Teaching is becoming expensive for teachers when there’s no budget

“Teaching is becoming expensive for teachers when there’s no budget” read my Facebook friend’s wall post. He was buying an adaptor cable to show YouTube clips from his I-pod on a TV. I thought that’s great – it’s cheaper than DVDs and you have it for your own use too. But then someone posted that they were contemplating buying a video projector because the school couldn’t afford one.

Since I like to have money to do things like... pay my bills – I flung myself into this debate. I posted: “I'd never spend so much for school unless I was being directly compensated. It's time districts/ministries started valuing the work we do rather than assume we are going to sacrificingly make up for the inadequacies of a system that undervalues its teachers not to mention students”

People on-line did not like that.

To paraphrase the next 5 posts: “We shouldn’t need to pay out of pocket but we do it because it’s good for the kids. If you don’t get what you think is needed students suffer because you can’t do the best possible job. Unfortunately it’s part of the job, but teachers who spend on their classroom take pride in having quality materials for students and parents appreciate it.”

I doubt you’d find a doctor bringing in her own personal supply of gauze, disinfectant and syringes for her shift in the emergency ward - in addition to the defibrillator she bought yesterday since the hospital didn’t have enough. How is it any less ridiculous when teachers do it?

It’s for the kids. I’ve said it before. I’m sure you have too. We’re not heartless – we’re teachers! But before we wax sentimental about why we went into teaching let’s ask a critical question. When we say “it’s for the kids” – which kids are we talking about?

Is it the kids of the teacher who has the economic and social positioning to be able to essentially donate her money (and often time) for her students? What about the kids of the teacher who can’t? Are we saying that such a teacher doesn’t take pride in having quality materials for her students? That her students should settle for an inadequately funded classroom? Even if she can afford it – should she?

While we are fortunate to have autonomy in our classrooms they are not “our” classrooms. The classroom and teacher are embedded within a larger system tied to social, political and economic realities. That system has a mandate – to educate the future of the province. It is not like donating your time or money to a non-profit which does good works with kids. The ministry is not a charity. When we take it upon ourselves to make up for the inadequacies of the system, we enable it to get away with not fulfilling its mandate.

This article originally appeared in the BCTF 'Teacher Magazine': http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/TeacherNewsmag/archive/2009-2010/2009-11/index.pdf