The Value of Teachers...

One aspect of my first year of teaching that differs from most people's is that I am in a foreign country at a privately owned school. This has brought it's own set of challenges, and perhaps makes any generalizations I choose to make about education slightly more suspect, but I can't help but believe that even though I am far away from home, my experiences have relevance to the system of education in America and elsewhere around the world.

First of all, one of the things that has been bothering me all year is why, even though I love kids, I don't want to continue teaching after this year. I am young, energetic, great with kids. And I love learning. But even so, teaching doesn't appeal to me as a career at all. Why not? One of my colleagues who's been teaching for 7 years pointed out that, ironically, teaching is a very solitary activity. Yes, you are in a classroom all day with students, however schools do not tend to be places where teachers work together at all. And as anyone who has spent a 40 hour week in a classroom with 8 year olds can tell you, that lack of adult conversation and thinking level can be incredibly frustrating. Second of all, teachers have very little control over what goes on in their schools as a whole. So many of my colleagues who have been here for several years have become hermits intentionally; they remain removed from school politics because they're seen it all, heard it all, and nothing ever gets done. So the valuable insights they might bring to the table are lost and every day is a battle between the administration and the teachers. The lack of communication between "sides" and the constant talking past one another is incredibly frustrating to watch.

But (thanks to Ayah Mahgoub!) I recently read an amazing article published by Education Evolving (an organization devoted to brainstorming change in actual schools and schooling) that explains precisely why being a teacher is so frustrating and potentially unappealing to intelligent, young people - teaching is basically a dead-end job. There were many things in this article that had me jumping out of my seat (for future posts), but this simple sentence just stopped me in my tracks. It's true. Teaching doesn't go anywhere. Your job stays the same, the material stays the same, practically even if you change subjects. Education as it is taught today, following static curriculum and geared toward multiple-choice style assessment doesn't go anywhere. So why would it attract driven young people who want to make a change in the world? Sure, we all grow up knowing that education is important, and many people grow up thinking they want to be teachers, but the reality is repetitive, and potentially incredibly frustrating when limited by resources, testing requirements, and administrative decisions. All of these things combined often result in cynical, disengaged teachers.

And that is so upsetting. As I pointed out earlier, I spend 40 hours a week with these kids, which is more time than they spend with their parents (particularly in the country where I am living because after school these kids go to more school). One of the first staggering realizations I had this year is how important teachers really are. The things I do and say everyday affect my kids whether I want them to or not. The way I talk to them, treat them, permit them to treat each other. Particularly at this age, they simply absorb everything I do. And to realize that the conditions of teaching and the structure of teaching as a profession contribute to both the lack of appealingness to young people and the frustration of longtime teachers makes me wonder who will be left to teach my kids? And how on earth did teaching become such an undervalued profession in our society?