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01.05.2025 |
Enduring the System: A Teacher’s Guide to Survival in American Public Schools
1. Understand the System
The U.S. public education system—especially in underfunded districts—is not designed to cultivate a nurturing or supportive learning environment. Instead, it fragments key stakeholders: elected officials, district administrators, school administrators, teachers, parents, and private education companies. Each operates in survival mode, creating a culture that discourages authenticity, sincerity, collaboration, and solidarity.
2. Professional Development (PD) Days Are Performative
PD days primarily serve as a tool for district and school administrators to justify their roles rather than to address real classroom challenges. In struggling districts, administrators deliberately avoid engaging with urgent, organic issues. Instead, they present contrived scenarios and superficial solutions to maintain an illusion of effectiveness.
3. PD Surveys Are Compliance Tools
Post-PD surveys are not intended for genuine feedback but to measure compliance. These surveys are structured to elicit positive responses, leaving no room for real critique. The safest approach is to respond as if you found the PD session highly effective, regardless of its actual value. Attempting to challenge or outsmart the system is futile.
4. Teacher Evaluations Are a Power Play
Teacher evaluations can be manipulative and demoralizing. During pre- and post-observation meetings, it is advisable to make administrators feel competent and valued. Even if their feedback is superficial and unhelpful, presenting yourself as eager for their guidance can minimize conflict and reduce stress. Not all, but most administrators come from a background of poor teaching practice.
5. The System Prioritizes Optics Over Outcomes
In underfunded districts, education is largely performative. Government officials, education departments, district leaders, and administrators do not genuinely expect high academic achievement from students living in poverty. Their primary focus is maintaining appearances rather than addressing systemic inequities. If you genuinely challenge injustice and inequality at school, you are essentially swimming against the current and should expect administrative pushback and retaliation.
6. Most Administrators Were Ineffective Teachers
Many administrators transitioned out of teaching because they struggled in the classroom. Do not assume they were once great educators with strong pedagogical skills, a deep understanding of education, or a commitment to justice and fairness. Their primary role is public relations—promoting policies and initiatives, regardless of their personal beliefs. Many are insecure and thrive on hierarchical power dynamics. To avoid unnecessary conflict, make them feel superior.
7. Teaching in Poor Schools Will Change You
Even if you enter the profession as a passionate and intellectual educator, teaching in underfunded schools can be disillusioning. Systemic dysfunction, hypocrisy, and superficiality dominate these environments. Over time, you may realize that meaningful change is nearly impossible, leading many teachers to become passive, disengaged, and resigned to their roles as glorified babysitters.
8. Unspoken Rules Matter More Than Official Policies
In struggling schools, unwritten rules often carry more weight than official policies. Understanding them quickly is crucial. For instance, there is often an unspoken expectation that no more than 20% of students in a class should fail. Exceeding this threshold can lead to administrative scrutiny, job insecurity, and professional isolation.
Similarly, no matter the level of student misbehavior or disruption, if you send students to the office more than once a week, you risk being placed on an unofficial “troublemaker” list. It is often safer to find ways to manage difficult students within the classroom.
At the end of the day, you are often seen not as an educator but as a glorified babysitter.
9. Superficiality is the Norm
In underfunded schools and districts, when something goes wrong, never expect the issue to be handled with care, honesty, professionalism, ethics, or justice. Always remember: no matter how strong your case is, as a teacher you will likely be the first to be blamed, punished, or discarded. If you choose to defend yourself and escalate the issue, prepare for serious and repeated challenges and retaliations. Support will be scarce; competent teachers and staff rarely stay long in struggling schools. Most of the staff lack of principle and character and courage: they cannot sustain a thoughtful and argument-based conversation longer than five minutes. They can easily be manipulated and used by admin. Sad, but true.
10. Despite It All: Choosing Authenticity
Despite all the realities outlined above, if you continue to teach in poor schools and strive to remain an authentic, caring, and intellectually engaged teacher, you face a constant struggle.
It is a daily choice to stand on the side of emancipation and liberation, rather than become a cog in the machine of oppression.
Edward Allen
May 1, 2025 / California
