Sumian 1

Natalie Sumian
Professor Gina Srmabekian
English 114B
11 May 2015
My Universe: Education in Public Schools

In our society, all over the world, there are many rising concerns about different subjects
relating to our universe and what effect it has on our people. The small concerns and rising
problems are the ones that affect our world the most, such as the education in public schools and
public school systems themselves. Specifically, the policies about tenure, lemon dance/seniority,
and equal pay. If there was one matter I could change in our world, this is what it would be.
People are always expressing how great the education is in the United States and how well
equipped and organized our school systems are, but what people fail to realize is that there are so
many small issues that affect the school system, that eventually put a major strain on students
abilities to learn. Tenure is giving a teacher a permanent job in the school industry after three
years of working in that system. This is a problem because for some teachers, after receiving
tenure, they start to take advantage of that position and start to neglect their job as an educator.
The lemon dance is a term involved with seniority. It is used to describe the process of when a
teacher gains tenure, even if that educator lacks the ability to teach, still cannot get fired. This
ends in the result of that teacher getting passed from school to school to school. The reason for
wanting to change these parts of the school system, is because it puts such a strain on a students
education. One of the most important things highlighted in the United States is a childs

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education and how that helps them to be as successful as they can be in the future. Another major
problem the school system faces, is the policy about equal pay for all teachers. This is a problem,
because whether the teacher is a good or bad one, they will be getting paid the same amount of
money. Possibly if a teacher possessed good qualities and provides the students with good
education, they could get an incentive or certain advantages to show them that they are doing a
good job as a teacher. On the other hand, teachers who are not possessing good qualities and are
not trying their very best to better a students life, should get a strain in their pay, to make certain
that they understand that education truly is a serious matter in our universe.
Although we know it is impossible to completely get rid of the policies of tenure, the
lemon dance, and equal pay, we could possibly come up with a policy securing that each year, all
teachers must attend some type of work shop to follow up on their education themselves and
learn better teaching strategies. This will then prepare the teachers for the school year and will
challenge the students in the most positive ways to ensure a better education.
In the article, Organizational Tenure and Job Performance, they highlight how they did
a study on new hires and the affect tenure has on the teachers. The primary purpose of the study
is to investigate the relationship between organizational tenure and the multi dimensions of job
performance. The other goal is to see the factors that weaken or better the strength of the
relationship between the two. As the article goes on, it talks about how the correlation between
tenure and the performance of teachers is very high. It shows that when they are first getting
hired, many teachers performance levels are outstandingly high, in the sense that they provide
the best education, but slowly after receiving tenure, that performance level declines. This study
is just one out of many that shows what a terrible affect tenure has on teachers performance
levels, and what a strain it leaves on a childs ability to learn to their best ability. My solution of

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the workshop would ensure that this problem lessens and that teachers and the students would
both realize that the United States and our world would be trying to make a better effort to
change the system to a more efficient one.
The lemon dance also puts a major strain on the childs ability to learn and also the
teachers abilities as an educator. In the article, Dance of the Lemons; Education in California,
describes a personal experience that a Social Studies teacher encountered who had just been
hired and working for the school. Because of all the budget cuts California was going through,
many teachers were being laid off, and he was one of them. His ability to teach was one of the
best that the school administration had ever seen, but because of the policy of seniority and the
lemon dance, there was no choice but to fire him and keep the other teachers who had been there
much longer than he had. But the teachers who had been there longer than he had, were not as
capable. This shows that there is a great need for a change in the system. With the use of the
workshop, it would ensure that even those with seniority, would have to go through the same
steps, as long as they wanted to keep their job as an educator. The workshop not only ensures
teachers getting more help in becoming a better educator, but also shows that no matter how
many years of teaching experience you have, you must still go through the same process,
promoting equality.
The film, Waiting for Superman, discusses all these issues and even uses four different
students who are in the public school system who are experiencing these issues first hand. The
film brushes upon the topics of tenure, equal pay, and the lemon dance, explaining how it does
have such a strain on a childs education and their capability to learn. The film explains the
barriers for ensuring that all children receive a high quality education, those barriers being: the
role of poverty in learning and opportunities in public schools, the conversation of having the

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same standards, learning strategies, and even the involvement of parents. All these barriers would
be better resolved with the policy of the work shop. However, making attendance to the
workshop may cause some teachers to quit or even choose a different career path. However, with
attendance of the workshop, we could motivate teachers and spend less money on prisons, for
example, and more money on schools and quality education to help inspire the educators and
even the students. With the attendance of the workshop, while providing the motivation teachers
seek, this would help the educators understand how important education really is, and how
serious the world takes it, specifically the United States. Instead of people constantly saying that
the United States has a good education, when we could have a better one, we should guarantee
this to be true, and use the work shop policy to help make this become a reality.
The film Waiting for Superman, also investigates the topic of equal pay. The
documentary explains how equal pay is not fair in the system because it does not equally justify
the difference between a good teacher and a bad teacher. Even if a teacher is portraying poor
qualities and is not trying their very best to provide a good education for all students, they are
still getting paid the same amount as a teacher who is putting even more effort into teaching the
student. What people fail to forget is that students are the ones truly suffering in this situation
because they have no choice but to learn in their best capability and environment they are placed
in. Students depend on teachers to become educated, and that is the job of the educator, to
educate. The film explains that if teachers had more advantages and disadvantages on the way
they taught and the way they provided education, it could possibly help establish high quality
education for all students in the public school system.
My position in this new universe is to socially construct a better educational system so
that students and educators are better equipped and prepared for the school year. Total

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elimination of the policies of tenure, the lemon dance, and equal pay would not be realistic, but
with motivation and attendance of workshops for all educators, it could make more of a
difference, rather than not doing anything about it. This would also help provide better quality,
rather than basing it off of seniority or experience.

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Work Cited
Kersten, Thomas, and Frances Brandfon. "A Study of Teachers, Principals, and Tenure." NASSP
Bulletin, 72.512 (1988): 68-73.
Anonymous, . "Dance of the Lemons; Education in California." The Economist, 410.8878
(2014): 32-63.
Hauser-Cram, P., Nugent, J., Thies, K., & Travers, F. (2014). The Development of Children
and Adolescents. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Guggenheim, Davis, Billy Kimball, Lesley Chilcott, Bill Strickland, Geoffrey Canada, Michelle
Rhee, Randi Weingarten, Erich Roland, Bob Richman, Greg Finton, Jay Cassidy, Kim Roberts,
Christophe Beck, and John Legend. Waiting for "superman". Hollywood, Calif: Paramount
Home Entertainment, 2011.
Ng, Thomas W. H, and Daniel C Feldman. "Organizational Tenure and Job Performance."
Journal of Management, 36.5 (2010): 1220-1250.