Does the teaching profession stand apart from all others?

Yeah, teachers are apart from all others.

Teachers get a whole lot of education- many of them as much as a doctor, a lawyer, or a computer programmer. Then they work long hours with low morale for a pittance. They have the most important job imaginable and yet they are treated like pawns in a political game. They are the first to get the axe when budgets are tight. Parents blame them for their failing offspring, society blames them for failing to educate, and politicians blame them for needing money.

Oh yeah, being a teacher is special.

can you tell that I have three sisters who are teachers, and I’ve spent most of my life in the educational arena?

@crisw
You echo the sentiments of my previously chosen profession. It looked really good on paper though…...If only I lived my life on paper.
<——Puppy lives life on paper

Teaching. Is. Amazing.

Teaching is possibly the most underrated profession.

One of my favorite poems… Not sure how much it relates to the question, but it totally relates to the teachers are awesome vibe…

What Teachers Make by Taylor Mali

He says the problem with teachers is, “What’s a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?”
He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s true what they say about
teachers:

Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the dinner guests
that it’s also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite company.

“I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor,” he says.
“Be honest. What do you make?”

And I wish he hadn’t done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won’t I let you get a drink of water?
Because you’re not thirsty, you’re bored, that’s why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven’t called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, “Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don’t you?”
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?

Low pay, super high job satisfaction.

@DrBill
Are you a teacher? Most that I know- at least in the public schools- don’t experience that “super high job satisfaction.” In fact, only 33— 57 percent of teachers, in various surveys, expressed that they were very satisfied with their careers.

We treat our teachers very badly. I do not know that I would say it as you phrased it: “apart from all others,” but I definitely think it deserves better pay and higher status. Also, we need to restructure the education system to remove some of the non-teaching burdens we have placed on our teachers.

We all have good days and bad days and it effects how we answer those polls about “super high job satisfaction” I wonder how those AIG execs experience “super high job satisfaction” or how many jellies do. Super high not just high.

On Monday it wasn’t very high when it was clear my AP babies had not done their weekend reading and just stared at me with blank eyes. I shared my lack of satisfaction and on Tuesday in a Q&A session, they asked great questions and many were able to answer. Today was “super high” because while they were taking a timed (50min) DBQ essay test, another teacher covered the class. The first thing he said when I got back was he was glad I wasn’t his teacher because my test was so hard. So far the exams I have graded have been excellent. GO AP BABIES, YAY!!

@crisw

Retired teacher. If I did not need to eat, I would teach for free.

I personally like to believe that they do stand apart from other careers, but They’re most definitely not treated that way. Teaching is what I dream of doing one day, and I hope that one day, that teachers will be treated with a higher respect than they are. One day.

@EmpressPixie I would say the most underrated and underpaid! These are the people to whom we entrust our children to prepare them to become the productive members of tomorrow’s society.

Here is the flip side of my question. What makes for a bad teacher? Everyone has had experience with them. Could part of it be a smallness of soul, not just resentment over social position but an unwillingness to give of oneself, to give away that part of oneself that separates the teacher from the student.

So… this is something that has always frustrated me horribly. Pay is supposedly based on limited ability. A star baseball player gets paid zillions because it is very hard to be a star baseball player and there aren’t that many of them. Great teachers still get beans. How does that make sense? There aren’t just tons and tons of them. Why, as a society, do we not value the great ones enough to make them have a financial incentive to choose teaching over, say, baseball? If you have the skill for both, I’d rather have you teaching our kids than hitting something with something else and then going for a jog.

Of course, I’m not a sports fan at all, so..

@LostInParadise Of course the definition of “bad” teacher is very subjective. Someone whose teaching style, discipline policy or even subject may make one person call him a bad teacher while others appreciate him. Parents may call him a bad teacher if he doesn’t appreciate Jr’s exceptional skills and abilities, giving him a C. A first year teacher may not be as “good” as an experienced one. A teacher in lower socioeconomic area might have less success than one in an upper-middle class suburb.

