Clearly, it's struck a chord and it's worth unpacking: Why do so many teachers lean so heavily, when criticized, on the "you've never yourself been a teacher" argument? As I noted here, it's logically baseless. Imagine lawyers, doctors, oil-company executives mounting such a defense. If one may judge the performance of only those whose occupations he at one time or another shared, then he is prohibited from judging the performance of almost everyone--the lazy sales associate ["Barista," I mean]??at Starbucks, for example, or??the incompetent dentist who leaves his??patient's??mouth feeling as if it were invaded by those particularly nasty African bees.
But perhaps the??one in question has, in fact, worked as a waiter. And so he feels assured that his critique of the poor service he received at dinner last night is quite within bounds. Alas, no. He is mistaken, you see, because the restaurant at which he once delivered entrees to customers cannot be considered very busy, whereas the restaurant at which he dined last night certainly is. (The restaurant analogy is here used to demonstrate the further silliness of teachers who trumpet their work in urban schools, as opposed to the cushy schools across town.)
I'm familiar with no other profession that so often trots out this crutch. I was just discussing with others in the office why teachers, in particular, pledge such allegiance to this martyr mantra. And no, it's not because teaching is a tough, unrewarding job--rarely have I heard gentlemen who ride on the backs of??garbage trucks, when upbraided for not collecting the refuse, respond, "Well, you haven't ever been a sanitation worker, now have you?"
Furthermore, the teachers who evoke this lame excuse are typically lightyears behind the??wonks they vilify in realizing what actually works for public schools. We already know, for instance, that carrying on about the disadvantages that plague one's pupils is a bridge to nowhere. The high-school teacher is upset that his students didn't receive a solid middle-school education, the middle-school teacher upbraids his elementary-school counterparts for the same, the elementary-school teacher wonders why his students didn't go to pre-K, the pre-K teacher complains about his students' lack of nutrition... and so it goes, all the way back until we reach the moment of conception and realize that the world is just an unequal place.
Lots of teachers have realized that. Lots of schools enroll kids with every disadvantage under the sun and still manage to teach them well (see the Education Trust website for a comprehensive list). Those teachers that make excuses, that complain that their critics have never taught in an urban classroom, do not live on the moral mountaintop they think they do, nor are their??apologias needed in any school--urban or otherwise.