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Monday, April 15, 2013

Me, teach? No way!


One of the routine questions I ask my college English classes is, “Who plans to be a teacher?”

I laughingly tell those who raise their hands that they can be my “special helpers.” It’s useful to have students at the ready to hand out copies, record lists when we brainstorm, put out the lights when we use the projector. 

Yes, even some tough, abundantly tattooed,  facially pierced college students want to be the teacher’s special helpers. Especially if there is a whiff of extra credit in the air.

This year has been different.

This semester, for the first time, when I asked about future teachers… not one student raised her hand. In any of my classes.

“But who is going to teach the children?” I asked, lightly. Were the future teachers too shy to declare themselves?

Now that I have repeated the question several times over the course of many weeks, I’m starting to worry.

When I asked for a bit more information about why students aren’t considering the teaching profession, first the incredulous stares spoke volumes. A girl in the front row, a smart student, a hard worker, pulled back from me as if I was contagious. A male student in back looked me over as if I was promoting a bizarre religious cult.

A woman in the second row stammered, “Bbbut Ms. Bruce—teachers don’t make enough money! I have two kids!”

A 35 year-old male Marine Corps combat veteran spat, “Teach? No way! I don’t think they’d appreciate the discipline I would want to give!”

That got a round of chuckles.

“My high school was awful—most of the teachers could care less if we learned anything. All they cared about were the EOG’s” (end of grade tests).

“Yeah, my little sister failed her last EOG’s and they pushed her on to the next grade anyway. That was stupid. She wasn’t ready to be promoted.”

“No Child Left Behind ruined everything. My mom’s a teacher and she said she’d kill me if I ever decided to teach. She’s counting the days to retirement.”

“But many of you have children!” I said. “Aren’t you worried about who is going to teach them?”

“Heck, yes, I’m worried,” said a 30 year-old mother of twins. “But it won’t be me. I don’t need that kind of abuse.”

A friend and fellow blogger who works at a school in California recently vented her frustration. “Most of the teachers are 'retired,' but the worst of it is… they are still 'working' in the classroom. They show up in body, but expend the bare minimum energy to teach.”

I’m certainly not trying to indict my fellow educators. I’m on the same team! They often have a thankless job. Many of them are doing the best they can. No one got into teaching to be rich or famous. But at least there used to be the prospect of a modicum of respect from students, parents, administrators, the local community and even by elected officials. Teachers were not seen as leeches on the system, adversaries to “balanced budgets.”

For some teachers, the grind year after year with little or no support from administration or parents, turned once enthusiastic new teachers into burned-out shells. The dropout rate for new teachers is sky-high.

Nowadays, even college students who I see excited about learning and are enjoying our class, wouldn’t dream of teaching as their profession. I’m running out of time to try to change their minds.

Who is going to teach the children? Does anyone know?

19 comments:

  1. I really don't know. It has become an impossible and thankless job - and at a salary that won't provide for a family. Something in education is very wrong but that something is reflected in the whole culture. K-12 teachers are expected to be teachers as well as counselors, doctors, social workers, police officers, and, yes, parents, in many cases. The task is huge and the resources sparse. I must say that when I hear a 20 something year old say they want to go into teaching, I have to strongly resist the desire to give them the truth about K-12 teaching. Maybe I should say the truth though.

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    1. It's true. I also have mixed feelings when a student says he wants to teach. I advise them to hang on 2 more years for a graduate degree and teach at the community college level where we have a little more room to design instruction and more motivated students to teach. I never, ever thought I would experience burnout but at year 12 in teaching, it's happening to me, too. How my friends at year 30 get up in the morning, I don't know.

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    2. Very difficultly... and, sadly, always with an eye on the weekend and/or the next break.

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    3. Takes incredible strength. Seriously, I don't know how you all do it.

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  2. "No Child Left Behind" drove me lock, stock and barrel out of the classroom. We were supposed to attend "staff meetings" that involved county personnel coming to our district to teach us how to teach to the test. I refused to attend, took personal leave, and retired at the end of school year 2006. Imagine having to take direction from a man like W. (Sorry for the political interjection)

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    1. No Child Left Behind has become a sad joke even to students now. They realize they've been had. The majority of students right out of high school need remedial/developmental English/math (even that term "developmental" is educational gobbledygook for "you were screwed") before they can take college level classes. Trying to make changes in the system is like trying to turn an aircraft carrier, with abundant dis-incentives to even try.

