April 14, 2009
Your teacher pay check stub ever make you weep? Mine did yesterday, but not for the reason you might think.
I’m deeply aware– some might say obsessively so– about the moral dimension of teaching. Far more than irregular verbs or how to construct an engaging summative paragraph, I work to teach my students how literature can help ask and answer the questions that make living meaningful. And then I kind of kill myself trying to model such living in my own behavior, with varying degrees of success.
Why? Middle school kids notice. In fact, they have an eagle eye for justice that many adults lose. They notice when I slough something off, break a promise, or unintentionally flout my own rules, and have no compunction about calling me out. Some teachers call this disrespect, but I encourage and treasure it. The kids keep me sane and honest, especially when I feel the habit of rigor that they inspire, spilling– necessarily, I believe– into extracurricular areas. Ultimately, I can never forget that my integrity may be the only promise of consistency that some of these kids see. (Thanks, Kant. Some days I wish I never met you.)
So in this spirit, I committed personally to a strict adherence to contract regarding my paid leave use. This depleted my bank of personal days, while leaving a substantial bank of sick days untouched– and unusable for family emergencies. Imagine, then, my reaction yesterday to the fallout from the fact that I had to take nearly four days of unpaid leave in order to be with my dying parent.
(For you rule-mongers out there, The National Family Leave Act only legislates unpaid leave; and in my district, sick time may not be used in its place.)
I don’t publicize this as some kind of “how great I am” moment, or a snotty revenge against my HR department. I hold no grudges there; they’re just doing their jobs. Nor do I mean to whine about the lost money, although this is undeniably part of the steep price I am paying now.
Rather I remain reeling– as usual– in the moral realm; stunned at the message of a system that punishes me– never mind the folks not as luckily endowed with benefits– so swiftly and concretely, for doing the right thing.
And the first thing I wonder is, “How am I going to prepare my students for this inevitable disappointment? How will I ever begin to help them understand?” Because for some of them, an experience like this has the potential to knock them clean out of principled living forever, and make no mistake.
Anyone have some suggestions for pre-teen fiction where the protagonist is left at the end with only the satisfaction of a clear conscience?
“What is honesty worth?” my students ask. They ask this, explicitly and implicitly, every day. My answer today is tangible, secret, and unsatisfactory. It is not the touching and uselessly ephemeral Mastercard sentiment: “It’s priceless.” Today, honesty is worth a tired teacher, some tears, and eight hundred and thirty-nine dollars.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Aren’t social systems great? And we have it better than most in this country. I always love it when parents have to take “sick” days for the birth of a child. It’s a symptom of the dysfunction of a much larger rotten moral structure. We value all the wrong things in this country.
At least you can look yourself in the mirror every day. That’s beyond the limits of mere economics.
As for the kids, I have a helmet in my room that says “LIFE IS HARD”. Now, let’s get on with it.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Powerful, Dina. And Joe’s right.
For what it’s worth, I hope you’ll keep your chin up. You can give hope to the rising generation that no one else can. I know I appreciate your efforts and suspect that they do, too (even if their words might suggest otherwise).
April 14th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
We all need faith. Faith that we can change the world for the better. Faith that caring matters.
I have stood on the cliffs of Dover looking out across to France, and I have climbed the stairs at St. Paul’s cathedral. I have read the story of Fred Banting’s research and the fourteen cows of the Masai after 9/11. Tell your students some stories from those pages.
And the loss of a parent should merit more care and support from your district. I am sorry more burdens were added to an already trying time.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:55 am
I just wrote a very long, heartfelt comment and it was rejected by edublogs because it contained “a word indicating a lifelong loan on a house” of which I cannot speak b/c I’ll be rejected again. I’ll try to find the time to re-write my other comment though! This was a really powerful piece for me…….
April 15th, 2009 at 9:43 am
This seems like it is a moral issue to you, but to me it is a political one. Why should citizens of democracies accept inhuman systems? Why should employees with the right to organize accept inhuman regulations?
