I recently heard a teacher proclaim that teachers are more isolated today than ever before. Since I had missed the first part of the conversation, I didn’t say anything about the comment, but I have been thinking about this concept ever since.
Are teachers more isolated today than in previous years?
The teacher who asserted this comment blamed the isolation on required tests, preparation for tests, standardized curricula, and NCLB. I obviously missed something.
Years ago it was possible for a teacher to walk inside a school and spend practically no time conversing with adults during the day, probably the same amount of contact that we have with adults today. I used to feel isolated, but I don’t feel that way today. What has changed?
When I first started teaching, if I could not find a mentor or another teacher to help me when problems crept up during the day, I felt so alone. Today, if I don’t have someone in my department or among my circle of teacher friends who can help me, I reach out to other teachers through the Internet, and there is always someone out there.
Through websites, blogs, Nings, and other discussion forums, I can very quickly find someone who can help me resolve problems, someone who has a different approach to a lesson I’m trying to teach, or someone who will listen and respond online if I am frustrated and just need to vent. Whereas 30 years ago I counted on the help of 5-6 teachers who always joyfully came to my rescue on those difficult days, today I can count on scores of online teachers I have never met physically and probably never will.
Sometimes when I have had a rough day and express that frustration in a Facebook status, Amy, my teacher pal from Texas, responds to commiserate. Her message is usually only a sentence or two, but that affirmation or commiseration is often all I need to help me make it through the day.
Maybe I’m the only one who feels this way, but I believe the Internet has reduced teacher isolation exponentially. Yes, I know an online teacher cannot take the place of a teacher we see each day at school, but that virtual help is so much more than what we had ten, twenty, or thirty years ago.
Do you think teachers are more isolated today?
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2 comments on this topic
19. January - 8:11 pm
NIng?
I don’t think we are more isolated.
One time, you were, you know, when you were on Tobacco Road? Man, were you isolated.
19. January - 8:20 pm
That was NOT Tobacco Road! That double-wide was a pretend cabin in a parking lot I called Walden Pond. I sucked all the marrow of life there! Now that I think about it, it was rather isolating!