Tenure and Courage
I hear constantly how"tenure protects bad teachers." I hear constantly how"the union protects incompetence." Well, in my experience, for every bad teacher tenure protects, it enables several bright and brave teachers to teach fearlessly. If it weren't for tenure, I would never dare teach Lesbian and Gay American history on what is still a relatively conservative college campus. I would never dare teach a course on Men and Masculinity. From what I've seen, fear leads to timidity -- job security leads to daring and innovation. That's the exact opposite of the conventional wisdom of the marketplace. But as the child of two retired college professors, and as someone who has spent his life to date within academia, I am absolutely convinced that the merits of tenure infinitely outweigh its costs. This is from the CNN article:
Michael Kramer, who represents teachers as general counsel for the Georgia Association of Educators, says tenure can help the educational mission by protecting strong, outspoken teachers.
"It's the brightest, the risk-taking teachers
I don't know how my fellow Cliopatriarchs feel, but if I weren't tenured, I would feel much more pressure to inflate grades and"pander" to my students in the hopes of receiving high evaluations. I would confine my areas of interest to the safe and to the familiar, making certain that I, in the words of a part-time adjunct lecturer I know,"was just good enough to get by but not so good as to arouse enmity from other faculty." Every change to my syllabus, every new lecture prepared, would only be done after I had asked myself:"Will this help or hurt my chances of getting rehired?" I wish to note, however, that I have seen part-time faculty do astonishingly innovative and courageous things in the classroom. I am amazed by that! Frankly, they are braver than I would be in their position.
When I first started teaching Lesbian and Gay American History in 2001, I did receive considerable criticism. A few complaints were made to the administration. (One anonymous soul was upset, not that the course was being taught, but that it was being taught by a straight man; the other complaints were more typically homophobic.) I only received one angry phone call from a member of the community, an anguished woman who worried that I was"teaching immorality." She was reasonably polite, and I gave her the names and numbers of our local board members, suggesting that she direct her complaints to them. But because I had tenure, I was able to continue to teach this course without fear of retaliation from the administration or the board. I also knew that even if my course content offended certain members of the community, I could continue to teach without reprisal. Tenure gave me that.
I do think the reward of"lifetime employment" should be given only after a period of evaluation and discernment. (For those of us in the community college system in California, it's a four-year process that takes into account student, peer, and administrative evaluations.) I have no doubt that there are a few isolated instances of lazy or incompetent faculty members who are protected by tenure. But when I look around my department and my college, I see a high number of dedicated, gutsy professors doing exciting things in their classrooms. I am glad that they (and I) are protected by tenure. After all, many of us could have had far more lucrative careers in the private sector. We chose teaching and public service instead; in the face of that sacrifice, job security is hardly an unmerited luxury. Rather, tenure is both compensation for what we have all given up as well as an incentive to take the kind of necessary risks that make teaching and learning so damn exciting.
Yes, I've been damned lucky. Yes, I know this sounds like union propaganda. But it is also my deep conviction, rooted in two decades in higher education as a student, a teaching assistant, a tenure-track instructor, and now a tenured professor.