I haven’t been in the mood to share any thoughts lately. But, yesterday I was at a joyous Bar Mitzvah party and got into a conversation with an out-of-town guest from New York about the economy. In the course of our exchange, I mentioned that Georgia teachers were being furloughed. Her passing but revealing response placed teachers in the derisive category of “overpaid ‘burger flippers’ who have it so easy and don’t do all that much anyway.” She didn’t know me, and in deference to the occasion, I let the comment pass. But, not now. On this Labor Day, when we honor work, when we officially respect and revere working people, when we relax from work, I want to say that teaching requires a lot of work; it demands the intense and lasting “sweat equity” of devotion, passion, compassion, conviction, commitment, persistence, endurance, and perseverance. Contrary to this woman’s views that unfortunately is held by too many both inside and outside academia who far too often treat teachers as rank amateurs or unskilled doofuses, teaching is not an unskilled job; it’s not something you do when you can’t do anything else; it’s not a walk in the part; it’s not a piece of cake; it’s not a 9 to 5 job fraught with overwhelming amounts of vacation time; it’s not merely talking; it’s not something you can do in your sleep; it’s not something anyone can do.
Teaching takes intense love; it’s about falling in love and staying in love with public service; it’s about staying in love consistently and unconditionally with each and every student. Teaching is about deep and acute awareness and otherness. Teaching is always about getting great things done for others, not about getting credit for yourself. Always. It’s always about each of those students, about challenging their habits, about stretching their imagination, about helping them reach for their potential. Always. It’s never about any of us academics, never about enlarging both our resume and renown. Never.
Teaching demands seeing education through the human prism. It’s about treating each student with grace, dignity, gentleness, and kindness. It’s about serving and honoring not only peoples’ motives and wants, but their needs as well. It’s helping others to think as much about life as about the job. It’s as much about passion, conviction, and faith as it is about cold facts. It’s about seeing a nobility, uniqueness, and sacredness in each student that is regrettably invisible to too many others. It’s about being a “hopeless hope-oholic,” a “helpless help-oholic,” “a dreamy-eyed dreamer,” a “restless believer,” a “visionary in action,” a “people-struck lover.” It’s about the healing and encouraging power of consistently, sincerely, and unconditionally caring about and believing in each and every student. It’s as much as, if not more, about being tender and empathetic as being tough and demanding. It’s supposed to be overflowing with moments of indescribable awe. It’s supposed to be amazing, joyous, fun, fulfilling, and satisfying.
Teaching is about being a “romantic realist.” It’s about having your head in the clouds with your feet firmly on the ground. It is as much about the prosaic as it is the stirring; it’s as much about the proverbial prose as it is the poetic. It’s emotionally, physically, and intellectually intense and draining. It’s about putting in long-houred, demanding, out-of-sight, not very glamorous, burning-the-candle, unrecognized, rolled-up-shirtsleeves, so unappreciated grunt work. It’s about compassion and craft, looking and seeing, hearing and listening, noise and silence, insight and sight, instinct and skill. It’s about being prepared for the unprepared, for there are strong currents of spontaneity, impromptu, and serendipity. It’s more about being ready for the unplanned moment than readying the planned way. It’s more about seizing the opportunities offered by the unforeseen events than the offering a prescribed curriculum. It’s understanding and accepting that the most significant lessons are taught and learned more often than not in unexpected moments than in designed discussions or structured lectures.
Teaching is about spending your time and efforts and energies with human capital. It’s about helping each student look at her/himself and look at others. It’s about helping others open their shut doors. It’s about helping people to aim higher. It’s about the power to move people. It’s about making a real difference in the real lives of real people in a real world. It’s as much about enrichment as it is achievement and success. It’s as much about the heart and soul as it is about the brain. It’s as much about forming character as it is providing information and developing skill. It’s about helping others see what is truly important in life. It’s about helping others face challenges, accept difficulties, appreciate the setbacks, and set up priorities on the journey in life. It’s about establishing the foundations of respect, trust, playfulness, self-discipline, integrity, commitment, perseverance, resiliency, and purpose. It’s about helping others choose their own path, experiencing their own course, and forging their own destiny. It’s as much about helping others to learn how to live as to learn how to earn a living.
Teaching is supposed to alter lives. It’s supposed to transform lives. It’s supposed to make each person bigger and better. Someone once said that the way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, to devote yourself to a vision that gives you purpose and meaning. That’s what teaching is all about and what makes it one of the surest ways to significance.
Louis
Wow! Thank you! I am a third grade, Catholic School teacher and I wanted to just let you know I truly appreciate your words!
Thank you, thank you for recognizing what a teacher is/does.