Teachers and school personnel, thank you for your efforts! As the school year begins, many educators find themselves facing difficult challenges along with the many positive aspects of the job. There is nothing unusual about that, but this time more of the challenges are above and beyond the fundamental act of teaching, which occurs most directly in the relationship between instructor and student. Distractions such as public perception, controversies and pandemic protocols, among others, appear to have made some prospective teachers decide to avoid the profession as well as experienced educators to leave it. In fact, I've been hearing many school officials lately talk about positions in their schools that they are unable to fill due to a lack of qualified applicants.
I thought this might be a good time to revisit the section of my book that describes the advantages of the teaching profession. I find that it's a good idea to remind myself of those advantages as often as possible, so that we remember why we chose to enter this rewarding and noble calling.
Excerpt from Chapter 1: How to Recognize the Advantages of a Career in Education
Lesson: Welcome to the Profession
“Be the reason that a student wants to get on the bus in the morning.” 9th Grader
“If you’re doing your job right, you can make a difference in a student’s life.” 12th Grader
“If you love your job, students will love your class.” 9th Grader
“The impact you make on your students will stay with them for the rest of their lives.” 12th Grader
“Appreciate your students.” 7th Grader
It is a tremendous privilege for you to stand in front of a group of young people and presume to explain to them what the world is like.
Whether you are studying to become a teacher, or you have completed your academic coursework and are about to encounter your students for the first time, the first thing you need to do is to look at your chosen profession with the proper perspective. Not many people have the privilege of influencing so many, at such an impressionable time of their lives. Do not get distracted by the daily frustrations that enter your lives and your classrooms, and remember the honor that it is to play such a significant role in the lives of your students. When you remind them that you are aware of that privilege, many of those distractions and frustrations will be minimized.
Lesson: The Teacher’s Role
Always remember the honor of playing this role in the lives of your students, and make sure you give an indication to them every day that you remember it.
From the start, put aside the stereotypes and negative impressions some members of the public have about teachers. For example, summer vacations are a part of the overall deal that teachers accept, along with the less-advantageous aspects of the job. It is true that most teachers are planning their classes for the following school year, continuing their education, and completing a variety of professional obligations during that time. It is also true that a large percentage of the public does not realize that teachers are doing these things, and will occasionally make remarks that are negative toward the profession, especially during the summer months.
You are likely to be happier and more productive if you focus on your students and refuse to engage in controversies about the public's view of the profession.
Experience shows that the most effective way to counter that type of attitude is to accept it without argument. Quite often, the harshest critics of the teaching profession have experienced legitimate frustration and disappointment with their own jobs and life choices. Unfortunately, when teachers attempt to defend themselves by pointing out the challenges and difficulties of the job and the significance of the role we play, it only tends to inspire more negativity and resentment among some members of the public. You will feel better if you try to empathize with them, and put their negativity in perspective. If you are doing the job correctly, you will know the truth.
If you feel the need to respond in some way to negativity about the profession, rather than listing the difficulties and challenges you face in your teaching career, try instead the approach of gratitude and humility. You can express your gratitude for the advantages awarded to you in your teaching position, with an emphasis on being humbled by the privilege of playing such an important role in the lives of your students. Indignation, self-importance, and defensiveness on your part will frequently result in the other person increasing his or her resentment and searching for points to counteract you, while gratitude and humility almost always serve as the antidote that stops negative attacks in their tracks.
Does this response sound weak to you? Should we not have the courage to fight to defend the honor of our chosen career? That is exactly what you will accomplish. More so than any other approach, gratitude and humility have the power to neutralize any negativity aimed at schools and educators. The dignity of your behavior will also reflect well on teachers everywhere, diminishing the resentment and increasing the respect the general public has for our profession.
The factor that makes teachers important is the role they play in the lives of their students, not the act of telling others about their importance.
Above all:
Stay positive in the face of criticism by showing gratitude and humility.
The salary you are likely to earn as a full-time teacher will not allow you to be wealthy, but will probably lead you to a standard of living in the middle class. Your teaching salary will be sufficient if you live modestly, but you are not likely to match the compensation offered by other professions requiring an equivalent level of education.
Public-school teachers make a trade-off. They gain significant vacation time--often coinciding with the vacation time of their own children--compared with many other professions, step increases that bring up their salaries at least a little bit during most years, the relative job security of due process, and a solid retirement system in most states.
In return, they give up the ability to win significant promotions and salary increases through extra hard work, talent, innovation, or creativity. Even though some states offer incentive pay, a young, talented, and innovative teacher will almost always receive significantly less compensation than a veteran teacher on a higher step, even if the older teacher has barely put in enough effort to avoid removal for poor performance. The overall effect is that you will be able to have a decent—but not extravagant—standard of living as a full-time teacher.
