A Place:
A teacher, a pleasant, well-lit classroom filled (but not to overflowing) with students. Supplies and materials at the teacher's discretion. Whatever equipment the teacher deems necessary. There might be several of these places in one building, but there is probably a limit to how many.
A job description:
Teacher: "Help your students to develop the cognitive tools that represent their own next steps toward intellectual adulthood. These will very according to their ages and abilities. Teach them to read and write and to think well. Your students are expected to be safe and kind and to be constructive throughout the day. They should learn to appreciate the world as it is, to know their place in it, and to understand their responsibility for helping to shape its future. You must understand that these children are in your charge and oughtn't be passed off to a specialist or a special program unless you have exhausted every possible strategy for keeping them fully engaged in their classroom community. In those rare cases in which this cannot be done, ask for help. Every special program is a splice that results in a loss of signal strength." (Thanks for that one, DJ).
Each teacher reading this will have different images spring to mind, depending on the ages of their students and the complexity of their subject matter. I believe that many teachers (and all gifted teachers) would celebrate the clarity of the mission and the opportunity for fulfillment that can only be achieved in taking responsibility for something important. Most teachers don't want to be clerks or dispensers of someone else's lesson plans or programs. Most don't want either be accountants or to be a data point for some accountant in a distant office. They intend to matter.
Of course every building has its logistical challenges, its administrative needs, its legitimate interest in what is going on in each classroom. But classroom invasions and teacher distractions should be kept to a minimum.
Job Description:
Administrator: "Facilitate the work of teachers. Make a safe place for them to teach. Be ready to support them as the need arises. Work with teachers to distinguish needs from passing concerns. Provide the former and monitor the latter. Watch their backs. Honor their efforts."
The closer we can come, as a community, to trusting to these simple dynamics, the more we will realize the power of teachers. The alternative? Another news cycle about dramatic gains somewhere in the elementary or middle grades accompanied by promises that some day high school performance will perk up from its 20-year slumber.
