Definition of Tenure for Teachers

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In society today, teachers play a very important role in the lives of children being one of the biggest influences on a child’s educational life. Teachers are responsible for preparing students for the future with knowledge and skills that students will be able to use on a daily basis. With so much emphasis on the role of teachers, it is important that students receive the best education possible and in order for that to happen, students need educated and willing teachers. Many of these qualities are infrequent in teachers of today. The value of students’ education is dependent on the quality of teachers being hired. Teachers lack the drive to teach students; teachers do not show much thought into teaching in this generation. This is due to tenure. Tenure is the act, right, manner, or term of holding something (as a landed property, a position, or an office); especially: a status granted after a trial period to a teacher that gives protection from summary dismissal. The Teacher Tenure Act protects good teachers from unfair dismissal and provides a fair method to terminate teachers when necessary. The employment and dismissal of teachers are based on a professional and legal level instead of a personal or political level. The advent of tenure, which coincided roughly with World War I and the suffragist movement, was meant to protect teachers, who, in olden days, were often fired for reasons that had nothing to do with their work, including race” (Greenblatt). This highly controversial issue of tenure is stated to be unfair towards other professions for example; doctors do not receive tenure. “Teaching is a very visible job”. “It’s a job that’s up for a lot of judgment of the community, the judgment of the school board and the judg...

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