My mother wished me mazal tov this morning upon attaining tenure when I dropped off Y. (She doesn't start school til tomorrow). I wish I felt that enthusiastic. I always thought having tenure was a big deal, in fact I was all bent out of shape last year worrying about it. I mean, it is a big deal, I know that, but people who do not work in the public education system know that tenure has its limitations when it comes to job security. True, they can't just up and fire you (unless you are a child molester, and even until recently that was difficult in some districts). But as a teacher informed me my first year, "if they want to get rid of you they will find a way." Usually that means transferring you into a position you hate, or transferring you to another school that you don't want to go to, or splitting you between schools, until you WANT to quit. You can still lose your job if your position is eliminated--for instance, if the law were to change so that our school was no longer required to have a librarian, then I could lose my job. I've seen many librarians lose their jobs this way because of budget cuts, or be transferred into classroom teachers or computer teachers. Our former computer teacher lost her position when it was cut and is now forced to be a classroom teacher, which she hadn't done in 20 years. Another teacher was "punished" by our former principal by being split between two schools.
So I have no illusions--tenure is helpful, but not what it's cracked up to be. Right now, tenured or not, my schedule smells like the word it rhymes with...
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