In my first years of teaching, I knew little about what went on outside my own classroom. It was in Beverly Hills that I began to understand the importance of our teachers' association. I was flabbergasted by the state of the teaching profession there. The England of strong labor organizations had been broken by years of Thatcherism. Today teachers belong to an array of association and unions, none with much political clout.
Teachers have little protection and even less power.
But these things are not unrelated. Simply put, my philosophy of teaching is to let the teachers teach. Let them, the professionals, make the decisions necessary to deliver the best education possible. Teachers care about kids. And, given the realities of the profession today, teachers make economic sacrifices to enter and remain in the classroom.