This teacher is not the problem | Eastern North Carolina Now

    By now almost everyone here has heard about Social Studies Teacher Tonya Dixon-Neely from North Rowan High School. If not, click here to read the Observer story if you're not familiar with it.

    Ms. Dixon-Neely has, according to news reports, been suspended with pay pending an investigation by school officials, presumably to determine whether she will be terminated or returned to the classroom. We predict the latter unless Ms. Dixon-Neely chooses to do something else. If her case turns out like the overwhelming majority of similar cases in North Carolina she will not be teaching at North Rowan or likely in Rowan County, but rather she will be in another school in another school district next year.

    The school year will end before Ms. Dixon-Neely's suspension ends. The Superintendent has 90 days in which to decide whether to recommend to the school board that she be terminated. If she is still on probationary status the Superintendent could choose to recommend that her contract not be renewed, but that has to be done by May 15. So whether Ms. Dixon-Neely has career status (tenure) or not, she has the same rights to procedural due process as does a career teacher. That means she may be terminated only for one or more of fifteen reasons specified in NCGS 115C-325(e). In my opinion, absent a clear school board policy that prohibits what she did (and the chances are slim and none of that being the case) then the most appropriate charge will be "inadequate performance." But typically to make that charge stick there must be a record of inadequate performance having been documented, typically via classroom observations by well trained administrators, the teacher afforded an opportunity to correct the inadequate performance and then subsequent violations documented.

    Termination under these circumstances is possible, but only if the administrators involved are very good. Chances are slim and none that such is the case. If they were competent, this incident would not have happened in the first place.

    So the teacher will lawyer up, the school board attorneys will run the tab up and then a deal will be cut. She will be allowed to resign without anything bad being put in her record. But most significantly she will keep her teaching license. That's about 99% for sure. So she'll find another job.

    Now before you jump to the conclusion that the problem here is: 1. A bad teacher, 2. A bad law, or anything else let me say this: That may or may not be true, but it is not the problem. The problem is The System. And it is a broken system at many levels.

    First, the college or university that trained this teacher and initially certified her as competent to teach social studies is a major part of the problem. If you look deeply enough into this case I would bet you will find that this teacher was significantly below average in her admission qualifications, both to the freshman class and to the teacher education program. She did not graduate magna cum laude, chances are. So her having ever becoming a teacher shows a major part of the systemic problem. The woman cannot even speak good English. And her knowledge of the Constitution is abysmal, not to mention her classroom management skills or her professional temperament. If I owned a McDonalds I would not want her working for me, much less teaching my kids.

    Secondly, she should never have been hired and assigned to teach a high school social studies class. That incompetence falls squarely on the Rowan-Salisbury school administration, and likely one Judy S. Grissom, Ed.D (the superintendent), who incidentally is a product of North Rowan High School, and on Darrell McDowell, the Principal of North Rowan and his three assistant principals. I say that based on my experience that leads me to guess that this incident is not an isolated, and unique, exhibition of incompetence on the part of this teacher. And chances are there are several others at North Rowan.

    Why do I say that? Simply because that is the way it is in most schools and school systems. Incompetence is tolerated. It is part of the system. The prime reason we have incompetent teachers in our schools is the presence of incompetent administrators.

    This teacher's lack of knowledge of the constitution did not just become obvious. Her absence of effective teaching skills, particularly classroom management did not just happen. If she is a new hire she should not have been hired. If she has been at this school for three or more years then by default her incompetence is the result of incompetent administration.

    But make no mistake about this: North Rowan is not unique. This problem is pervasive in a broken system.

    Another element of that broken system is with the state. The social studies program which most teachers take in college is woefully inadequate. Then the state's social studies program is even worse. The recent flap a couple of years ago exposed the fact that inadequate emphasis is put on the Founding Period and thus the teacher of the constitution is demonstrably inadequate. I will dare say that this teacher has never even been told that her job is not to indoctrinate but to teach students how to discern the truth.

    In a much broader sense what this teacher's incompetence represents is why and how Barack Obama got to be president. But I digress. The point is that the social studies program, both in terms of content and how it is taught in North Carolina is a major part of the problem we see in this incident.

    But not all teachers, schools or school systems are this bad. Some are making efforts to address the problem. Beaufort County, under its current superintendent Don Phipps is one of those. Phipps has support our teacher participating in the Making of America seminars sponsored by the Committee on Constitutional Studies. Indeed, school board member Mike Isbel and candidate Proctor Kidwell are active membrs of the CCS.

    Beaufort County's Committee on Constitutional Studies has been crusading for years to improve the teaching of the U. S. and N. C. Constitutions to both students and adults. The Committee is a group of remarkable dedicated volunteers that promotes the teaching of fundamental principles of the constitutions in our schools, universities and to interested people in the community. The Committee sponsors frequent workshops/discussion groups based on material developed by the National Center For Constitutional Studies'. courses. The Committee is supported by the Beaufort Patriot Tea Party and you can receive notices of the workshops by signing up for the Beaufort Patriot Tea Party's newsletter at BCTP newsletter. Chris Cayton has been the major "spark plug" behind the NCCS program locally and she may be reached at 252.946.0332. You can learn more about the constitution by getting involved in the Committee's work.

    I've taken the NCCS course and even with a major in constitutional law I found the course to be exceptionally informative. I would even suggest that the state and Beaufort County Schools should adopt the NCCS program for use in their social studies staff development program. Every teacher should be well versed in the U. S. and N. C. Constitutions, because indeed every educated American should be so informed. And I would suggest every church ought to incorporate the program into its program of Christian Education. But those teaching our young people simply must know more about the constitutions than was demonstrated by this teacher.

    A really sad part of this story is that Ms. Dixon-Neely has done a terrible disservice to the really excellent teachers in our profession. There are many, many more really excellent teachers than there are teachers like this. They hold the system together and move it forward in spite of teachers like this and administrators like those at North Rowan. They deserve to not have their profession degraded by the likes of this woman.

    Thus, while Ms. Dixon-Neely should never have been allowed to teach this social studies class in the first place, the problem is much greater than she, the school or school system. What this incident should do is serve as a wake-up call to those in control of our public school system. They need to immediately set about improving the teacher certification, licensure, selection and retention system and they need just as badly to reform the content and methodology of what and how social studies is taught in our universities and public schools.

    The very continued existence of our nation depends on it.

    Delma Blinson writes the "Teacher's Desk" column for our friend in the local publishing business: The Beaufort Observer. His concentration is in the area of his expertise - the education of our youth. He is a former teacher, principal, superintendent and university professor.