| Teacher’s guide to keeping a job: The view from 1971 |
| KDP member David F. Robinson was a literature teacher at North Platte Junior College in Nebraska in 1971 when he wrote what the editors of The KDP Record called a “tongue-in-cheek” mini-guide to help teachers keep their jobs. Robinson said his essay was “designed to cover the things they never told you about teaching in college” and that it was practical advice for keeping a job and for making life easier for a new teacher. “In brief, a short cut to survival,” Robinson called it (KDP Record 1971, 119). A quick checklist followed that while perhaps was intended to be tongue-in-cheek; it nonetheless revealed an image of what teachers in this era were focused on in a tumultuous social and political era. The checklist’s themes (many of which still ring familiar today) reveal Robinson’s open commitment to challenging teachers to be and do more: Be democratic Robinson advised teachers to be democratic in everything they do in the classroom. “Parents expect it, children demand it” (119). He added, “Whenever possible, give your classes a choice” on assignments, projects or assignments whether they were turned in using ink or pencil. He said doing so was good public relations and “as long as you keep the public happy, the administration will never bother you” (119). Avoid controversy Issues such as religion, morality, and race relations were hot buttons to be avoided, Robinson wrote. “A teacher is paid to teach what is in the textbook and not to meddle with his students’ ideas,” he wrote. “Parents are likely to get upset if they think what you teach might have an effect on their children’s lives” (119). If all else fails, Robinson noted, and a teacher could not avoid a controversial subject, he urged taking a neutral position. He said: “Be esoteric. Get lost in a maze of obscure details. Do a real snow job by digging up some assorted odd facts. The further you can stay from your students’ immediate world, the less trouble you are likely to have” (119). Use numbers for grading Robinson said using numbers for all graded materials would convince students there was a scientific method involved in assigning grades, and they were less likely to question their outcomes. He noted that the “real beauty of this system is that neither the students nor their parents are perceptive enough to see that the numbers themselves are subjective. Nor do they see the fallacy of averaging even objective scores to so many decimal points. In every case, your use of statistics serves as a smokescreen to obscure the issue” (119). Assign plenty of homework Parents will be impressed when their son or daughter comes home with an abundance of homework that requires a lot of study time. He said while they may complain about the lack of free time for their child, they will be convinced the teacher is earning his or her salary. Checking and assigning homework also “eats up” a lot of classroom instruction time, Robinson said, saving the teacher from too much work. He acknowledged more homework meant more grading of papers, but “you will have a lot of grades in case a parent or the principal wants to check your grade book” (120). Give factual tests frequently “Always give objective tests,” Robinson said. “They have answers which are either right or wrong, and that precludes all sorts of disputes” (120). The other advantage, he noted, was that objective tests can be graded quickly because there was no need to think about the student’s answer; it was either right or wrong. Students like tests, Robinson said, because it busies them with studying their notes and memorizing facts from the textbook, and they “will have less time to get into trouble” (120). “Students will like a class where they are not bothered with a lot of useless information they will never be tested over,” he wrote (120). Be objective Because, as Robinson said, “there is no place in a modern school for a teacher’s opinion,” teachers must stick to the facts and be completely objective. He said parents and students can become offended by a teacher’s viewpoints on issues and as a result, “students might think you are either a square or a hypocrite. Today’s students can spot a phony a mile away. Do the safest thing—just stick to the facts” (120). Support the team Robinson said teachers should learn to “forget their subject matter” when the school bell rings and not appear to be too intellectual or culturally developed less alienating their students into thinking they view teaching as more than just a job. “Let them see that teaching is only what you do for a living, and that when the bell rings you can forget it” (120). Teachers should throw away their personal lives and attend each and every extra-curricular event they can get their hands on. Students will be more receptive in this instance, he said, because they will see you’re not really interested in teaching, but are more interested in them and their activities. Develop a professional vocabulary Robinson urged teachers to “keep up on the latest professional jargon” and “cull a few choice words and phrases from your last educational course or some professional journal and sprinkle your speech with them during professional meetings or the PTA” (120). He noted that any teacher aspiring for a really good teaching job, or a job in administration, will want to use the phrase “education profession” as often as possible. “One indispensable word is ‘educator,’” Robinson wrote. “It should be carefully pronounced, however: ed-u-ca-tor. Avoid the sloppy ‘a’ pronunciation for the long ‘u.’ That would cause the public to think you do not take care with your language” (120). He ended by instructing on how to pronounce the final syllable of educator: Pronounce the final syllable as “or” instead of “the vulgar ‘er’” so that a teacher could finally, and successfully, emphasize a close tie to the most honorable of all professions: doctor, educator. |
