While at a holiday BBQ, I overheard two people talking about how schools are indoctrinating the kids. Saying things like teachers shouldn’t be trying to get students to be – I don’t know, woke, I guess. They need to just teach learning and history is history. I certainly agree that history is history and teachers should teach, but the crux here is that teacher are apparently teaching the wrong history. Trust, most teacher do not have the time to completely “indoctrinate” reading and math skills, let alone political ideology. All of this goes on everyday, despite the fact that teachers are bound to the state developed and issued standards. Really this takes us into a whole different discussion of white-washing history, which is a whole different post. In addition to ideas like this all over the internet, it is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of teacher experiences in today’s socio-political climate.
Teacher Blaming
What does this mean? Teachers take a beating in the classroom, in the community and in the media. Test scores are low? Teachers fault. Students are behind in reading? Teachers fault. What most people don’t realize is the emotional, physical and mental wear and tear a teacher experiences throughout the school year. All of these have been compounded by the fact that for whatever reasons, many students do not enter their schools or their classrooms with respect for teachers, or authority in general. Let’s look at some examples in the day of a teacher.
The School Day the Public Doesn’t See
Hallway Duty: A student is running down the hall, trying to throw their slide at another student. The teacher calls out to the student to redirect. The student responds with “Who do you think you are talking to?” or “Don’t talk to me.” Often these are accompanied by one or more curse words for extra spiciness.
Classroom: The teacher is greeting students as they enter the classroom, reminding them to take their seats. A student chooses to go next to the seat next to a friend, instead of their assigned seat. The teacher redirects the student generally by reminding the class as a whole to go to their assigned seats. The student ignores the general directive. The teacher approaches the student to directly address them regarding seating. The student responds, “You can’t tell me where to sit?” This will go on in different variations as the student tries to negotiate getting what they want. When the teacher reminds them for the third time, “We’re not negotiating classroom expectations.” The student elopes from the classroom. Later in the day, the parent calls the principal and states “That teacher can’t tell my child where they can sit.”
Learning: A student chooses to sleep or put their head down throughout class, almost every day. Calls are made home, the times the student engages in this activity rather than learning is documented, student is referred to the nurse for possible sleep issues. After multiple attempts to talk to mom throughout the semester, she calls in the last six weeks. During this call she says among other things, “Are you sure are making the learning exciting? Like, do you get up on the table…”
Administration: Somewhere in the last decades, it seems many administrations are more interested in appeasing parental complaints as if they are customers. A child receives consequences after multiple warnings and escalating consequences. The parent calls the stool to complain that the child didn’t have any warnings and the teacher just doesn’t like them. Consequence is reduced – including for MAJOR infractions that jeopardize the safety of other students, staff and teachers.
The Weight Teachers Carry
In the midst of all this, teachers still have to create lesson plans, differentiate lessons for students, deliver the lesson and perform any other required duties. Additionally, there is constant pressure to bring below-level students up to grade level, even for students who are three or more years behind. Moreover, they are supposed to be care-givers, nurses, counselors, customer service providers to parents. All of this comes at a cost to teachers: emotionally, mentally and physically. Add to this the constant battering in the medial and on social media, it is no wonder we have a teacher shortage in the United States.