Teachers' Bill of Rights

Raleigh Schorling earned $1.83 a day on his first teaching job 42 years ago. He is doing a little better now, as a professor of education at the University of Michigan, but he still thinks teachers are underpaid --and overworked. That, he says, is why 600,000 teachers have deserted the profession since 1939. Last week Professor Schorling was busy propagandizing teachers the nation over to endorse a twelve-point Bill of Rights. It was sure to please teachers, less likely to appeal to taxpayers. Items:

P:The right to teach small enough classes --from 10 to 20 pupils. (This means better teaching--and 1,000,000 new teachers, Professor Schorling says.)

P:The right to good materials (visual aids, books) and enough of them.

P:The right to pleasant, well-adapted classrooms. (Too many seem like places of detention; too few are suited to the subject under study.)

P:The right to the same personal liberties as other respectable citizens. (Teachers like occasional card-playing, dancing, smoking, even a drink or two, and in many towns are not supposed to.)

P:The right to a 45-hour week. (Teachers, he says, average 70 hours on classroom work, pupil and parent guidance, grading papers, leading community activities.)

P:The right to adequate, 52-week pay. (U.S. average: $1,900 a year.)

P:The right to an internship. (Before settling down to a specialty, new teachers need light teaching loads and a chance to try a variety of classroom, and administrative jobs under experienced teachers.)

P:The right to constructive supervision. (When no one sees or discusses his work, except on an occasional inspection, the teacher suffers from frustration.)

P:The right to take time during the school day to plan--one hour for each hour of teaching. (Three planning-hours might save 50 pupil-hours.)

P:The right to help modify school methods, programs and policies.

Professor Schorling calmly admits that his program would probably treble educational budgets. He adds: "The U.S. spent more on chewing gum last year than on children's books. Liquor cost two or three times what the country paid out for education."

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