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Teaching as a job often seen as unesteemed

September 26, 2007

By: Michael Wang <mwang@hilite.org>

I still remember clearly my sixth grade social studies teacher who taught in an abstract random way. The problem was I know with absolute certainty that I am a concrete sequential student. I was extremely out of my comfort zone during the first several weeks, because he would let us have class time where we could do anything, and he would make us do assignments that involved using our imagination, such as when he wanted us to emulate Michelangelo and try to draw a portion of the Sistine Chapel while laying on the floor beneath our desks.

I have to admit, I was initially scared because I prefer structured activities and my imagination is literally evaporating as we speak. But, you know what? He was probably one of my favorite teachers, because even though he was abstract random, he tried his hardest to modify his teaching methods to suit all of his students by doing a hands-on activity one day and note-taking the other, and his efforts to do so were almost tangible.

Now I’m in high school and my friends and I often discuss what careers we hope to pursue in life. We say we want to become doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, professional athletes, actors/actresses or even models.

However, we almost never mention wanting to become teachers.

In the article “Leaving teachers behind causes schools to lag,” which was published in The Indianapolis Star on Sept. 3, retired teacher Beverly Farrell stated that teaching is an underpaid and disrespected vocation.

In elementary school all my friends wanted to become teachers. I know I wanted to be a teacher in first grade. In fact, my sisters Michelle and Jessica, who are in second and fourth grade respectively, still want to become teachers.

But why does that change as students begin middle and high school?

A doctor has a certain clientele: those who are ill. A lawyer has a certain clientele: those who are mistreated. And a teacher has a certain clientele: an amalgamation of students with “every kind of need, want and expectation,” according to Farrell.

Toward the end of elementary school, we are impressed with the need to receive good grades, whether by our parents or by ourselves. We not only want to have fun now, but we also want to learn in the process.

Usually in school, a teacher’s teaching method is similar to his own learning method. However, the majority of teenagers are impressed with this need to learn and the students who learns differently from the way their teacher teaches will probably not learn as well in that class as the students who learns similarly to the way that their teacher teaches. Thus, disrespect and criticism of that teacher occurs.

Teaching is a disrespected vocation, because it has to serve such a varied clientele, one whose needs, wants and expectations are different from another’s. Do doctors, lawyers and even models have to juggle all these needs, wants and expectations all on one silver platter? The answer is obvious. Doctors want to help their patients recover. Lawyers want their clients to get retribution. Models want to walk down the runways of Paris, Milan and New York and grace the covers of magazines. However, from abstract random students to concrete sequential students, a teacher is expected to teach them all. Sometimes teachers lean slightly toward one group more than another, depending on what their own learning methods originally were. The problem arises because the one group of students isn’t learning as well as another group of students and that group of students begins to disrespect the particular teacher.

You have to realize, though, that all teachers try their hardest to modify their teaching methods to suit all their students’ needs, wants and expectations. Personally all my teachers since elementary school have tried to mix their class itinerary from day to day, so one day we would do hands-on activities and the next we would take notes. Teachers have tried their hardest to teach effectively, because in the end, their greatest joy comes from witnessing their students make improvements and interacting with them, and now it is your job as students to try your hardest to learn effectively.

Updated by Xingping · Filed Under Acumen 

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