They say teaching is not what it used to be. You could say the same about virtually every profession, but teaching is different. Teaching is more than a job; itís a calling. And those who are called to teach could use a dose of respect right now.
Itís crunch time.
Summer vacation is over and students will soon be squirming in their desks again. For teachers this year, budgets are squeezing tighter and expectations are rising higher.
The constant amid this mounting pressure is the knowledge that what teachers do changes lives. They provide the instruction and guidance that shapes studentsí lives forever. And year after year, that prompts another generation of teachers to take up the banner.
Take Christina Anderson, for example, a West Rowan High and UNC Chapel Hill grad now starting out with Teach for America. When asked why she chose to teach, she credits her teachers for the inspiration and shares a story about Sherry Avery. ěShe was the first teacher that was really honest with me and said, OK, you are smart, but you are being lazy.í î Christina wants to be that person for someone else.
Teaching is about opening young minds and spurring students to reach their full potential.
ěHe who opens a school door, closes a prison,î wrote novelist Victor Hugo. For some, thatís a literal prison door; the majority of inmates in the nationís prisons are high school dropouts. Others languish in the invisible prison of poor skills and low expectations.
Teachers strive to unlock that door, but too often Mom and Dad pull in the opposite direction. Some parents are simply uninvolved and neglectful. Others are over-protective of their childrenís egos. The message that made Christina Anderson work harder might cause another student to whine, and his or her parents to complain. How dare she imply that my child is lazy? If and when the child runs into serious trouble, they go into overdrive.
One online resource lists these ěTop Five Things to Consider Before Becoming a Teacherî ó time commitment, pay, respect or lack thereof, community expectations and emotional commitment. Theyíre all intertwined, but disrespectful students disrupt classes and demoralize teachers, but lack of respect comes from parents and the community as well. It takes a resilient spirit to push through all the hassles and hurts and keep teaching.
So send your childís teachers a strong message from the start this year. Give respect and support, and require your child to do the same. Send him or her to school clean, fed and ready to learn, homework in hand. And if questions arise, debate them in private, away from young ears. Children take cues from their parents. Students with no respect for teachers have no respect for education.