Should Bad Teachers Be Banned To Rubber Rooms?”

By Leonard Brown, Ph.D.

On October 24th, FOX News reporter Jamie Colby interviewed me regarding the NYC Rubber Rooms. The following comments were written and posted on her blog at: http://colbyfiles.blogs.foxnews.com/2007/10/24/should-bad-teachers-be-banned-to-rubber-rooms/#comments.
I encourage everyone to post comments on her blog. As Ms. Colby told me: "EVERYONE should post. You can use a "nickname" but unless all the teachers add there comments how can things change?"

I don’t want bad teachers in the system anymore than you want them. The problem is, how do you define a “Bad Teacher” especially in this Reign of Terror that has been fostered by Klein and Bloomberg?

I don’t think you would find one teacher from my school who knows me who would say that I’m a bad teacher. From what I can see in the Rubber Rooms, its true of many there as well. How does a former Teacher of the Year (David Pakter) decorated personally by Former Mayor Gulliani end up in a Rubber Room? Is a teacher a “Bad Teacher” if they put on their makeup incorrectly, or if they pat a student on the shoulder to reassure them during a test, or if they are thrown in a Rubber Room by a vindictive principal for trying to expose corruption in their school?

Of course there are totally unacceptable behaviors by a teacher; statutory rape, sexual violation, physical abuse of any kind, racism of any kind. But what about the one emotionally disturbed student or faculty member who falsely accuses a teacher because he/she has some personal vendetta against that teacher. If I arbitrarily accuse you of being a mass murderer without any justification, should you be detained in a prison? If an unethical politician uses such people as pawns to press false charges against educators in order to achieve the politician own nefarious ends, should we send such people to “Rubber Rooms”? What about the politician who control the press so that the only opinions printed are their own, while the opportunity for rebuttal by the accused is next to impossible. Has our society also run amok in believing that any teacher accused of improper conduct is automatically guilty? When was the last time you heard something good about a teacher in the media? Why aren’t teachers being portrayed they way they used to be in “Good-bye Mr. Chips, “To Sir With Love or Stand” and “Deliver”?

This is what frightens me. Are there no longer any good teachers out there or is the profession simply being made to look bad by those in society who believe that an educated populace and the educators that promote that education are a threat to societal control?

So until we can define who is really a “Bad Teacher” and who is just a political or age discriminated prisoner the question becomes moot.