Quote Originally Posted by tecumseh View Post
If you want to elevate the respect for teachers chop out the dead wood and raise the standard of the profession, eliminate tenure.
I disagree. I wrote about it in the context of merit pay here. A snippet:

"Teachers knowingly trade better pay for job security. Too many teachers, surely, are rewarded with tenure. But good teachers need it desperately in a world where parents increasingly denigrate the teacher’s role and expertise and believe that little Johnny or Judy can do no wrong, or need a different challenge, or less work, or, or, or. Oh the stories I could tell…."

It's bad enough that parents already think that teachers should simply do their bidding and that they know more about teaching than teachers do. They already can make a teacher's life miserable and stir up all kinds of trouble. If parents get the idea that they can get a teacher fired, look out.