Skip the fruit cake, Target gift card and cookies. Just leave me my rights.

Ever since I first became a teacher, my reaction to holiday gifts from students and their families has been decidedly mixed.

I would be a real jerk not to appreciate the thought.

I’m not. And I do.

Early on I would get lots of home-made baked good.

Iffy. Know what I mean?

But as the community changed and we got more working moms, the gifts changed to lots of gift cards. Target, Einstein’s, Starbucks (a lot of Starbucks) and even Seven Eleven.

I stop for coffee at Einstein’s every morning, so I use those. There’s a teacher in the building who will take some of the others to a homeless shelter. I think the idea of handing out Starbucks cards at a homeless shelter is pretty cool.

The truth is that most years a simple card saying they appreciate what I do would be fine (And, of course, I hope they actually feel that way).

Not this year.

What I would like this year are my rights.

At this moment, the Springfield bunch are planning to take away my right to strike (which our local has used only once), my existing limited tenure rights, my seniority rights and my right to a locally negotiated process for performance reviews.

Instead of a Target gift card, a note to your General Assembly representatives opposing all this would be a very appreciated holiday gift.

In this season of holiday social events, I am the target of lots of questions about tenure and seniority and the ability to fire teachers.

Merry Christmas!

I once was greeted by the news that I was an Art teacher with a smile and “Wow! That’s sounds like fun!”

Now people want to discuss tenure and seniority issues.

For the record, public school tenure looks nothing like what people imagine. It is not life-time job security. Teachers can always be fired for cause. In our district, the union and the Board have constructed a road map for firing bad teachers.

It rarely is used because most bad teachers don’t survive the four years of probationary status they must go through before being awarded tenure. The difference between being tenured and non-tenured is that non-tenured teachers can be fired without cause. They just don’t get asked back.

In fact, most teachers don’t survive, period. Out of 100 college students entering a four-year teacher certification program, less than 10% are still in the classroom long enough to be awarded tenure.

The attack on seniority is even more of a scam.

To buy into the reformy theory of abolishing seniority you must: A. Believe that this is more than just a way to get rid of higher paid teachers. B. That senior teachers are less knowledgeable and less skillful than younger ones.

You must believe that the longer you do something the worse you get at it. How does that work for you in the rest of your life.

I mean, how do you like dealing with that kid at Kinko’s?

So, happy holidays. Thanks for the cards. Write to Springfield.

Meanwhile, for a couple of days I will be enjoying being with my family.

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