Teacher says to boycott American Education Week

Teachers want respect and better pay, not an artificial honor, says Los Angeles teacher and author Brian Crosby

Brian Crosby, a veteran Los Angeles teacher and author of THE $100,000 TEACHER: A Teachers Solution to Americas Declining Public School System, says that Americans should boycott American Education Week. Such 'Hallmark moments that are supposed to make everyone feel good about teachers and public education are instead pathetic attempts at putting teachers in the spotlight," Crosby says. Teachers would rather have higher salaries and better working conditions than a specially-titled week."

According to Crosby, paying teachers a salary that they are worth-up to $100,000 a year-is the only way that society can get the higher student achievement that it demands. It doesnt take a space shuttle engineer to realize that the more money offered to people in a given profession, the more that will attract people, both in quantity, and most important, quality since the prestige of that profession will likely increase," Crosby says. Good teachers deserve $100,000-and more-if public education is to serve students well into the twenty-first century."

In addition to better salaries, Crosby contends that the daily working conditions of teachers need to be improved-meaning they should not have to perform secretarial work such as answering phones and photocopying, and be included as an integral part of the decision making process at their work sites. Until these important changes are implemented," he says, Respect for teachers as professionals will remain weak, and phony recognition like American Education Week will continue. You don't hear of American Medicine Week because doctors don't need recognition--their profession is already well respected."

Crosby first gained national notice in 1998, when the a piece he wrote for the Los Angeles Times on teacher salaries was nationally syndicated, and landed him in the national media, from C-Span to the Larry Elder Show. The concept of the $100,000 teacher has struck a raw nerve in the publics psyche," Crosby says. Things must change if public education is to survive."

Brian Crosby has been a high school English teacher in the Los Angeles area since 1988, where he has also served as mentor teacher and chair of the English Department. A graduate of California State University with a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Computer Education, Crosby belongs to the National Council of Teachers of English, and the California Association for the Gifted.

For more information or an interview with Brian Crosby, contact Kristen Gustafson, 207-990-0710.