[Vision2020] Retiring MHS Teacher Speaks from the Heart

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (May 3, 2011) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

SIDEWALK SERIES: Retiring with questions looming: Outgoing MHS teachers
worry about direction of public schools

By Devin Rokyta, Daily News Staff Writer

With retirement roughly one month away, Moscow High School teachers Marcia
Cooke and Karla Harman won't be in the classroom when Idaho's newly passed
education reforms are implemented in schools across the state.

That doesn't mean they don't have strong feelings about the direction of
Idaho public schools and the nation's educational system in general.

"My fear is we're going to charter schools and private schools, and we'll
just have an incredible caste system where the rich can afford a good
school and the rest cannot. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,"
Harman said. "That's not what we're all about, public education is to
teach everyone and we are moving away from that, becoming very elitist."

The reforms in Idaho that have the two teachers so concerned were proposed
by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and recently signed into
law by the governor. In essence, the legislation strips teachers of
certain collective bargaining privileges, implements a merit pay system
and reduces teacher base salaries in order to fund technological upgrades
for classrooms.

"We were told (by Luna) education was doing well and elect me again
because we are doing such great things, and then this thing happened,"
Harman said.

Cooke characterized the reforms "as a vicious attack on teachers."

"That's the way I feel," she said.

Harman, who has more than 30 years of teaching experience, including 25 at
MHS as a wellness instructor, and Cooke, who has taught drama, speech and
English at MHS for 28 years, worry the reforms and the seemingly annual
budget cuts could ultimately mean the end of physical education, drama and
other elective programs - the same ones that inspired them to enter the
profession.

Harman, 55, attended high school before Title IX was implemented, banning
sex discrimination in schools in academics and athletics. Teaching
physical education has allowed her to participate in the sports she missed
out on in her early life. Cooke, 63, whose parents were both teachers, was
drawn to theater as a young child when her father would direct school
plays. She eventually determined teaching and directing others was just as
rewarding as doing it herself.

But now they feel those programs at MHS and throughout the state are at risk.

Both teachers also are concerned about the prospect of using technology to
replace teachers, and they said they worry students will spend more time
"socializing" with a screen than with their peers and instructors.
According to Department of Education estimates, Luna's reforms will
eliminate the jobs of about 770 teachers over the next five years. The
money saved will partly be used to introduce more technology into
classrooms, namely providing each ninth-grader in the state with a laptop,
which will be used for online courses.

"We see a huge difference in the kids who spend a lot of time in front of
a computer and the kids who don't. The kids are proficient, both of them,
but the kids who go home and are on the computer all the time are less
social," Harman said.

Cooke added she fears the state or school districts may next elect to cut
back on a history or English teacher, and instead cram 200 students in an
auditorium and show an online course.

Cooke has yet to decide what she will do in her retirement, but said
because of her "restless nature" she will likely participate in some form
of community theater.

Harmon, who recently won a bout with breast cancer, said she plans to take
it easy, possibly volunteer for a cause or travel with her newfound free
time.

While both acknowledge they'll miss the classroom setting, neither will
miss the problems created by politicians in Boise.

"Every January it's just so discouraging and demoralizing. Most
legislators go to Boise and start bashing us, and this year was worse than
others. It will be nice to not have to pay attention to that," Harman
said.

But there's also the nice side of teaching, the side spent with the
students - the side they'll miss.

"My inclination when all this stuff happens with the Legislature is to get
in my room and hang out with the kids," Harman said, "that's not crazy
like the Legislature sometimes seems to be."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

“It should be recognised that the proper status of teachers and due public
regard for the profession of teaching are of major importance.”

- UNESCO (Art. 5 of 1996 Recommendation)