Reflective Writing #3

"The City Is Searching For Education's Holy Grail" By:Marc Epstein, dean of students at Jamaica High School.

(Note:This is not the whole article)

Both the mayor and schools Chancellor Joel Klein have called for more productivity from the teachers in exchange for a new contract.UFT head Randi Weingarten has argued that teachers, who have been without a contract for more than two years, deserve more than faint praise for improved student performance.
One of the main issues for the Bloomberg administration is the placement of teachers. Negotiators at City Hall want to end seniority rights, since they dictate that teachers with the most time in the system get their pick of openings if they wish to transfer schools. Since many senior teachers are considered deadwood by the Department of Education, why should they be rewarded with placement in our best schools?
Having the flexibility to place the best teachers in the worst schools to turn them around is education's equivalent of the search for the Holy Grail or the Fountain of Youth.Aside from being of questionable efficacy, it could also be punitive, given the length of the daily commute for many of our teachers.Take a teacher who commutes from Suffolk County to Queens: Order that teacher to Staten Island, and you guarantee that the teacher will leave the system.

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