Patent Lawyer Who Became Schoolteacher Has New Frustrations

Posted Apr 27, 2009 11:58 AM CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

A patent lawyer who decided to escape law firm life for more time with her family nearly gave up on her new profession as a schoolteacher.

Lisa Johnson, a 35-year-old Yale law graduate with four children, practiced for five years before making the career switch, the Washington Post reports in a story about inexperienced teachers. The newspaper found that Washington, D.C., area students in the poorest neighborhoods are nearly twice as likely to have a newer teacher as those in the wealthiest areas. Studies show inexperienced teachers tend to be less effective, the story says.

"I didn't have materials that I needed," Johnson told the Post. "I didn't have teacher manuals. I couldn't find paper. Almost every day, I said I was going to quit."

She decided to stick with the job after a principal assured her that every new teacher experiences the same problems.

Comments

J.D.
Apr 27, 2009 12:27 PM CST

And yet the “stimulus” package alone will give $227 million to D.C. schools. This is on top of the existing, growing budget.

But she can’t find paper? It’s not a matter of resources. It’s a matter of liberal government officials not knowing how to run anything. Sorry, but that’s undeniable.

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B. McLeod
Apr 27, 2009 1:28 PM CST

Obviously, the tenured faculty get first shot at the paper. Chalk too. You can’t well just show up as some newbie, who has not yet paid their dues, and expect to just be handed school supplies and teacher manuals. In point of fact, a good teacher could probably teach more than the DC schools if they sat the class outside on milk crates and had them drawn their lessons in the mud with sticks.

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E. Siarny
Apr 27, 2009 3:20 PM CST

Are you kidding me?! “Liberal government officials”?! You DO realize that the DC Public School systems has been in a horrific state for far too long for this to be the cause. And as a teacher in DCPS, I can safely say that it has NOTHING to do with being a new teacher. Teachers, regardless of how long they have been teaching, cannot get supplies or teaching materials when requested and/or needed. The roots of the difficulties with teaching are more than not getting supplies. It’s a combination of incompetence (not only by “liberals” though…people who just flat out won’t do their jobs), money being tied up in special education litigation, expectations so low you can hardly scrap them off the floor, frustratingly absent parents, teachers who should no longer be teaching and are being protected by the union, and students who have never been taught the true meaning of being respectful and courteous, of joy and hard work. It not just the lack of paper. Visit an urban classroom if you don’t believe me—both for your own sake and for the sake of the students.

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B. McLeod
Apr 27, 2009 6:50 PM CST

What, WHAT?? You mean even tenured teachers can’t get paper when they ask for it? Well, then, this is an absolute crisis of the first magnitude, which must be seen to immediately. Then, perhaps, we can move on to having children come out of the school system, after a mere thirteen years, with the ability to read, write and work simple math problems.

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Jennifer
Apr 28, 2009 1:58 AM CST

B. McLeod, could you practice some self-restraint? Does it ever occur to you not to post a comment? Generally I enjoy your proposition challenging stances, but your humor is not always appreciated. Unfortunately, since I do enjoy reading the news on this site I am forced to confront your commentary every day.

It gets old.

Our public education system, not just DC schools, are ill equipped to educate our children. This is a disappointing fact. I see little room for humor here.

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Michael
Apr 28, 2009 1:23 PM CST

I always bring supplies to my kid’s teachers at the beginning of the year and replenish them mid-year if I see that they’re running out. While schools should be funding these things I don’t have a problem dropping a few reams of paper and/or pens w/ my kids teachers: for the most part they’re great. My son’s math teacher made a bundle on Wall Street then went to teach middle-school math as a way to retire while giving something back: he’s an inspiration. Teachers are incredibly poorly paid and little amounts of financial support from most people who would be reading here (lawyers, I’m assuming) equates to big amounts to them.

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