Your salary, benefits, and conditions should not be deciding factors in whether or not you will pursue a career in education. The main consideration is whether you want to play an important role in the lives of students. If you go into teaching for the summer vacations, you will find that it is a long way to the summer.
The best teachers make their professional role into their entire way of life, as opposed to relegating teaching to the status of a means to pay your bills. Make your best effort to live in the community where you teach. This will mean that your students and their parents, along with school board members, will no longer just be aspects of your working life, but they will be your neighbors and friends as well.
There is a direct benefit to this. If you live inside the district, you often have a place of importance in the community because many residents know you, along with your reputation. If you live outside the district, some members of the community can have the mistaken impression that you are a disinterested outsider coming into their town only to get a paycheck funded by taxpayers. Making your home among the people you serve gives your presence in the classroom the extra gravitas earned by being a permanent fixture in the community.
Some teachers believe that the downside to living in the district where you teach is that your behavior outside of school is closely and sometimes unfairly scrutinized. This is definitely true. However, the extra responsibility a teacher takes on by living in the district is more than rewarded by the privilege you accept by serving as a role model for so many people.
As a teacher, your words and your actions are powerful and carry a great deal of influence for your students, who are often searching for a positive view of what it can be like to be an adult. You can either embrace this privilege and live up to it, or reject it and hide from the responsibility. If you are looking to achieve the greatest possible satisfaction from your teaching career, you will accept the honor of being a role model to your students, and live your life in a manner that demonstrates to your students, their parents, and the entire community that you deserve that honor.
Lesson: The Teacher’s Motivation
Make sure your students know that the reason you are a teacher is because you genuinely like working with them and want to help them.
The important word in this sentence is “genuinely,” because your approach cannot be a cynical trick. If your concern for your students is not genuine, they will sense your transparent dishonesty, and your relationship with them may be permanently damaged.
Keep your door open during preparation periods in order to talk with students about their successes and frustrations, academically and otherwise. You can also devote a small amount of your class time for this as well. When your students are shown that you care about their progress in academics, sports, extra-curricular activities, and life in general, the bond you create with them will have a positive effect on your students’ motivation to perform in your class.
One way to help you bring this about is to have students complete an interest inventory at the beginning of the year, in which they list their hobbies, interests, activities, and future goals. If you keep these interests in mind, you can bring up information pertaining to those topics throughout the year to create a connection with each individual student. It gives them, correctly, the impression that you actually care about their lives, which in turn has a significantly positive impact on their motivation to learn, as well as your motivation to teach.
Just as importantly, your kindness and concern will serve as an example of good character that lives on in the memory of your students. A crucial point to remember: always keep your door open when meeting alone with a student in order to proactively avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Keep remembering the value of what you do, and keep searching for ways to create a bond with each student. Those positive thoughts will have to outweigh the frustrations you will face in order for you to keep moving forward with optimism, which in turn keeps the overall tone of your classroom upbeat, happy, and cooperative.
IN PRACTICE: You are a teacher who hears that one of your former students attempted to take her own life over the summer, and she is scheduled to be a student in one of your courses again during the following year. She is resting comfortably at home, but has expressed a strong aversion to returning to school in the fall. Her parents are worried that she might make another attempt to end her life. What should you do?
Ignore the situation
Wait until the student returns to school before mentioning anything
Send her a note expressing your excitement at having her in your class again
Many teachers would choose the first option, because they are afraid that they might make the situation worse. Others might choose the second option, but they would most likely draw attention to the student when it’s the last thing she wants when returning to school. This scenario actually took place, and the teacher chose the third option. He sent a note expressing excitement about having her as a student in his class again in the fall, along with a gift of a small stuffed animal.
A few weeks later, the teacher was approached by the student’s mother, who tearfully thanked him for the note. She said that her daughter was now excited to come back to school, knowing that he would be her teacher. She ended the conversation with, “Thank you for saving my daughter’s life.” A person who overheard the exchange said, “In 40 years at my job, no one ever said that to me.”
Some careers offer generous salaries and benefits, but ours offers moments like that one. Remember that it is a privilege to be a part of this profession. Do not ever doubt the importance of what we do, and how we can positively impact the lives of so many people.
As teachers, our influence extends beyond what we even know.
Originally published in CLASSROOM ADVICE FOR NEW TEACHERS:A Proactive Approach For Meeting The Daily Challenges Of The Profession, by Jeff Julian, Copyright 2019, All Rights Reserved, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