There is plenty of fiction where the protagonist is left with nothing but the feeling of having done the right thing. I don’t think it’s appropriate in this case.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Hey, I am not sure Robert Cormier’s “The Chocolate War” is pre-teen enough but his “Tunes For Bears To Dance To” certainly is. They both deal with honesty and reality. If you haven’t read Cormier give him a try, one of my favorite authors as a kid and books I keep around my classroom now.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:39 am
I’ve had to miss work for a few things that weren’t illnesses, and I was basically not allowed to use my personal days, even though that’s what I requested. It felt dirty, but I’ve learned in the past few years that this is why. I’ve never really used all my days of leave…so I guess it hasn’t made a difference for me or my employer’s bottom line yet.
Still…how did we come to accept a society where there are just some times when everyone is required to lie? I guess it happened when we started accepting employers who put $800 at a higher importance than honest employees.
I still feel dirty…does my HR department?
April 15th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
I have to agree with Simon here – I’d use this as jumping off point to discuss the injustices that exist in this world and that they will/have already faced.
The fact of the matter is the world is not fair, just, etc and bringing in a real, personal example of this and talking about it (What your options are, can you bring about change and eliminate this injustice, etc) in a structured setting could be very beneficial. I think many students can feel that they do not have any control in their lives and that they are simply at the mercy of “authority” and this could help change their ideas as well as give them some problem solving strategies for when they encounter it in their own lives.
But this is just my take on the situation based on the students/communities I work with. Some students could take the lesson as an excuse for breaking all rules or a myriad of other outcomes so as always, your mileage may vary
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April 16th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Under the circumstances, it seems an appropriate response to the real issue would be a real-world hug and taking your family out to dinner. Instead, I’ll just pile ideas on ideas, as if there were comfort in that (as there just might be if you share some traits with Pascal, who’d distract himself from his toothache by doing math – or so the story goes).
I immediately agree with the commenter above who classifies this as a political issue as opposed to a moral issue, except that reclassifying the issue as political doesn’t make it less a moral one, for reasons that I think bring us back to the notion of “moral luck.” What’s nice about the Scandinavian style welfare state is not only that it does right by its citizens by ensuring that basic needs are met, but also that it makes it easier for its citizens to do right themselves. The security afforded by a welfare state immensely simplifies moral decisions such as choosing a lower-paid job if the job involves doing more good, deciding whether or not to bring a disabled child into the world, deciding whether or not to report one’s employer’s contempt for emissions regulations, and figuring out whether or not to take time off to take care of a parent in need. A state that relieves its citizens of financial worry makes them more free in making moral choices.
Doing right is in many ways a privilege, being unable to another mode of deprivation, as seems most strikingly clear when looking at crime stats for low-income neighborhoods. I’d venture that religious people are expressing something along these lines whenever they say that their being virtuous is “by the grace of God.” What the implications might be for what and how to teach teenagers about honesty, integrity and the like, I do not know (sometimes I am glad I just teach math!) Thinking along these lines might, however, be quite useful in teaching lessons about judging others.
After writing this I actually checked out the commenter I’d so readily agreed with above, and found… that he was Norwegian
April 17th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
There are times in life when doing the right thing will bring you nothing but a bitter taste in your mouth. This is a difficult issue to raise with students, but one of those times when great literature and film are our best tools. This was what Dina was writing about, I suppose, but the nature of her example clearly raises other issues for me.
Frankly, some of the above writing shocks me. Many of you seem to accept inhumanity in systems that are supposed to be ‘by us, for us’. For those of you who do not live in democracies, I can only salute you and say that our thoughts and hopes are with you. For those of you who do live in democracies, don’t you dare teach your pupils that honesty should have a price.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Thanks so much for your insight! Trying to do the right thing is definitely not easy in our world (and so much more ironic when educators, in my case, a principal) discourages from doing so. Like you, I believe the most important thing in life is that we can walk away from everyone else except ourselves. Do the right thing so we can look ourselves in the mirror. I’m so glad there are people like yourself out there doing the right thing and more importantly, being role model for the next generation. We owe it to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and like-courageous souls for upholding integrity — walking the talk. Imagine what our world would be today if no one dare rocking the boat. Apartheid in USA — YIKES!