I recently had lunch with a former student, a beautiful young woman who is smart, diligent, and kind, the kind of student teachers remember for a lifetime. I was thrilled a couple of years ago when she first told me that she wanted to become a teacher because we need such compassionate and intelligent young people in today's classrooms. Unfortunately, although she will complete her degree and obtain her teaching certificate in the next year, she probably will never become a teacher.
It became clear as we talked that she isn't sure what she wants to do in the future, but it won't be teaching. Her education courses apparently have been lackluster because she rarely talks about them. Her eyes sparkle when she discusses her Shakespeare course or her readings in other courses, but the education courses rarely pop up in our conversations. Then she mentioned that her father wants her to do something else since he doesn't consider most teachers to be very intelligent. He thinks she can do better. Such views are distressing, but I can't argue with a father who wants only the best for his daughter, particularly since earlier in the day I had heard the same comment from a retired teacher who was unhappy because her own son plans to become a teacher.
It's upsetting to know that the teaching profession has lost yet another wonderful young teacher, and it's disquieting that so many citizens view the teaching profession so negatively. Sometimes I want to scream, "Most teachers are intelligent; most teachers care about students; most teachers are dedicated, and most teachers are credits to the profession."
We live in a time, however, where the bad teachers, those with little intelligence, little motivation, and little dedication receive so much press coverage that it's easy to overlook the inspirational teachers right down the hall who keep plugging away and ignoring the condescending remarks often leveled at teachers.
It's time to get rid of the bad teachers.
We know them. They are the people who believe kids are dumb, believe kids don't care, and believe they are wasting their time trying to teach. They are the teachers who rarely plan, rarely encourage, and rarely grade anything of substance. They pass out handouts and tell students to complete them quietly or turn on videos and instruct students to watch quietly. They often do not know their subjects well enough to instruct, well enough to answer questions, and certainly not well enough to inspire students to want to learn. We know them. Often they are people who are fun to be around, but either through lack of intelligence or lack of motivation, their students rarely learn.
To those of us who walk the halls of today's schools, these bad teachers are a minority, but to many citizens outside of schools, these teachers are the teaching profession.
If we want to attract our best and brightest students to the teaching profession, we have to restore the prestige and respect that America at one time held for public school teachers. That won't happen as long as we allow incompetent teachers to hijack our classrooms. Some will say that teacher unions prevent administrators from getting rid of poor teachers, but I teach in a right-to-work state where unions wield little power. Administrators who want to get rid of bad teachers have no excuse here.
Decades ago my parents were proud to tell their friends that their daughter was a teacher. I pray for the day when the parents of our most intelligent, kind, and dedicated students will once again smile when their children tell them they want to become teachers.
