The Pursuit of Joy.

.....During my training for combat, there was only one option allowed by the Chief Petty Officers who were responsible to see that whatever it was that we were trained to do had to be done with a fierce quest of excellence. Consequently, I motivated myself to achieve that quality, and beyond, in my work. Since I was trained to be a radioman and a combat air crewman, I knew that at some point in WWII I would need the skills required for those assignments in order to survive. Consequently, I learned Morse Code to the point where I could say it backwards. I was able to send messages with the key faster than anyone in the class, and to receive fast messages with ease. In combat school, I could take apart and put back together a 50 caliber machine gun with my eyes closed. In skeet shooting I learned to destroy the flying "plates" whether they came from the back or from the sides and at whatever speed they could be launched--even though the shotguns almost destroyed my shoulder. I learned to identify enemy aircraft--both German and Japanese when their images were flashed on a screen at the speed of 1000th of a second. And the same went for their naval ships--destroyers, cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers, and even submarines. As I was able to do all of these requirements with great skill, it brought me joy. And I learned, too, that joy was the accompaniment of excellence.

.....Now, when I went into the teaching profession, I wasn't simply a young college graduate, I was a warrior. My first entrance to each class was a silent one. I didn't say a word for several minutes; I just stared at each student, and the noise abated as the class grew quiet and the learners looked at me. My first words to them were "Now I expect each of you to do the work asked of you here with ruthless personal standards of excellence." I saw that my statement had an affect on them: I could tell by their body movements and by the look on their faces, and by their eyes as they looked at me. "Remember what I've said. Ruthless personal standards of excellence! I expected no less from them. I wanted them to experience joy. And so I launched my career as a high school English teacher. We read, analyzed and discussed great works of literature: Shakespeare, The Canterbury Tales, Milton's "Paradise Lost", The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgimage", the poetry of Robert Burns and William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. If I asked them to write an essay critiquing what we've read I told them to apply "ruthless personal standards" to that work; not simply to dash it off, but work on it until they believed it was perfect. Such is the job of a teacher--motivation and education.

.....Now just a few weeks ago, the Florida Legislature, consisting mostly of members of the Republican Party decided that accountability of the teachers was required. And so they sent a bill to the governor that ended teacher's pay based on experience and advanced degrees, that ended tenure and that new teacher's be given one year contracts, and that teachers' pay would be based on test results. This Law of Insanity would surely destroy the Florida public schools. Fortunately it was vetoed by the governor. Academic tenure is primarily intended to guarantee the right to academic freedom; it protects teachers when they dissent from prevailing opinion, openly disagree with authorities of any sort. Without job security, the scholarly community as a whole might favor "safe" lines of inquiry. The intent of tenure is to allow original ideas to be more likely to arise, by giving teachers freedom to investigate the problems and solutions about which they are most passionate.

.....Also, tenure protects the teacher from unwarranted and wanton dismissal for doing unpopular things such as failing influential students, becoming a whistleblower, union activity, and lack of favor for almost any reason with changing school administrators and school board politics. A new superintendent or a new principal might decide that they want to hire their own teachers. Or the school board might fire their older teachers and hire new ones with a smaller salaries, thus saving money for the budget. It's true that tenure makes it very difficult to fire a bad teacher, but before a teachers can get tenure they must teach at least three to five years. That should be sufficient time for administrators to decide if the teacher is good or bad. If they can't do that, too bad. Tenure is the price the school has to pay in order to have and to hold their good teachers.