The Haunted

Over the next two days she did some research, and the news when she saw him again wasn’t encouraging. “They might have a case,” she admitted. “They’re claiming that test scores in your classes have been falling consistently for the past three years, and that in this era of accountability, they could not justify protecting your position at the expense of instructors whose students have been performing better on the tests.”

He snorted. “Tests? What tests? That standardized pap the politicians foisted on us? My tests are twice as hard and three times as comprehensive as those generic multiple-guessers we’re supposed to teach to.” He leaned forward. “For over ten years now, America’s been scapegoating teachers: ‘We’re falling behind the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans because there are too many bad teachers, and we can’t get rid of them because they have tenure. Oh, and they’re bankrupting the country because they have good pensions.’ Well, the teachers in China, Japan and Korea have tenure and good pensions! Has that caused their educational systems to fail? No. Because their societies value education! They treat their teachers with respect. How do you expect American students to treat us with respect when their parents don’t, when the politicians don’t, when the media doesn’t, when all they hear is how bad our country’s teachers are? You know what? The Asian kids in my class do just as well on those standardized tests as the ones actually in Asia! You know why? Because their parents make them study and do their homework. If every parent did that, maybe we wouldn’t be falling so far behind!”

“We’re getting a little offtrack here,” Claire said gently.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But I’m a good teacher. I always have been. And the reason I was let go is not the test scores of my students. That’s just cover; that’s just the excuse they’re giving. The reason is, I teach real history. Yes, I teach the requirements. But I go deeper. And these days, if you deviate at all from the party line, you’re penalized for it. Initiative used to be rewarded; now it’s not only discouraged, it’s punished.”

“But the test scores of your students have fallen since you began teaching this ‘real’ history. I have them here in front of me.”

“Sure,” he admitted. “You know why? Because I went from teaching honors history to regular history.” He leaned forward again. “You know how politicians always talk about the importance of merit pay and rewarding ‘good’ teachers? Well, the ‘good’ teachers are the ones whose students do well on the standardized tests. And here’s the dirty little secret: teachers who teach the smart kids have students who do better on those tests than those who teach the low learners. I was one of those ‘good’ teachers. Now I’m not. Because the principal assigned me a different class. Not because my teaching skills suddenly deserted me. And not because I’ve expanded the class curriculum to include information outside the scope of the textbook.”

Claire nodded. “Okay.”

“So we’ll sue?”

“I think you have a legitimate grievance, and it’s quite possible we can get your job back. But this is by no means a slam dunk. Judges and juries, if it gets to that point, are notoriously unreliable. It’s not like you see on TV. There’s a chance the court could rule against you. Then you’d not only be out of a job, but you’d be out quite a bit of money.”

“But you think I have a shot?”

“I think you have a shot.”

“Let’s do it.”

She nodded. “All right. We’ll go after them. As long as you know the risks.”

He smiled. “What’s life without a little risk?”

Claire stood, and they shook on it. She hadn’t had much time to delve into the substance of the teacher’s lessons—she’d been focused more on the legalities of his case—but she knew from their discussions and from her brief perusal of his classroom notes that the “real” history Oscar Cortinez taught involved ethnic slaughter and very bad deeds by some very famous men. She wasn’t aware of any of this. When she’d gone to school here in the mid-1980s, it was a much cheerier version of the town’s history they were spoon-fed. Which meant that she was going to have to do a lot of reading up in order to familiarize herself with the issues that she planned to argue were the heart of this case.

She walked Oscar to the door and said good-bye, promising to call him as soon as she put together a rough draft of their complaint. Standing in the doorway, she saw Pam wave to her from across the street. Claire purposely looked away, walking back to her desk. One of these days, she was probably going to have to speak to Pam again, maybe even talk about what happened, but that day was not today.