Teachers have it so easy. We are finished with work by three o’clock. We have weekends off. We have holidays off. We have summers off. We have a pretty good situation. So why are so many teachers so unhappy? Why do we have people like Hopkins who, even one hundred years ago, are fighting to make things better? What is it that we as teachers feel would make our lives better? I can’t speak for all teachers, but I do have a few thoughts.
I think that teachers need to feel like their needs are at least being considered by those who are making the decisions. I don’t know if it is an attempt to move education into a more business-minded setting, or if this has always been the case, but it seems as if the entire system continues to become more top down every year. The people at the top the ladder, superintendents, administrators, principals, are making sweeping changes to the way that schools are run with no consideration or consultation of the people “beneath” them. We take people who work for years to become experts in their field, and we completely disregard their input. Hopkins presented the heads of his university with a dire situation, and a feasible recommendation, but he was rejected out of hand. We have created a system of kings and lords sitting high up in their offices who then dictate down to their serfs what they must do. Even though they spend little-to-no time in the fields working, they are the ones who decide what is best. We have completely removed any buy-in that teachers might have in the system by relegating them to simple servants. Where else do you find such highly educated individuals who are viewed as nothing more than a tool to be used? We wouldn’t ask a shovel how to dig a hole so why should we ask a teacher how we should teach?
Teachers have also begun to lose their sense of fulfillment. Hopkins continued to teach because he felt it was God’s will for his life. That is a pretty strong motivator. I am not sure how many teachers feel the same today, but there are other reasons that have kept teachers going. One of the strongest arguments for teachers to continue has been the idea that they are making a difference. We hear it all the time. This belief that what we do in the classroom matters, has pushed countless teachers going past the point of exhaustion. I am afraid that we are on the verge of losing this motivator. As we continue to push the teacher further away from the student, we weaken the connection that the two have. By forcing curriculum changes and schedule changes and standardized testing and strategic plans into the classroom, we leave little room for what really matters – the teacher and the student. If teachers lose their belief that they are responsible for their students, they have very little to keep them where they are. As Popken says, “Teaching is a very costly labor.” For many teachers the benefits are no longer outweighing the costs.
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Nic,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you fully! Granted, I have not had the experience of being a teacher (the closest I’ve come to instructing someone is being a tutor in the Writing Room); however, being a student myself, I see that same disconnection between the student and the teacher. In fact, I can recall several teachers in both junior high and high school who were so overcome with preparing us for standardized tests that they had lost much of their drive. Classes with them were always strictly structured, with their introduction to most of the material we learned involving the phrase: “you need to know this for CSAP (or whatever asinine test the government had introduced at the time).” Education, in that sense, seemed more like a drill than a learning connection between student and teacher. And it’s sad that such a state exists. I, for one, applaud you for what you do and for having the drive to stick with it.
Thomas