I recently attended a conference where the keynote speaker for the day was Ron Clark. I had read his book many years ago and saw the movie they made about his teaching in Harlem, but never could I have imagined how dynamic and moving of a speaker he was. He encouraged us to not be "plain bread" teachers, but to be "PIZZA!" teachers.
While the discussion around being a "pizza" teacher was inspiring, what struck me more was a comment he made about how we promote (or rather don't promote) the teaching profession. He talked about the lack of young kiddos who are saying they want to grow up and be teachers. And he put the blame on us.
It is clear to many of us that the amount of undergraduate students entering education programs is on the decline. You know what that means? It means that a teacher shortage is already on the horizon. And while we all might oppose Betsy DeVos's idea of increasing class sizes, it could very easily be happening in the near future because there won't be enough teachers to keep the class sizes down.
So, you're probably thinking, what does this have to do with me? Well let me tell you. Think about the number of times either you yourself, or a teacher friend, has cringed when someone mentions they are going into education. Have you uttered, or heard, phrases like this one"Why would you want to be a teacher?" or "It's so much work and so little pay, maybe you should reconsider."
I know I am guilty of saying those things and I wish now I could take it back. Not because I want to swindle young college students into becoming teachers, but because I truly believe and value this profession. Education is a staple to our society. We can complain about the amount of work and lack of pay all we want, but I bet neither of those even crossed your mind when you enrolled in your education program in college.
So why do we find it necessary to speak about this profession as if it's a burden and a horrible career choice? Let me get up on my soap box for a bit and give you a piece of my mind.
I got into to teaching because I enjoyed spending time with children. I loved seeing their minds grow and develop with each conversation we had in the classroom. I wanted to make a difference in the future of our community. (I also wanted some free time in the summer :) I wanted to feel like I was contributing to a higher purpose. I wanted to be the teacher that students remembered for their entire lives.
My guess is that one of those statements, or something very similar, was what drew you the profession as well. So what happened to us? Where did our spark go? Why are we not lifting up our teaching profession and showing how wonderful it is?
I know you all have a lot going on. You have formative assessments to go through to make your small groups for tomorrow. You're doing state testing and encouraging the kiddos to do their best, even though the test is so challenging for most of them. You are preparing for parent-teacher conferences. You had to call home to three parents because one kid said/did something inappropriate to the others. You have a building committee meeting today and a data PLC tomorrow. You're meeting with your instructional coach to co-plan a lesson for next week. You're looking ahead a couple weeks to see how you can incorporate PBL into the upcoming lessons. You've got door duty and an IEP meeting. The book fair is happening and 3 kids lost their money. I get it. It sucks sometimes.
But have you quit? No, because deep down you love it and wouldn't choose any other line of work. It's a vocation for most of us, not just a job.
So I want to urge you all to stop sabotaging this wonderful vocation and stand up for it! I'm not saying we don't need to be realistic about the responsibilities that come with it, but let's stop being such Negative Nancy's all the time. Find some reason to celebrate why you got into teaching each and every day. And the next time you speak with someone who is going into the field of education, give them kind and encouraging words and share with them your reasons for loving the job, not your reasons for loathing it.
