Working People : Society ‘Demeans Teachers, Then Expects Miracles’ : Respect: Parents seem to understand the importance of good teaching. So why don’t they want their kids to become teachers?
“I am a teacher.” I believe those are four beautiful words. Yet when I do utter those words at social gatherings, I am made to feel very uncomfortable by those who think I am crazy for engaging in such low-paying work, by those who snicker like so many eternal footmen at what they automatically presume to be my lack of success in some previous endeavor, by those who consider me and my colleagues one great big worthless abomination and who contend, “When’re ya gonna start teaching these kids something?”
Excuse me, I teach these kids something every day. In fact I do more than that. Not only do I educate them, I advise them, inspire them, love them, provide them with a depth and richness they do not get outside the walls of school, out in the great big American pit of television and empty consumer products, out in a culture that creaks with superficiality, decay and bankruptcy. I deliver the message every day with warmth, humor and high expectations. And I am not alone in this mission. Tens of thousands of my colleagues in the L.A. Unified School District can tell you the same story.
People want their children to have good teachers, but they don’t want their children to become teachers. Inherent in this discomfiting truth is the very fundamental lack of respect that society has for those who teach. Teaching is looked upon as a last resort for those who have failed in other careers, a dumping ground for the mediocre and the inept. “Those who can’t do, teach,” smirks the snidely familiar apothegm. Yet the very consensus that demeans teachers perpetually expects them to work miracles under daunting conditions for minimal pay.
Most parents realize, if only intuitively, the importance of excellent teachers in the lives of their children. Why then is the back of the community turned, year in and year out, on the educational system, refusing to support the public schools either financially or morally?
The problem stems from the radically incorrect assumption that teaching is easy. One hears it all the time: “What are you complaining about? You work six hours a day, you’ve got three months off every summer; I wish I was that lucky.”
Being “instructionally involved” with a classroom of 40--or more--unmotivated and sometimes heavily armed students five or six times a day is not the sinecure some perceive it to be. People who do not teach cannot know the thousands of split-second decisions one must make constantly to avert chaos, the tenacity required in attempting to reverse so much social and family dysfunction, the evenings and weekends spent marking papers, preparing lessons, copying materials, phoning parents, completing mind-numbing paperwork, the summers spent in graduate courses and conferences learning more about one’s subject and emerging theories of educational reform.
A vacancy in our English department provided another example of the pervasive misconception that teaching is easy. Of the 16 individuals interviewed one day, only three possessed valid teaching credentials and only five had any classroom teaching experience. These were nice, sincere people, clearly desiring careers in teaching, and that is admirable. However, they came to us with an elemental misunderstanding of the task, that one simply walks into a classroom and “turns kids on.” But just as one cannot simply show up in an operating room and perform surgery, one cannot simply show up in a classroom and conduct the business of education. We did find two qualified, credentialed professionals to add to our faculty, but I am quite disturbed by what I have been seeing.
Especially troublesome is that, due to a shortage of teachers, the L.A. Unified School District has been--and will continue--issuing emergency credentials to untrained individuals. I understand our classrooms must have teachers; however, it seems as if the Board of Education itself regards teaching as a relatively easy chore, something that, oh, anybody can perform.
Things must change. I am not calling simply for higher teacher salaries, even though I believe we deserve that. What I am calling for is those who desire a career in education to take the profession seriously: Get your student-teaching experience with a master teacher who can show you the complicated ropes. Qualify for a valid teaching credential. Dedicate yourself to the highest standards.
I am also asking every parent, every member of the community, to begin honestly respecting what we do, for it is the community that ultimately benefits from the fruits of our labors.
