Teaching Profession Education become a Teacher
When I tell people that I'm a teacher, I know in advance what their response will be: "Oh, you teachers with all your holidays and short days. It's like a part-time job!"
And I always give the same sarcastic response: "Well, if you think it's such an easy job, you should join us! Go on - become a teacher!"
At this point, the person I am talking to usually mutters something about how they don't like kids, or they're really in love with their current job, and then they wander away.
In the past, teaching was seen as a respected profession, and teachers were pillars of the local community. Today things are different and some might say that's not such a bad thing. Of course, we all want to be treated with respect and given some acknowledgement for the work that we do and the effort it took for us to even make it into our career in the first place, but people shouldn't be automatically treated like the fount of all wisdom simply because they have 'teacher' as their job title.
In the UK at least, there has been such an opening up of access to details about the school curriculum and the achievements of individual schools that the teaching profession has certainly been demistified for parents. And it can only be a good thing that parents are being encouraged to take more of an interest in what their children are learning. Schools and teachers should be held to account for the way they spend public money and how they handle the education of the next generation.
But when does this go too far? When teachers are no longer trusted to act professionally to devise a curriculum that will enrich, challenge and educate their pupils; when the achievements of students are reduced to a series of numbers by which not only they, but the entire school community will be judged; when the curriculum can be over-hauled monthly by a government who wants to appear to be 'doing something' and then the schools are blamed in the media for not teaching the nation's children anything from the Kings and Queens of England to Debt Management.
As in any profession, there will of course be those who fall short of the mark, but the majority of teachers are hard-working individuals, motivated by a passion for education, their subject matter and the children and young people they teach. This is what we would love the public to see about the job.
So how can we change the public's perception?
Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that the process of change will start with teachers themselves. It's so easy to blame the government, the media and anyone else we can think of for a lack of respect for the teaching profession, but do we as teachers actually treat the profession with respect?
How quickly do we fall into the habit of complaining about targets, paperwork, bureaucracy and pressure? While these things are all part of teaching, surely it would be more profitable to focus on the positive aspects of the profession? Think back to why you chose teaching as a career. Think about the successes you've had. Think about the children that have passed through your classroom and the unique position you have been in to open young minds to literature, science, music, art and much more.
And then the next time someone mocks your profession, laughing about your so-called 'part-time' job, you can reply without a hint of sarcasm: "Yes, it really is a great job. You should think of becoming a teacher."
