Where are all the teachers who love teaching?
My tumblr and Facebook are filled with articles about why teachers quit and memes about how badly teachers need a vacation. There are rants about parents and administrators and disrespectful students. Burnout and exhaustion. Judging by what I read on the Internet, teaching must really suck.
I worry. Clearly, I worry about the conditions teachers face every day that make them feel this way. But I also worry about the impact of this negative narrative.
If teaching is so miserable, why should a capable person even want to enter the profession?
If all teachers burn out, why not replace credentialed teachers with TFA-style teachers meant to leave the profession within two years anyway?
If teaching is so impossible, it must take savior-type people to do it. Think “Freedom Writers" or “Stand and Deliver.”
Do the public and policy makers just tune out legitimate complaints from the trope of the overworked and underpaid teacher?
But here’s the thing I never read: teaching can be an awesome profession. And not just in a community service “makes me feel all warm inside” way.
Teaching gives me a space to be creative and analytical all at once. I get to create a plan and put it to fruition. I am serious and professional and theatrical and silly all within a day. I get to build relationships with people big and little and design my own community. I spend my days with people I legitimately love. My “office” is a giant space I have designed myself and I am never bored at work.
I know teachers give a lot, but I get so much from teaching, too.
People often ask me what my long term goals are. I can’t predict the future, but for now, my answer is simple. I want to keep doing what I’m doing.
Where are all the teachers who feel like me? I know I am not unique or special.
Rants are funny and the Internet can be a cathartic place to share about a rough day. But I also wish there was more space here for sharing joys and successes.
We need some positivity to combat the negative “press” about teaching.
We can even use our joy to encourage change. We need teachers who can stand up and say, “I love teaching and plan to teach for the next 30 years, and that’s why ____ must change,” and “I am a professional and am getting awesome results, and that’s why I should be paid like doctors and lawyers.”
I’m proposing some “Power of Positive Thinking, Teacher Edition” kind of deal. Anyone with me?
