Martin County School Board member Tony Anderson is leaving teaching behind | Opinion

When Martin County School Board member Tony Anderson was growing up in Port Salerno, his father offered a bit of advice to him and his siblings: Stick with this community — it's off the beaten path now, but it's got a lot of potential.

Anderson did. Today, he's got a nice house in a beautiful neighborhood, surrounded by homes owned by family members, a short distance from the Seabranch Preserve State Park and the St. Lucie Inlet.

In that case, "sticking with it" really paid off for Anderson.

He has shown resolve in his work on the school board, too, speaking out on controversial issues even when he knew he didn't have the support of the board's majority.

Which made his announcement at a school board meeting last month all the more surprising. During the time set aside for board members' comments, Anderson said he has taken a leave of absence from his middle school teaching job in Palm Beach County.

He's been a teacher, at one level or another, for almost 30 years. It's a family legacy: His brother, the late David "Doc" Anderson, was an educator who served on the Martin County School Board longer than any other school board member in Florida's history.

So why is Tony Anderson leaving teaching behind? He's tired of dealing with unruly students who have no respect for their teachers or the learning process.

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Anderson didn't close the door on returning to the classroom. However, in his comments at the board meeting and an interview with me, he indicated such a scenario is unlikely.

More likely, he'll give notice next fall he's quitting for good.

"The majority of the kids are good kids," he told me. "They're respectful, they're lovable, and they're the reason why you're there."

However, he noted, it only takes one student with behavioral issues to disrupt an entire classroom. When that happens, there's no question who's going to be held accountable.

"The teacher is always the one on the hot seat," he said.

This sounds like a replay of about a million conversations I've had with my wife, who taught elementary school students in Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, for many years before finally deciding she had enough.

She's now semi-retired, working odd jobs a few days a week. None of those jobs require the bachelor's degree, master's degree, or various post-graduate certification courses she took. Her stress level is a lot lower, though.

Speaking as a former student, I sense there's been a shift in societal attitudes toward teachers.

When I got in trouble in school, I knew I was going to be punished far worse when I got home. Although you could describe me as a professional arguer, in those days there was no way I was going to win a debate with a teacher and convince my parents I had been unjustly accused.

Teachers seemed to get the benefit of a doubt back then, particularly from parents.

I'm not so sure that's true any more. If a child gets called out for a disciplinary issue, it's more likely now the parents will default to assuming the teacher is to blame.

After all, there's no way the parents' little angels could be anything less than perfect. It's got to be the mean old teachers are trying to ruin little Johnnie's or Joanie's life, for reasons known only to them.

While other teachers aren't necessarily as outspoken as Anderson is, or have the forum he does for expressing his views, he said many of them share his frustrations.

"Teachers are burned out," he said. "They're having mental breakdowns. I've seen it firsthand."

And he believes those frustrations are mounting.

There was parental pushback against mask mandates during the height of the COVID pandemic. Although there was no way of knowing how effective masks might actually be, Anderson said school districts were trying to use the best medical advice available to keep students, teachers, and staff safe.

"We were dealing with the unknown," he said. "When you're dealing with the unknown, you've got to make some decisions."

With any luck, that sordid debate is behind us, at least until the next pandemic comes along and we get to have more discussions about whether personal convenience should trump public safety.

But Anderson still sees parents, as well as state officials, trying to micromanage instructional issues they might not fully understand.

One of those issues is critical race theory, which he sees as a bogeyman intended to fire up culture warriors.

"That's just a made-up thing," he said.

Then there are the discussions about banning books, many of which their critics have never read.

Which isn't to say parents shouldn't have input into the education of their children. Anderson said there are plenty of ways to do that, including parent-teacher conferences, informal talks with teachers and principals, and just becoming more involved in students' activities in and out of the classroom.

Communication is a two-way street, though, and Anderson thinks parents need to spend at least as much time learning why certain instructional materials and techniques are used as they do trying to eliminate them.

"There's a disrespect and a disregard for the people who have been in the trenches," he said.

While his teaching future is unclear, Anderson said he's not planning to give up his school board seat. He plans to run for re-election this fall and if he wins, he'll continue to fight to make Martin County schools the best they can be.

That'll be a lot easier if, instead of turning it into a battle, parents work in partnership with school officials.

"We're all in it together," he said.

If more people adopt that attitude, it'll be bad news for would-be troublemakers like I was.

This column reflects the opinion of Blake Fontenay. Contact him via email at blake.fontenay@tcpalm.com or at 772-232-5424.