Evagation

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Why I would never be a K-12 teacher. (Also: Ode to Teachers)

Because I am not a good enough person. Now, just in case anyone wants to come running to my defense (leave me my fantasies, people!), I'm not saying I'm a bad person. I am simply not a good enough person to teach below a 12th grade level (I might someday consider teaching at a JC level). Both of my parents became teachers in the early 1970's. My Mom became a first grade teacher, and my Dad taught high school history (American and World), geography and, on occasion, civics and econ. By the time my brother and I came along, they had both been teaching for a decade, Mom was still teaching first grade, Dad was still teaching high school. They retired soon after my brother and I graduated from high school (my ten-year high school reunion is only two years away which is just freaky), Mom taught first grade until she retired, and Dad continued teaching high school history, and geography (he gave up econ and civics at some point). My parents were incredible teachers. And they loved teaching. Both of them were passionate about what they taught, and they constantly tried to find new ways to engage their student's interest. They took their jobs very seriously. If a student wanted extra help, they would always stay late to work with that student, no matter how much my brother and I complained about having to hang out in their classrooms. We were always hanging out in classrooms. While I never had a problem referring to teachers as Mr/Mrs/Ms, even though some were family friends and of course I knew them by their first names, as well. Although I did develop a cavalier attitude about areas of the school that were "off-limits" to students. I hung out in teacher's rooms all the time (sometimes interesting stuff would go down and, in elementary and junior high, they'd usually let me stick around even if the teachers were being a bit unkind about some of their colleagues but that changed once I hit high school--they booted me out more often, always asking me why I didn't have any friends, which didn't bother me because I had BOOKS, and they were my friends). They would often talk about union stuff, which I loved because one of my earliest memories is our family (I was about five) picketing the school district's office on behalf of the teacher's union. I thought that was about the coolest thing you could ever do with teachers when they weren't in their classrooms. Wave around signs and yell at passing cars. All of my life, my parents (with their union) have had to fight for the meager salaries they were paid, and for proper benefits packages. Until recently, one of the few good things you could say about teacher compensation was that they had good benefits packages--now even that's not true, anymore. Before they might not have had any type of deductible (which was true for my parents, so I can safely say that this was also true of most of California) and more services were covered in full, instead of in part (again, a true statement about my parent's situation). That is just wrong. Without teachers there would be no doctors, or lawyers, or stock brokers, or you get my drift. Everybody has benefited from the (often self-less, and far too under-appreciated in my eyes) work of teachers. Not a single one of us can say that we did not learn something from a teacher. You would think that this rant is leading to "And I wouldn't be a teacher because they don't get paid enough, respected enough, lauded enough, and generally appreciated for the work they do." Nope. I only care about the money because teachers are worth more than they are currently being paid. I do not have the patience, stamina, or even the drive to be a teacher. My Mom ended up teaching year-round school for most of my life (that's when they thought it would be a great idea to combat over-crowding in the schools by having the school operate year-round, with teachers moving in and out of a classroom every three months), so I would often spend my summer helping out in her classroom. (I am never again going to tear down, or set up a classroom. I can probably still cover a classroom in colored butcher paper in my sleep. And my parents used every square inch of their classroom walls for bulletin boards. I also am never again digging through a dark, dirty and smelly cavernous storage room looking for an extra anything.) I was not good at helping in the first grade classroom. You would think it would be fairly easy if I was at least in the third grade, that by that age I should be able to deal with kids a few years younger than me. I never learned how to deal with a large group of first graders. Do you know that you can't tell a first grader to just sit down and read quietly because they can't read yet? Do you know that if you give a class of first graders an assignment, and then turn your back on them for a few minutes because all you were asking them to do was sit and color, that half of them will be out of their chairs and wandering around the classroom when you turn around? Do you know that sometimes first graders throw up on their teachers (it's happened to my Mom more than once)? Do you know that first graders still throw massive tantrums and see no problem with throwing themselves on the floor, kicking and screaming like a banshee? Do you know how hard it is to teach first grade? I do. And my Mom was brilliant at it. She didn't teach kids just the basics, she taught them about Van Gogh, and Gaugin. She played classical music for them and talked with them about it. In addition to assigned reading groups, her students always had access to Mom's extensive classroom library of books (which ranged from simple picture books to fourth/fifth grade level chapter books). That every single day of her class was organized in fifteen minute increments because that was the only way she could get in everything that she wanted to teach those little kids. My Mom is a saint for what she has done to help shape the lives of so many people. I still get stopped by people who recognize me as her daughter (I wasn't kidding when I said I was in her classroom all of the time, and as I got older, most of my babysitting clients were parents of her students) and how they want me to let Mom know what they're doing now in life (they are almost always college students/grads) and that they still remember and love her for teaching them in first grade. My Dad was also a saint, in his own way. His focus was always about trying to get the students to love what they were learning, which is damned hard when it's high school history. He would show clips of current movies that were even remotely