Whine, whine, whine. This story’s all about a young teacher who doesn’t like his job, but for all the wrong reasons.
“Teaching is an undignified, unglamorous profession,” Mr. Plaks, a 27-year-old Harvard University graduate, said the other day. “It’s been a big negative factor for me.”
Mr. Plaks imagined himself at a party with his college classmates, now lawyers and investment bankers. “‘Hi, I’m Eric Plaks; I’m from P.S. 192,’ is not going to inspire fear in most people,” he said. “It’s neither a famous school, nor an excellent school.”
Sure, teachers have a lot to complain about, but I hardly think the self-worth issues of Ivy Leaguers is in the top 300. This story doesn’t pass the smell test. There’s absolutely no evidence here for the story’s main point (“By all accounts, the teaching profession is at a crossroads”) — how about naming one of those accounts? Was this guy the reporter’s friend from college? This unfocused crap shouldn’t be in the New York Times.
3 thoughts on “crappy new york times story on teachers”
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Uh, if he wanted glamour, someone should have directed him toward the Jean Paul Gaultier runway. He’s got a point about the undignified part, though — until we reverse our society’s perverted system of financial rewards, education will continue its of-late trend of attracting undignified employees. Like Mr. Plaks.
I was just annoyed that the story posited some Glorious Past when all graduates of Harvard, Yale, etc. went to work in inner-city schools, some “trend” that’s now been reversed. That past never existed. I’d bet that more Harvardites teach in disadvantaged schools now than at any time in the past. But if the author is waiting for a time when teaching will be as lucrative or impressive to college peers as a partnership in Hughes Luce LLP, she’s asking the wrong questions.
Is this because you went to Yale?
I know teachers are not appreciated enough, but what did this guy expect? A high profile job in the public school system? If he was starting a career looking for glamour, he should have chosen another profession. People don’t get into teaching for fame. Well, the ones on Fame did, but not anyone else….