<p>I wholeheartedly agree with you on this, Weatherby. While the experiences I’ve outlined above make me understand on a very personal level why teachers need unions, the way that a handful of losers can take advantage of the system has always angered me. It is my sense from within that I’m not alone in that feeling, and that the slippery slope, protectionist attitude that shelters those incompetent and sometimes outright cruel teachers is something that is rapidly slipping away as older teachers age out and are replaced as the heads of the big unions. Again, the city of Pittsburgh stands as a good example of this. </p>
<p>In a good school, teachers are accountable to both their administrators (who have the right to build a case against them) AND their union leadership, who don’t like a bad apple spoiling the whole basket. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in school systems (with the exception of the first, inner city school where I interned) with administrators willing to put in the work needed to sort the wheat from the chaff–and faculty and administrators who screen applicants well enough at the beginning that they’re much less likely to end up with the bullies and lazies. </p>
<p>On the other side, I know of a teacher who was falsely accused of sexually harassing a teenage girl who wanted to get back at him for failing her. His life will never be the same, despite being cleared of charges. Still, that teenager’s abuse of power arises from policies designed to protect teenagers who were treated as you once were. </p>
<p>All of which makes me feel pretty awful about the dark side of human nature…</p>