Tenure

Tenure. The word every teacher longs to hear. But is tenure ruining our educational system? I do not know about you, but I have had several teachers who suffer from that fatal disease known as Tenure-Induced Laziness Syndrome (TILS, for short). These are the teachers who no longer bother with a real lesson plan, assign grades seemingly at random, and never actually seem to work. They have “office hours” but are never actually seen in their offices. Admit it, you know exactly the teachers I am talking about. But are they the exception or the rule?
Reading articles by teachers like Herbert Kohl, I find that some teachers with tenure work harder than before. Now that they have tenure, they feel that they are free to explore options beyond the accepted norms. Teachers like Kohl are constantly pushing the boundaries of education and opening new pathways. Would we find new answers in education if teachers were not free to explore?
In the end, it is a hard question to answer. Really, I think it comes down to the character of the teachers. Some teachers use tenure to push boundaries and benefit their students with new ways of teaching. They see tenure as a license to use set curriculum as merely a guideline on the path to education – a chance to truly shape education and help their students learn. Other teachers see tenure as a permanent vacation. This is best seen in a quote by someone I know going into education. He told me, “I can’t wait to get tenure. Then I can cancel class occasionally during hunting and fishing season.” I would like to believe that he was just joking, but I have had some teachers who make me think that he was telling the truth.
So, what is the answer? Is tenure a fabulous institution that allows us to explore new ideas and innovative new styles of teaching, or is it the cause of the breakdown in our educational system? I tend towards the former opinion, but I also believe that I will be the kind of teacher who breaks boundaries and refuses to conform to set curriculums. There are those who would argue that I am the kind of tenured teacher who causes the most problems. Some people would prefer the TILS teachers because at least they follow the rules. But if everyone follows the rules, how are we to discover anything new?