Let teachers teach

— The topic was what teachers want, which we last explored here almost seven years ago.

At that time, the autumn of 2003, I ran a series of columns based on letters, e-mails and phone calls I’d received from teachers who had never been asked by anyone in education administration, politics or government what was needed to improve education.

Believe it or not, the old “overworked and underpaid” grievance didn’t garner much ink. Overworked most of them were, true, but that wasn’t the crux of matter. Lack of discipline in the classroom, constant pressure to “teach to the test,” too many students ill prepared to work at grade level and paperwork, paperwork, paperwork were the most common complaints, and pretty much in that order.

Imagine my chagrin when, after rerunning a column from November 2003, the mailbag brought a number of responses outlining those same complaints. Several, however, expressed sentiments along the same lines as those in the following excerpt.

“I enjoyed your column June 2,” the teacher wrote, “because it is still relevant today. Not much has changed, and may have gotten worse.

“As each year passes, another company has a great program that someone in some administrative position decides must be implemented.

Unfortunately, they don’t bother to let the teachers look at the program, evaluate it and decide whether or not it will be beneficial.

“Those who don’t teach decide what we who do teach will do. I am the one in contact with the students daily and should have some idea of what they need. Each program contains assessment, which means additional days lost for instruction. Between one day a week in the computer lab using a mandated program, eight days of TLI testing, five days of ASTAAP testing, four days of DRA testing and one day of STAR assessment, I am losing at least 48 days to either testing or canned programs. I sometimes wonder when, as a teacher, I will be allowed to teach. After all, I thought that was what I was hired to do.

“Between making lesson plans, grading papers, contacting parents, looking for innovative ideas, having conferences, following up on discipline, making copies, posting frameworks and objectives, making standards-based bulletin boards, etc. (all in 45 minutes daily), I don’t have time to look at the data generated by these programs. I thought my hiring was an indication in the administration’s belief that I could do a good job teaching. I didn’t realize it would become an indication of their belief in my ability to implement programs. Of course, I’m sure it will be explained in my next Professional Learning Community meeting, which occurs once a week (another program), which means less instructional time.”

A year or so out of college, I ran into a fellow with whom I’d once shared a stage and a handful of drama classes. He was New York bound, fully expecting to see his name in lights on a Broadway marquee in very short order. My most vivid recollection of our brief exchange was his offhanded comment about “them that can” doing and “them that can’t” teaching.

Interesting that instead of becoming famous, he eventually became a teacher. Maybe he finally realized that good actors are a dime a dozen, but good teachers are worth their weight in gold.

In my experience, most people don’t become teachers because they can’t do other things and do them well. Witness the many who have reluctantly left the field of education because of financial constraints, which have a way of popping up as we mature and take on new responsibilities such as setting up housekeeping, starting a family and providing for same. No, they go into teaching for the love of it, for the challenge of putting a spark in a young person’s eye, for the excitement-yes, excitement-of fanning a spark that’s already there. In the final analysis, of course, it’s very hard work, but it can be very gratifying, which is why more find ways to stay involved in it.

What do teachers want from their endeavors? What most of us want, I suppose. To eat regularly, to get some enjoyment out of life, to see that their loved ones do not go wanting, to leave work each day with a feeling of accomplishment as opposed to frustration or defeat.

But I think I knew the bottomline answer to that question before I asked it. Teachers want to teach, not negotiate stumbling blocks. In subsequent columns, we’ll touch on a few more of them, but for today let’s let the teacher whose letter I excerpted have the last word.

“Teaching is not a job, but more of a calling. Teaching is not an 8-to-3, nine-months-a-year job. If you are a true teacher, your brain is always looking for ways to teach your students. You read something, or hear a conversation, or see something in a store and think, ‘I could use that teaching [blank].’ If you are a teacher, you automatically can fill in the blank.” -

Associate Editor Meredith Oakley is editor of the Voices page.

Editorial, Pages 17 on 06/25/2010

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