historical in nature to supplement the text-book readings. He loved reading aloud passages from some of his favorite history, biography, and geography books. He was also addicted to the over-head projector. If a student asked a question, Dad would write it down on the projector and then he'd map out his response so that all of the other students could enjoy the answer. Every worksheet he passed out, every group of notes he ever gave, and every assignment was written down on that over-head projector. He'd write on clear transparencies, that he would keep for months in case a student needed some clarification of a point for an upcoming test, or paper. There were often days that I sat in his classroom and got all of my homework done while he worked something out with a confused student. Every day when he came home from work, his hands were stained blue-green because he always rested them on the over-head projector as he wrote, but he didn't care that the ink dyed his hands because it was from writing on the projector, which meant he was doing his job and teaching his students, so it became his badge of honor. Even though Dad loved what he was doing, there were still some high school kids that were just plain jerks and tried to make his life a living hell. I can't even begin to remember how many times our house got tp'ed by an angry student, or the few times the brats actually rang our doorbell and through eggs into our house. Dad had expletives scrawled onto his car by irate students. One student even tried drugging him with some over the counter stimulants, which almost lead to a fourth heart-attack (Dad always carried the same thermos of water to work with him, and the student in question spiked his thermos with the drugs, and we know this for a fact because the rest of the students in the class were very up-front about seeing this girl essentially poison my Dad, and they felt guilty for allowing her to do it in the first place because Dad got really sick almost immediately after drinking the water). It was a very sad day in our family when Dad decided to retire early because of how he was being treated by his students. I'm almost crying now just to think about it because one of his students poisoned him and almost gave him his fourth heart-attack. That girl didn't even get suspended. She was an elite athlete, in choir, and generally beloved by the rest of the school. The administration passed it off as a foolish, but childish, prank. I found her once on myspace and had to refrain myself from writing to her and telling her what her little stunt did to our family. Which is why I cannot stand it when people make sweeping, negative remarks about teachers. Especially if they've never been a teacher. That's why I got so mad yesterday about the things Shannon Hale wrote in her blog. If you read through yesterday's entry, you'll see that I was accused of committing libel and defamation of character. The administrator for Shannon Hale's blog felt that I was misrepresenting her client and that it was strong enough to be defamatory, and libelous in nature. So, just to clear that up. I went back today and found eleven passages in which Shannon Hale either obliquely criticized teachers (by making constant negative references to what is being "taught" in our school, which is simply another way of saying "teacher," since they are the ones doing the teaching) or spoke negatively, and always unfairly, about some of the people who were her teachers at some point in time. While I realize that people can criticize a specific teacher, I also feel that the criticism must be fair, and just, and not simply conjecture on the part of the complainer. I also don't think it's right for a popular YA author to encourage her blog readers to commiserate with her over these "bad" teachers. Check out the new part of my side-bar that says "Clipmarks," to see the specific references that I found in the YA author's blog, and my comments that mostly pointed out the fallaciousness of every single one of her arguments. I do not take accusations of libel, and defamation of character lightly. Hence the need that I have to offer evidentiary proof to back up the critical statements that I made about her blog. Not all teachers are good. Even less are great. That does not give someone the right to constantly make broad, negative generalizations about all teachers. Because when someone does that, they are talking about my parents. My parents were great teachers. I could never be as great as they were in their classrooms. In the same email in which the YA author's site administrator accused me of libel, and defamation of character, she also signed off with the following line: "Please remember that Shannon, I, and everyone who comments at squeetus are still human beings. It'd be nice if you could think the best of us and not be too hasty to judge." Personally, I feel that advice is better directed towards Shannon. Teachers are also human beings, and she should think the best of them before leaping to hasty, negative conclusions about all teachers. Because, as I said, she was talking about my parents. I'm sorry if my post yesterday came off as rude to anyone but if someone criticizes all teachers, then I will rush to the defense of my parents, and their almost seventy combined years of teaching. It's so easy for some people to focus on only the negative aspects of our school system instead of trying to create positive solutions to the perceived problems. It's easier to complain in a blog, to many readers, instead of trying to utilize that readership for good, positive things, such as letter writing campaigns to state and national legislature to encourage them to give more funding to our schools. Is our educational system perfect? Heck, no, it's actually far from it. Does it help any of us if we do nothing but sit around and complain? No, of course it doesn't. I'm always sending emails to members of state and national congress about education funding. I don't talk about it here because I don't really see the need, it's something I feel strongly about and I'm doing my best to focus on creating a positive change, instead of dwelling on the negative. Because we all know that teachers are under-appreciated, not paid nearly enough for the work that they do, and are no longer receiving stellar benefits packages (health insurance, pension, etc.) I'm doing what I can to make a positive difference, and I can only hope that someday teachers will be truly compensated for the work that they do.

Labels: teachers

Posted by Katie. on Thursday, February 22, 2007 at 7:52 PM | Permalink | 0 comments | links to this post   

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