Teachers and tenure
To the editor:
In both California and North Carolina there is legal action taking aim at teachers’ tenure. Questions have been raised on the need for tenure. Why is it an important ingredient to our educational system?
The case in California addressed the competency of the professors. Students that were failing were placing the blame for their failure squarely upon the shoulders of the professors.
Exactly what is tenure? A common definition states, “A tenured professor has an appointment that lasts until retirement age, except for dismissal with just cause.”
Each institution designs its own criteria on what constitutes “just cause.”
Let us look at each of these cases in turn.
In California student failure was the issue. One of the claims states that tenure allows for ineffective professors to remain employed. Is this true? I would have to say that in some cases, with some professors, that is possible. Is it across the entire faculty at any particular institution? I doubt it.
In addition to ineffective teachers…we also have poorly prepared students. When a student has to take remedial courses to begin at that college that student is not prepared. In the lower grades they move students from grade to grade without requiring the student to actually possess the needed knowledge at that grade level. This is strictly a case then of failure in the lower grades. If a college accepts a student that is poorly prepared for that college and the student fails courses, the question becomes, “who has failed, student or college?” In the case of this student’s failure, tenure may not be the problem, although it does exist. Just because a student pays their tuition it is not a guarantee that they will pass the course just because they paid for it. They must also pay the price of studying and committing themselves to succeed. The institution also has its own reputation on the line in the form of its graduated students. How they perform can reflect on the educational value one receives at that institution.
So, ineffective professors may be only a tiny portion of the entire picture with some students failing.
In North Carolina, the legislature took aim at eliminating tenure in its entirety over a specified period of time. There would be no tenure for new hires and for those already in the system they would be phased out in a short period of years.
The 800 pound gorilla in the room is what the destruction of tenure would actually do. A professor, within his classroom has certain privileges: the most important addresses “academic freedom.”
This is a critical ingredient needed to provide to the student various points of view. One requires two rocks beating together to produce the spark of knowledge. The student must also be allowed to question the position of the professor to further flesh out what is under discussion.
We would be in a darkened world if all the professors had to teach only what is in the assigned textbooks. Education is a diamond in the rough and to enjoy its many facets those facets must be polished in the tumbler of discussion of questions and answers.
The question here then is, should we keep tenure” The answer is an emphatic yes!
Joseph L. Kibitlewski, PhD.
Cape Coral