Anyone who knows me, knows that I am very passionate about
education. I tweet, I blog, I annoy
people on Facebook. But I am passionate because I am a teacher. It is fundamentally who I am. I remember teaching swimming lessons in grade
school with my mom and getting the kid in my class who in June wouldn’t put his face in the
water but by July he was beaming with pride after he jumped in off the diving
board. I remember walking out of my
Accounting 201 lecture as a sophomore in college and heading straight to the LAS office
to change my major to secondary history education.
And I have never looked back. I am
starting my 18th year as a teacher.
Teaching is the one profession where everyone feels like they
are an expert because everyone has spent 12 plus years in school (Bruner, 1986). The perception is that teaching is easy. Claims are made that some people are born to
teach. Movies and television best exemplify
the role of the teacher in the imagination of America.
From the hero who comes in and saves kids from themselves,
those teachers were just born to teach.
Or conversely, look at the buffoons who run our schools (“2 months Bender”).
But these narratives are far
too simplistic. Because while that
phrase, those who can do, and those who can’t
teach is the way teachers are represented, it couldn’t be more false. And here is why.
First, teaching is craftsmanship. It is a mix of art and science. Like artists
and scientists, teachers are not born. Malcolm
Gladwell in Outliers calls this the
10,000 hour rule. Those who excel at
something put in a minimum of 10,000 hours of practice. While that "rule" is actually challenged, the point is that teachers spend hours developing their science
of teaching. Teachers continually strive to improve their craft through lesson (re)design, continuing
classes, advanced degrees, workshops, reading journal articles, etc. etc. etc. One simple example is the endless amount of teacher chats on Twitter. Teachers aren't paid to tweet with other teachers. They do so because they seek, in the words of Daniel Pink, mastery and purpose of their craft.
Teachers also refine their artistic side through years of
experience. Humor, passion for a subject
after teaching it 100 times, getting kids to learn without even realizing it,
are all part of the acting and the dance
of teaching. Deborah Ball, Dean of the
School of Education at the University of Michigan calls the work of teaching
intentional and unnatural. For example,
typically we ask questions about things we don’t know the answer to. But when teaching, we often ask questions we do
know the answer to but need to ask the questions in a way that draws on kids’
natural curiosity and leads to inquiry. The word education itself comes from the word educe or to bring out, to lead
forth. It is not just
filling up the pail with facts. In the
words of Paolo Friere, it is teaching kids to read the word and the world. Those who can teach, and they teach well, as a result of the
relentless pursuit of their craft.
But teaching is far more than the craft enacted day to
day. It is subsumed by love.
It is a love for learning and a love for kids. It is
a love that transcends age, race, gender, socio-economic status. It is the selfless acts that nobody sees. Giving up eating lunch to help a student or
colleague, exhibiting patience when the time for patience has long passed. It is a warm smile when kids enter a room, a
hug, a high five.
Spending multiple hours planning so that the kids have a good
learning experience for 50 minutes.
Treating 30 kids like they are all your own children. Without love, classrooms are cold warehouses, but
with love they are warm and dynamic spaces. And
we all have several teachers we can reflect on and realize it was their love
that made us love their class or a particular topic.
There is also the love that students have for their
teachers. My own daughters beam when
they talk about their teachers. And it
is love and trust that make classrooms work year after year. I have learned more and grown more as a
person because of the students I interact with.
Finally teaching is really fundamentally about hope. It is a hope and a faith that kids can aspire
to the greatest of heights. While the media
would have us all believe that we are getting dumber by the day, schools are
failing, and kids are more disrespectful than ever (all false), education is really
designed so that in the words of JFK, “the torch can be passed to a new generation”. Teachers possess an
unwavering hope for all of their students to succeed. A hope that this year, kids will learn more
than last year. A hope that they can
impact the life of a child to go on and do great things. A hope that our society will be better than
we are today. Schools represent the
promise of our democracy so that all have access to the American Dream. I have
yet to talk with a teacher who doesn’t want to inspire kids to soar to the best
of their abilities. Nothing inspires me
more than when a former student comes back and tells me about all the great
things they are doing.
Teachers don’t do these things in isolation. They teach in community schools, on athletic
fields, after-school programs, and many
other contexts. Teaching is an exercise
that is vital to the health of a community. And because of those teachers who can and do, communities thrive on the
skill, love, and hope that they bring to children each and every day. Our children, our communities, our world. So
while we often hear how important teachers are and how much they really should
be paid (but aren't) and how much they should be respected (and are not by ed reformers and politicians) or conversely how bad our
educational system because corporations would love nothing more than to make a profit on a system that is locally controlled, consider the actual role
teachers play in our lives. Consider the
immense amount of themselves they pour into their work with kids. As we begin the promise of another school
year, I take pride and comfort knowing there are teachers, who can and do for
our young people and for our communities.
