Teaching Profession

Should Teachers Take on Secretarial Duties?

By Liana Loewus — November 11, 2011 1 min read
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NYC Educator is appalled by the way teachers in New York’s absent-teacher reserve pool (that is, teachers who’ve lost their permanent positions and are reassigned to fill in at other schools) are being treated by the higher-ups.

A female ATR was instructed to do secretarial duties. For those unfamiliar with the concept of contract (for example, the administrators who issued this instruction) secretarial duties are to be performed by secretaries. The teacher declined, saying she was a teacher and wanted to teach. The administrator's conclusion? "This is why none of you guys are able to get a job."

NYC Educator claims that every teacher is just one pen stroke away from being an ATR and that all teachers should therefore be supportive of their cast-off colleagues.

What are your thoughts? Is it fair to ask these teachers to do anything other than teach? Is every teacher really at risk of reassignment?

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.