I found this article very interesting. I previously thought tenure was something instituted by powerful teachers unions to help aging teachers keep their jobs. This article informed that tenure actually has quite benevolant beginnings. It was to protect teachers from vengeful boards who replaced teachers with cronies or more like minded teachers. The article said tenure protected teachers who were accused of being communist and those who supported racial integration. These are very noble causes. Now, tenure has been made out to be the bogeyman of the public sector. Gary M. Chesley goes on to say that although tenure is not the evil the media has scapegoated it to be, it does need some touching up. Rather than just giving tenure for time served he thinks tenure should be based on achievement. For me this is what American ideals are all about. I lived in a place where old men sat around reading the paper until noon, playing golf in the afternoon at "meetings", then "working late" at the local pub with their underlings who busted their humps from start to well after finish. These old fellers might have been distinguished individuals in the company, but the grumbling from the young workers tells me that the system of entitlement based on age is not even going to last in Japan.
The article goes on to name a list of things that should be likely be a teacher a board part of the process to earn tenure. I love it when someone comes up with a plan along with the question asked. I think that a teacher who fulfilled a comprehensive plan would deserve tenure and wouldwould want to keep around so the issue of tenure, as a bad thing, would cease.
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