Kim Frencken: How proud are you to be a teacher?

Are you proud to be a teacher? I'm not talking about politics. I talking about teaching. Just teaching. Don't color this conversation with controversial topics or innuendoes. It's a simple question. Are you proud to be a teacher?

Depending on how long you've taught or when you came into the profession, you'll be able to identify with various trends. 

There was a time when teaching was a noble profession. We truly believed that we were there to teach and nurture the next generation. We loved our students. They were "our kids" for life, not just a school year. We cried with them. We laughed with them. We bought coats for kids that were shivering. We provided meals for tummies that growled. Out of our meager wages.

Speaking of wages. We didn't cry over low salaries. We simply asked to be treated with respect. We asked to be treated as the experts we were. But our cries went unheard and a new generation joined our ranks. 

Before you let your blood pressure explode, hear me out. Then, let me call them (for want of a better term), "New Thought" teachers were hired. Not those who believed in the sacredness of education, but those that wanted to have summers off, those who wanted an easy job (which tells you they really didn't understand education). These people didn't spend nights or weekends planning, creating, or worrying. They literally walked out the door and forgot their class until they reentered the room.

I'm not talking about an age group, but a mindset. I mentored and worked with people new to the profession that were close to my age, but did not share my passion. They thought such ideology was "old-fashioned" and outdated. Embarrassing. 

 And, on the flip side, I've mentored and worked with teachers half my age that put my passion to shame. The respect that we had longed for seemed to slip farther from our grasp every time one of these people opened their mouths in faculty meetings. The focus shifted from kids to teachers. Teaching became a profession, not of sacrifices, but of ladder climbing. And the people that used to be in a room next door to you climbed to the office at the front of the school.

And that is when I began to feel some shame. Not for myself, but for my profession. How would I be treated as an expert if our administrator was spouting some new trend that he demanded we all try? 

Unfortunately, people outside the educational field do not realize that teachers do not set the curriculum. That responsibility does not lie with the people who are actually teaching students. People who only wish to make a name for themselves or people that have set foot in a classroom are determining what and how we teach. They don't know our kids. And they don't care.

Who takes the blame? Just watch the news. Any station. Any political forum. Are school boards blamed? Are administrators blamed? Nope! Teachers. We bear the burden of the failures of programs that we've been told to implement. We're blamed when kids go hungry. We're blamed when kids drop out? We're blamed for every ill and misconception in society.

It's easy to blame a group of educators that rarely speak out to defend themselves. I know there are those who take a noble stand. And there are those who take a stand defending the current educational system. 

Depending on which way the political air is blowing and who is doing the speaking, one is considered crazy and the other a martyr. We may secretly be cheering them on, but publicly we ignore or dismiss them.

So, I ask you again. Are you proud to be a teacher? I am. Still. I know what I believe and why I became a teacher. 

If someone were to ask me today my answer wouldn't be so I can have summers off. If someone were to challenge the content being taught in schools, I would encourage them to become active in their child's school. To voice their opinions. To take a stand for what they believe. 

Don't put all the responsibility on my shoulders. I'm just someone who loves kids and loves teaching kids. I still cry with them and laugh with them. I still become outraged over injustices. I still cringe at hearing the latest news. My blood pressure still climbs when I hear a "higher-up" describe how and what we'll be teaching. I still yearn to be treated as an expert and allowed to teach kids. Just teach. Leave the politics outside my room. Please and thank you.

Are you still proud?

(For more of Kim Frencken's writing and information about her educational products, check out her blog, Chocolate for the Teacher.)