I am not saying that there are no poorly performing teachers. In 18 years I have seen a few. I have seen a couple who lost the spark in the last couple of years of 3+decade careers. Three have had health problems that distracted them, one was a little too interested in students (questions were immediately raised by his colleagues and he was gone before he could do anything illegal). Sometimes teachers just can’t deal with the financial pressure and working conditions and may not perform as well as they leave. There is an enormous turnover of teachers in their 1st five years.

The teacher who was most popular with his students was one of the worst teachers I ever saw. I was his union rep at a couple of meetings with the principal but we all had some idea what was going on. He was questioned about a student who had 25 absences in 6 weeks and still earn a B-. That was the lowest grade he ever gave. During any class period their would only be a few students in his classroom while the rest wandered the halls and neighborhood. He would also try to pressure other teachers to raise grades for “his” students. When he had his due process and was fired, there was a demonstration by some of his students and letters to the Board from parents.

@EmpressPixie: Great baseball playing is valued, and people will turn on their TVs to watch a great baseball player. This brings in advertising revenue, and because the team owners have a lot of money from this, the players can refuse to play unless they get huge salaries.

Great teaching is not valued, and school budgets (the largest part of which is usually teacher salaries) get fought over in municipal budget wars all the time, with the school budget usually losing. And because teachers are often doing it for the love of teaching or for the love of the subject, if one teacher refuses to teach because the salary is too low, there are three or for waiting to step into that position.

(In my situation: I have looked into teaching. I’d have to spend two more years in school on top of what I’ve already done, and I’d have to take a 50% pay cut. Just not worth it.)

I think that while teachers are underpaid they also have one of best schedules around. Assuming your state operates on the 9 months on, 3 months off. When I calculated my salary divided by the number of months I work—it ends up not being so bad. I definitely don’t feel undervalued in my community, but do feel disrespected as a member of the larger collective. Sometimes I feel like teachers would be happier in their jobs if they stopped being so negative about everything we DON’T get, and more aware of all the benefits teachinng can provide you.

@Supergirl I have worked in the corporate world (25 yrs) as well as teaching (18 yrs) and I can tell you that teaching is harder. From the time I hit the door until I leave at 3, I hardly have time to go to the bathroom. Usually during lunch we are dealing with students. We chaparone club meetings, games and dances. We grade papers for several hours on weekends. On our “vacation” time, 2weeks winter break, 1 week spring break and 11 weeks summer (we start a week before the students and a couple of days after classes in June) we work on curriculum and professional development. I teach 3 subjects and about half the time I have a new book and have to write or rewrite lesson plans. Every 5 years we have to renew our credentials which entails 100’s of hours of learning-which we generally have to pay for. When the dust settles, I can usually count on a 3 week vacation after 36 weeks of 45/hr work weeks and 13 weeks of non classroom work. Nobody becomes a teacher for the time off.

There are good and bad in every profession of course. And no where is it more evident than in the teaching profession (unless of course you consider the medical profession as well). I can recall with perfect clarity the best and worst of my teachers.
I think its not enough to possess knowledge or intelligence to be a good teacher, one must have the ability to solve problems and barriers that inhibit the student’s learning process. This takes seeing issues from different angles, intuition, PATIENCE, understanding.
Being a teacher of sorts (at work when a new employee needs to be trained, guess who the supervisor turns to? ; ) and I am a lay Bible teacher ), I have a deep respect for all who are teachers, for they are truly among our unsung heroes! Their work day can be utterly discouraging, thankless, and bewildering.
Yet there are fewer professions that can be as rewarding, especially when they are able to share in a students victory, being a part of the process.
If any of you haven’t seen the films PAY IT FORWARD with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Halley Joel Osmet, I highly recommend it; also LEAN ON ME with Morgan Freeman. Two great films that involve teachers.

Yes. Everyone is who they are as far as what they contribute to society because of teachers. End of story!