Why We Stopped Liking Teachers

Why We Stopped Liking Teachers

1 – “Teaching is the hardest job there is.”  It’s not. You know that people in other careers work too, right? And actually, retail in the months of November and December are harder. And hell to the no for Black Friday.  No mouthy kid even compares to that.

2 – “We don’t really get summers off.”  No, actually, we do.  Teachers are 10 month employees, which means…we work ten months.  If you come in during the summer for (always optional) professional development or workshops, you get an extra check.

3 – “Can’t wait for (insert break here). I need to relax!”  We get weekends, plus all holidays, plus a week long fall break, plus a 2 week long Christmas break, a week long spring break, 2 months in the summer and random non-holiday-holidays.  The career people who just get Christmas Day off (if they’re lucky) scoff at your woosiness.

4 – “I have so many papers to grade, and they keep piling up.”  I’m pretty sure there’s a scientific law that says things don’t just disappear, so maybe if you started grading, the pile would shrink.

5 – “A teacher is never caught up.”  Then stop procrastinating and get to work.

6 – “We don’t have enough hours in the day to _________.” If you worked twice as much as you sat in the workroom and talked, you would find the time sufficient.

7 – “I’m tired of being evaluated for my teaching.”  I don’t know of any job where you don’t get a performance review.  And curves abound.  Depending on your demographic, you’re just judged against the average.  No one’s asking you to perform miracles, just to perform up to par.

8 – “Trust me, I’m not in it for the pay.”  Why am I expected after hearing that to laugh and commiserate with you? You’re admitting that you’re in a financial situation where 35k a year is enough to support you and your family, AND you get to do what you love. Isn’t that a great thing?

9 – “I hate common core.”  Common core is what you would teach naturally if it didn’t exist. “Cite evidence from the text…”  “Track how characters develop in a story…” “Learn to identify key details in a text.”  What is so difficult or robotic about that?  I have the freedom to choose ANY text or novel I want to teach. I just have to teach things like that, which a good teacher would naturally teach anyway.  So if you have problems with common core, then, idk, you can finish that sentence on your own.

Does public education have a lot of dumb, stupid things? Of course, but that’s not the intent of this post.

Get off Pinterest. Be efficient. Get things done immediately. Keep a well-organized to-do list. Minimize. Declutter your desk. Declutter your mind. Let things go.