has ever taught a child a single thing. Teachers teach so that children can learn. The farther the bureaucrats at the Department of Education get away from actual living, breathing, children, the less they understand that in order to LEARN something, one must be TAUGHT something. Yes, a child can learn independently, but only after they have been taught the critical skills needed, and only with the guidance and navigation of a skilled teacher. And teachers need time to teach and cultivate the young minds in their charge. Running assessments, training to run assessments, making copies of assessment documents, laminating test materials, and piecing together the bandwidth to perform these assessments is not teaching. The publishing corporations shareholder profits skyrocket while the child’s cognitive learning windows slowly but inexorably shut.

Nowhere in New York City is this more evident than in District 75. We teach the children who are challenged by the most severe Special Needs. Every one of our increasing number of students has an Individual Education Plan (IEP), a highly specialized and detailed document which can run over one hundred pages. Providing students the services mandated by their IEPs is required under federal law. Our District 75 Teachers and Related Service Providers create and implement this document, and their hard work and dedication is the reason why District 75 is the home to so many unsung miracles of progress. Every teacher and classroom team in New York City needs time to teach, and nowhere is this more evident than in District 75. To echo President Mulgrew’s rallying cry, ‘Let our Teachers Teach!’