To tell the truth, the teacher-bashing season began very early this year. Our new governor has done everything he could to portray teachers as lazy overpaid parasites and thugs with no interest in children and to turn the rest of the taxpaying public against teachers. For teachers in Wisconsin and other states hit by the budget-cutting pandemic, this will be a tough year. Many have chosen to retire rather than return to a hard job that has fewer rewards than ever.
As children, we had little exposure to any adults at work except for teachers. We have no reason to deal with marketing executives, tax attorneys, research biologists, insurance adjusters, or tool and die makers on the job. As a result, we sometimes grow up separating adults into those who are our parents, those who are our teachers, and perhaps a hazy class of "all others" who don't hold much interest for the normal six or seven-year-old. Some people might choose to be teachers because they lack the grades or the imagination to become anything else, but most people who go into teaching do so because they care about children. A mathematician who could teach at the university level or go into business on Wall Street, but chooses instead to work for a fraction of the pay teaching eighth graders is not (now matter what some mischievous eighth graders may believe) an enemy of children.
Teaching is a job that not everybody can do well. Some individuals seem like natural teachers, and some struggle. Even people who have what it takes to be great teachers have problems at first. It takes good training and lots of support. If you're not happy with your child's teacher, remember that he or she has a job most people would never chose, and you'll do your child no favors by encouraging disrespect. Demonizing our society’s dedicated educators does not do our society’s children any good. By declaring war against teachers, we send children the message that education is not an honorable pursuit, and the children will suffer the most devastating casualties in that war.
We compare today's teachers to those we remember from the mythical "Good Old Days" and hold them responsible for solving so many problems our grandparents never knew. Yes, high school students were more disciplined a century ago than they are now, but why is that? A century ago, most children quit school by fourteen or sixteen and went to work on the farm or in a factory, or even started families. A century ago, teachers were allowed to paddle children or send them home without facing legal ramifications, and children had a "healthy respect" for their elders' power. A century ago, the moral values of our local communities had more influence than television or popular culture. A century ago, we didn't have the same bewildering smorgasbord of child-rearing philosophies fighting against each other and competing for our loyalty.
We may all remember one sainted self-sacrificing teacher we had when we were children and wonder why they can't all be like that now. Perhaps she was a nun who took vows of chastity and poverty, or perhaps she was the old maid or widow who devoted herself to educating children for forty years to support herself. Or perhaps she was a happily married woman with no lack for money but felt a need to do something useful with her time. But the truth is that many teachers in the "good old days" were incompetent and left the profession as soon as a better job or marriage proposal came up. Otherwise, the stereotype of the bad teacher would have never developed. Today's schools do hold teachers to higher standards than at any time in the past. We need good teachers now more than ever, but we are not going to attract our best and brightest to the profession by putting them down and cutting their pay.
As children, we had little exposure to any adults at work except for teachers. We have no reason to deal with marketing executives, tax attorneys, research biologists, insurance adjusters, or tool and die makers on the job. As a result, we sometimes grow up separating adults into those who are our parents, those who are our teachers, and perhaps a hazy class of "all others" who don't hold much interest for the normal six or seven-year-old. Some people might choose to be teachers because they lack the grades or the imagination to become anything else, but most people who go into teaching do so because they care about children. A mathematician who could teach at the university level or go into business on Wall Street, but chooses instead to work for a fraction of the pay teaching eighth graders is not (now matter what some mischievous eighth graders may believe) an enemy of children.
Teaching is a job that not everybody can do well. Some individuals seem like natural teachers, and some struggle. Even people who have what it takes to be great teachers have problems at first. It takes good training and lots of support. If you're not happy with your child's teacher, remember that he or she has a job most people would never chose, and you'll do your child no favors by encouraging disrespect. Demonizing our society’s dedicated educators does not do our society’s children any good. By declaring war against teachers, we send children the message that education is not an honorable pursuit, and the children will suffer the most devastating casualties in that war.
We compare today's teachers to those we remember from the mythical "Good Old Days" and hold them responsible for solving so many problems our grandparents never knew. Yes, high school students were more disciplined a century ago than they are now, but why is that? A century ago, most children quit school by fourteen or sixteen and went to work on the farm or in a factory, or even started families. A century ago, teachers were allowed to paddle children or send them home without facing legal ramifications, and children had a "healthy respect" for their elders' power. A century ago, the moral values of our local communities had more influence than television or popular culture. A century ago, we didn't have the same bewildering smorgasbord of child-rearing philosophies fighting against each other and competing for our loyalty.
We may all remember one sainted self-sacrificing teacher we had when we were children and wonder why they can't all be like that now. Perhaps she was a nun who took vows of chastity and poverty, or perhaps she was the old maid or widow who devoted herself to educating children for forty years to support herself. Or perhaps she was a happily married woman with no lack for money but felt a need to do something useful with her time. But the truth is that many teachers in the "good old days" were incompetent and left the profession as soon as a better job or marriage proposal came up. Otherwise, the stereotype of the bad teacher would have never developed. Today's schools do hold teachers to higher standards than at any time in the past. We need good teachers now more than ever, but we are not going to attract our best and brightest to the profession by putting them down and cutting their pay.
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