Teachers and Teaching

Teaching is a lot of work, yet many people who see teachers in action think they can pick up a text book and a pointer and start teaching, not understanding that a good teacher makes teaching look easy, but in fact it takes an incredible amount of energy and skill to motivate a class.

I don't teach public school, (I teach emotionally disturbed youth in another setting) but know many teachers who do. They all say that motivating students to learn and managing the class is probably the hardest thing to do, right up there with balancing a bicycle on your nose. What makes it so hard is the breed of kids that teachers have to deal with.

Back in the day we had corporal punishment, something I truely believe is needed for todays insolent, disrespectful, punk kids. There were consequences for bad behavior. You knew that if you screwed up, there was going to be hell to pay. Principals didn't beat the shit out of kids, but they let them know, by the arc of a paddle whizzing thru the air, that they had to be aware of their actions and impulsive decisions and how those actions and impulsive decisions could affect them. In other words students were held accountable, which in turn helped them develop self-discipline and respect, words that a good majority of kids couldn't define if you handed them a dictionary.

The pendulum has swung back much too far. Teachers have been hog-tied by district rules and regulations that leave them powerless to deal with seriously problematic youth. They are stomped on and taken advantage of. They have been subjected to verbal and physcial threats and physical harm. Don't get me wrong, there are many good, well behaved and mannered students, but a classroom only needs a couple of the others to completely disrupt it.

Teaching is hard work. Nothing about it is easy. You prep in the morning and you prep in the afternoon. I personally work thru my lunch just about every day. I wolf down a sandwich and then start prepping for the afternoon. Many times I take work home. It's pretty much non-stop. The paperwork generated in a typical class, particularly SPED, is mind boggling.

The education needed to become a teacher is vigerous, intense and time consuming. When you are in school, you have no life. You are told what courses to take and when. You might think your professor is a stupid imbecile or worse, but you have to swallow your opinion because it could affect your grade if you say anything. You are given conflicting instructions. Oftentimes you are told to take a class that you don't need or told that a class that you need to graduate will be offered in the Fall and then find out it wasn't true. And then there are the tests, CSET, CBEST, RICA. It's one hoop after another, a parade of trained seals slapping their fins together as they fly thru the air. You put up with so much shit. If I would have known what a ball buster school was going to be I'm not sure if I would have taken the plunge into graduate school at my age.

By the time you are done with the program you are well equipped to handle the onslaught of the day to day classroom. Kids that can't speak English. Kids who can't learn because they are so poor and hungary. Kids who have been socially promoted and by the time they reach high school they are behind academically four or five grades. Special Education kids in full inclusion programs. Kids who don't give a damn about you, learning or education. Kids who are cruel and violent and have no sense of decency or respect. Classrooms are composed of all these categories of students and teachers have to make it work.

Besides teachers we are therapists, social workers, surrogate parents, disciplinarians, counselors, nurses and friends. We play many, many roles.

One half of the teachers who begin teaching drop out before they have completed five years of teaching. The work, the stress, the politics, the shitty salaries, all work in tandem to undermine and demoralize today's teacher.

I love to teach and it's the love I have for my profession, for what I do, that has gotten me this far, but there are many days when the journey forward seems too long, too tedious and I want to just give up and sleep. Yet I hope I can always stay focused on the nobility of what I do, teach, to get me through another week.

Don't blame teachers for your kid screwing up in school. Instill values of respect and self-discipline. Take a proactive stance by volunteering in your son or daughters class. Support your teachers. They are one of the chief molders of today's youth.