In the Trenches

Antero Garcia, an English teacher at Manual Arts High School, writes:

Earlier this month, a group of researchers at the University of Oxford released a list of the Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English Language. The colloquialisms listed (“at the end of the day” and “shouldn’t of,” for instance”) are exactly the groan-worthy revelations that you realize creep all too often into one’s everyday language. The list, however, sparked in me an interest into education-related annoying phrases. And now I’d like to suggest perhaps the phrase that needs to be finally done in, within the world of education: “In the trenches.”

I’ll accept blame for using this phrase in the past. Likewise, it creeps into the language of my administrators, my peers and researchers. A typical phrase would be something like, “With all due respect, those of us in the trenches know how difficult the day-to-day challenges of teaching a class bigger than 30 students....” (Note that “with all due respect” ranks as the No. 5 most irritating expression.)

My concern with the phrase is its connotation about what it means to be a teacher and what the profession, as a whole, values. I recognize that “in the trenches” and its war-laden connotation is supposed to depict teachers as the valorized heroes; we are the ones “holding the line” and the ones fighting the education battle first-hand. It is also a phrase that excludes non-teachers from participating in this battle: Education is hard work and the teachers -– in the trenches –- are the only ones doing it.

It’s no secret that I’ve had my fair share of run-ins and heated discussions with other colleagues, administrators and researchers. However, at the end of the day (No. 1 most irritating expression!), progressive, positive changes in education are going to require collaboration. Similarly, the phrase connotes teaching as an ugly and treacherous experience –- it’s a nightmare (No. 7!). For many of us, that image couldn’t be any more incorrect; education is an exciting and beautiful super-organism when up and running efficiently in our classrooms.

At this moment in time, I personally, and with all due respect, request the banning of “in the trenches” when referencing the activities of teachers in classrooms –- it’s not rocket science! (Note this sentence included Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 of the most irritating expressions in the English language.) I’m curious what other education phrases you think should be abolished.

Comments

[ann]

professional development, I am only a professional because I passed university courses and am not the result of the mandatory tuesday power point presentation

[Adam Panish]

As a teacher myself, I too find this phrase irritating, but for different reasons - it is the context (teaching is like a war!). So, for me, phrases that are similar such as "how goes the battle" are just as bad because teachers should not perceive their job as a war, but as a journey to help our students. It is often teachers who have been around awhile who use those phrases. Let's retire them. We are not battling our students, or anyone else. We are leaders on a journey!

[angela]

Hi Antonio, this question is right up my alley! I hate, absolutely hate education speak. It is no surprise that the best teacher PD's I attend contain none of these dreaded phrases and words:

1)"scaffolding." You scaffold a building, not a lesson.

2) "best practices" - no one has the corner on best teaching practices. Education research is voodoo science for the most part and teaching is as much of an art as a science.

3) "Standards-based learning." I am soooo sick of this. It is another phrase for propaganda.

4) "textbook adoption" + "Williams committee"- you would think this fascist little group was more powerful than the CIA in how they inspire fear in administrators to use only certain "state -approved" books. All other books not on the Williams committee list are deemed "obsolete." I was actually told this. People who have no business in education reform are trying to control what is taught.

Districts are so desperate for improvement on tests that they have cut the hearts out of schools and now they are going for our souls.

[Angel]

Oh, Antero,

I'll *gladly* give up "in the trenches" when school choice doesn't feel like a battle anymore. I spent 13 years always looking for the right school for my son, and since my kids are far apart, I've got another decade.

We've actually talked about posing with pith helmets on. Maybe if LAUSD were more parent friendly, we wouldn't feel like it's a fight.

[Mark Gomez]

"In the trenches", as i have most recently used it, does not refer in the slightest to the activities that happen in my classroom for the most part... rather it does refer to the egocentric world of dehumanizing, non-appreciative overtones my school's offices and hallways are painted with, providing dark and cloudy interpretations of the light teachers help bring to their students...

[Bill Ring]

Angel's got it right. For years, with the possible exception of magnet schools, LAUSD has just opened its doors each year, taken all comers and collected money from the state and federal government promising all the while to remain compliant with legal mandates; with declining enrollment, a state and district-wide fiscal crisis and pressure being placed on LAUSD by charter schools and other options, the fact that there has not been an honest effort to create a culture of partnership with parents in shared-decision making, policy development (and the monitoring and evaluation of programs on which LAUSD has spent so much money) is increasingly contributing to LAUSD's many challenges. As a parent who has been in the system working to understand it and to improve it for over a decade, "in the trenches" sure resonates with me.

Bill Ring
Candidate, Los Angeles City Board of Ed, District #4