Just wanted to set the tone of this article with a clear definition of the two descriptive words used in its title.
Serfdom:
1.
a person in a condition of servitude, required to render services to a lord, commonly attached to the lord's land and transferred with it from one owner to another.
2.
a slave.
Discrimination:
1.
an act or instance of discriminating.
2.
treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit: racial and religious intolerance and discrimination.
3.
the power of making fine distinctions; discriminating judgment: She chose the colors with great discrimination.
4.
Archaic. something that serves to differentiate.
In the great state of Texas we have an education system that resembles that of a feudal caste system with regards to our teachers. When reviewed and matched up to other states Texas teachers receive some of the lowest pay and benefits with ever increasing expectations placed upon them. Rights of the students and the current train wreak called TAKS testing have further pushed the ranks of teachers to a new low. Tell me where in society do we have a specific group of state workers whose job impacts our states future and who are treated with such distain? Teachers no more........lets just call them educational serfs.
The lords in this diatribe would be the Texas state legislature and its spineless king Perry. Harsh words you say but lets review some of the issues at hand. As reported in an earlier blog entry, Governor Rick Perry vetoed some key funding that allowed simple merit raises and benefits within the state college systems. I am not going to get into the facts as they are listed below, but the bottom line was for political issues with total discrimination towards our teachers. Using the definition listed in line two for discrimination focused on the category of teachers. After an impressive grass roots upheaval the powers at be relented and even pushed for more funding. I personally have a foul taste in my mouth when we as an electorate allow politics to interfere with our educational system. My in-laws are retired state educational serfs. One from the college level and the other from the high school system. Both have advanced degrees and 30 plus years of experience that would equal or surpass a Director or VP position in a fortune 500 company. They devoted their lives to teaching us with the expected benefit of bettering others lives and in full knowledge that retirement would be hard.
Why then I ask you do we allow our elected legislature to continually meddle with the states educational system for political reasons............not educational?
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The author of “Two Wasted Votes Will Get Me Eight Wasted Years” writes of a topic that flummoxes me every time I give the subject consideration. It is claimed in the nicely titled blog “State of Texas Education System: Forced Serfdom with a Touch of Discrimination,” that anyone that enters into the education workforce is handing over their freedom of ever becoming independently rich beyond their dreams and, at the same time, they will ultimately be the “fall guy” when certain test scores are not achieved. Teachers can forget about such sarcasm as being rich beyond their dreams and move on to considering if their retirement will be non-existent or if it consist of wearing a blue vest, greeting and counting people with a metal clicker at Wal-Mart.
Teachers receive more scrutiny, and sometimes disdain, from their superiors, peers, and parents of students that need to blame something or someone else for the shortcomings of their kids. I do not think that teachers should not be monitored or that they should be exempt from a little constructive criticism. However, being a son of a teacher, a stepson of a teacher, and a fiancé of third year teacher, I know from personal experience that their workdays rarely end early, and they receive more than a little monitoring, criticism, and blame.
The "State of Texas..." blog author appropriately addresses that the responsibility which befalls this job is so proportionally out of whack to its benefits and the consideration people give to it, it makes one wonder why anyone would volunteer for such a tough racket. The author clearly recognizes the teacher's plight and rightfully takes aim at the one in charge, Rick Perry. Excellent points are made. There must be a huge positive shift in public teacher appreciation, starting with increased wages or more widespread respect. If it is not obvious that more is needed, maybe everyone should live with one for awhile, or worse, three.
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