Ageism in Schools

            Ageism is supposedly an epidemic sweeping education in America. Common Core Standards have made education a more goal driven and thusly a more labor intensive profession for the immediate future. Teachers who have not led goal driven lessons are lost in what probably seems like a new profession. This has led to a transition amongst teachers to a younger generation of educators that have been well versed in objective and standard driven classrooms. Brought to light now is the idea that ageism is a major issue in the classroom. Forced retirement has caused lawsuits in education and furthered the stereotype that old educators are being forced out.

True ageism exists when an employer hires a younger less qualified employee based solely on age. This is difficult to prove since hiring is subjective, but regardless of the truth it is imperative that hiring be base on skill and effectiveness.

Education has always been under scrutiny for favoritism and the inability to welcome change. The accusation of ageism in schools is just a continuation of the schools inability to change to a new system. It starts a conversation of social injustice in the mini society that is created within a school. All that is accomplished is a creation of an unfair perspective showing change as a bad thing. This happens despite the fact that America is drastically lacking in educational success and achievement.

Social injustice exists in America, that is unarguable, but education is in the middle of a reset and it is not the time to argue about whether or not an older teacher is being treated unjustly. It is time to focus on the students and student achievement. If education gets lost in this scuffle then any standard for success we might set in the change to standards based education will be lost.