A bit of perspective

In a previous post, I commented that I didn't really understand tenure. I compared teaching to a job in industry and, overall, felt that no one is entitled to a job simply for having been there for a certain number of years. I still feel very strongly that that is correct. However, having been in the job hunt for a few months now, and having a better understanding of the dynamics, I understand a big argument in favor of tenure.

Unlike a career in industry, there's a common cycle of hiring and firing that has nothing to do with the performance of the teacher. For example, a school district might be embroiled in budget negotiations for the following year and might not have budget to support its needs. The result? A bunch of teachers get laid off in the spring and have to wait for the district to get its budget approved for the following year, and hope that they're re-hired in the fall. This practice is far more common than most people realize. It happens all the time.

So the teachers who get laid off are left to spend the summer in limbo, wondering if they'll be rehired and looking for a job in case they're not. And what if one of those teachers is offered a job in a district that's farther away while she is waiting to hear from her original district? She's got a family to feed, and there's a job on the table, so she might take that job that's farther away just to insure her kids don't starve. Now she's got to learn a new faculty, administration, department, etc - not to mention she's now got to figure out what to do with her own children while she spends the extra time commuting. And guess who's first on the chopping block in this new district come spring when the new district has its own budget issues to consider?

From that perspective, it's completely understandable that, at some point, a teacher would want some insulation from that kind of turbulence. From that perspective, I completely understand tenure. I still don't like it, but I can see that it's a reasonable reaction to some of the more anxiety-inducing aspects of the system.