Being a teacher

Average person in America has an image of a teacher who reads a newspaper in a classroom in front of a class full of students, then collects the papers and grades them at home, isn’t it. How many movies did I see delivering this picture?

In reality we are being watched, all the time, non stop, those students are alive, young and very energetic human beings.

Number one problem is overload. Of course, all working people experience this these days. We all are overwhelmed with responsibilities and assignments we can’t even complete. I am a teacher, I will talk about teachers’ overload. When you come to the point that you are standing in front of the class and don’t remember why you are there, it’s overload. You must do something about that.

Number two problem is complete ignorance and disrespect from the society to your profession and your problems in spite of the fact that everyone is, was, or will be attending a school for 12 years of their lives and then take the kids there too. The job of everyone else is recognized and respected, but teachers and hospitality workers. Not everyone will use a hotel very often though.

Number three problem relates to the fact that the education system involves a LOT of money. No, teachers don’t have high salaries, but there are millions of us. Plus there are millions of students and schools get money for every kid. Every politician, every felon, everyone whose relatives are politicians or felons want a piece of that money. This is why the kids do not get computers, calculators, books, art supplies, and the teachers buy, bring, borrow, steal, or just forget to return stuff we need to use with our students. The money does not get to the classrooms, it’s spent long before it can be even seen here.

We, teachers, know that we can always close the door and just do this thing, called teaching and learning. It is a talent which each of us has.It is different for each teacher as well as it is different for each kid. Some of us are good readers; they inspire reading in their students. Some of us are actors, they will teach the subject matter through role playing. Some of us are artists and they will inspire learning through drawing and sculptures. Unfortunately, fewer see the beauty in Math which is one of the most elegant subjects to my taste. If we are ready for the reform in our education system let’s start with recognition of each teacher’s talent as well as every kid’s gift to learn and then we have to do our best in matching those. Those two have to work together without much homework for either of them because at home they both have many more different things to learn and many more people to meet.