      No wonder people clamor for "charter" schools, whatever that means, or opt to home-school.

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    2. And, sadly, I see evidence everywhere here in CA that the charter school movement as currently orchestrated and funded only further screws standard public school kids.

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    3. Home-schooling, although very effective, still can be very challenging, because of the stress of adding one more component to the parent/child relationship. I feel very lucky to have had all three of my sons for at least two years in my classroom, if not three. It worked beautifully for us and remains a fond memory for all of us.

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    4. Home schooling can have great results from what I've seen, but it's just not an option for everyone for many reasons. That was a blessing that you were able to teach your sons for a few years, and may have made an impression on the other students whose home lives were not so supportive.

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  3. At some point, when all the vitriol about and politics behind education is going to die down, we will see the virtue in what European countries have been doing for decades now: pay our teachers better, train our teachers better (Norway make them get a minimum of a Master's degree), invest in our kids' future by supporting and applying the findings of scientific research that demonstrates what works and what doesn't in the classroom. Until then, hope, just hope, that our kids' paths cross with talented and motivated teachers.

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  4. The U.S. public school model is not working, and what is so wrong with us learning from the successes of other countries? Norway is kicking ass in education. We don't have to reinvent the wheel to improve our schools. Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Megan.

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  5. When I came to the United States from Central America, at the age of almost eight, I already knew names for the human skeletol and how it worked, how plants grew and fed, and even names for countries around the world. (Since, I've forgotten them, of course.) I can also tell you that I began to cut classes, way-back from Junior High School, due to teachers that just didn't care to help students that were a little slower to learn (ME!). I used to want to be a teacher, too, but quickly changed my mind.

    One of my sisters and one of my daughters are English Majors, but did NOT want to become teachers either...for many reason, they say.

    The whole thing is very sad. Sigh.

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    1. Hi, my friend, I am sad about it this week. Although I have wonderful, truly wonderful people as students, if they choose not to consider teaching, I understand, but it makes me blue.

      On a side note, I had a conversation with a younger teacher this week. She was wondering if we had an violent incident at our school, if she would run away, or run towards it, as happened in Boston this week. I have wondered the same thing about myself.

      Should teachers in U.S. schools have to be worrying about what to do if someone sets a bomb or comes to school with a gun? I know violence can happen anywhere, but now schools seem to be one of the preferred targets. Hopefully someone smarter than me can figure all these problems out and make changes for the better.

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  6. Melanie, This is a frightening indicator of the future decline of our country and its educational system. Where will the inventors and the leaders come from if no one wants to teach them?

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    1. In my state, NC, there's a teaching fellows program that targets bright students and pays for their college education in exchange for the students teaching for the public schools for a 4 years.

      When I've mentioned this to students, it's still not enough to make them consider teaching. My experience is not a scientific survey, but I'm troubled just the same.

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  7. I have no idea who is going to teach the children. It is a scary thought! The summers off and Christmas vacation are nice perks but not when you do not get paid enough or support within the classroom.

    I have several friends who went into teaching and it took years from them to get full-time contracts. It is frightening that our government puts such little value on our teachers. We need to educate the future not let google educate.

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  8. In one class, we just watched the film The Freedom Writers, that true story about a teacher in an inner-city school in California. My students were RIVETED to the story. Afterwards, I asked if anyone had changed his mind about teaching. "NO!" was the loud response. Good grief!

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  9. My oldest is a teacher. She stepped into her first teaching job brimming with idealism and enthusiasm. Ten years or so in, she has no illusions. She loves the kids and connects with them in the way we all hope our educators will. She pours herself into the work and I'm certain that years from now, many of her students will smile when they remember their time in her classroom.

    Yet she is tired. She works to teach in a system that rallies against education. She worries about all those who are simply shoved forward in bleary-eyed packs, able to spit out answers but sorely uneducated.

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  10. You'll probably delete this, but in my opinion the teacher's unions have put a bad taste in everyone's mouth. Who wants to deal with that kind of arm twisting pressure and politicking? No one today.

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