First and foremost, the gripes about how teachers are trained and an elitist club of career educators dominating the job market really have nothing to do with teachers themselves. As a former teacher, I have made comments to many people about the training process for teaching and the actual moment you receive your first classroom. If you are lucky, you shake hands with your administrator, are wished the best of luck and find you are completely on your own.
The credential program offers a series of classes to reinforce your subject matter and prompts you to transfer your knowledge and understanding of the subject matter into lessons. You then work as an unpaid teacher congruently with another teacher for about a semester. During this time, the focus is mainly rehearsing the lines you’ve planned in front of a live audience, which is a crowd of children whose names you need to know immediately. You must also alter your techniques regularly in order to suit the needs of each individual according to his or her learning styles. It is only a couple of months of observation, alterations and interaction with students and a lead teacher. If you are lucky, the teacher with whom you “train” is open to your ideas and helpful in cultivating your style of teaching.
Like any profession, there are some who are absolutely phenomenal at their job, some who are mediocre and some who are simply resigned to work this job until they retire, biding their time. This particular profession requires only a Bachelor’s Degree and teaching credential. There are pay raise incentives for higher degrees. I have met many professionals who made more money in other jobs but had a passion for passing on knowledge to our youth, and thus took a rather large pay cut to teach. Teaching does not pay well. Most people with any college degree can find a better paying job and do so. I was ridiculed several times for even wanting to become a teacher since “they don’t make any money”.
I was truly passionate about teaching and loved my job for several years, but it was extremely challenging. I, like many others, worked long after I was being paid at school and very often on weekends and at home. I also chose to work in an inner city school with kids who have a lot of disadvantages. There were a great number of incidences outside of teaching my subject matter that as a role model I had to incorporate in the class. For instance, a student I’d taught for two years committed suicide. The school administration did not want it discussed since it was a suicide; however, my students and I mourned the loss and grieved together on a daily basis. It is extremely difficult not to be somewhat attached to these kids you see five days a week, if only for an hour. In some cases, this is more time than they spend with their own family.
During my final year teaching, each of my classes had 50 students. My maintenance of classroom order had been better than most throughout my career, but 50 people, let alone teenagers, equals a lot of people! Class begins and the lesson is given. Three students walk in late: disruption, one doesn’t feel good; disruption, one has to use the bathroom; disruption, one has a question about the assignment; actual teaching, repeat. Part of the reason I left teaching was because I felt like a babysitter. Let’s see … babysitting wages are about $5 an hour per child (50 in each class), times 5 hours a day at 180 days in a school year comes to $225,000.00. I was making just below $40,000, and with that many kids, I had lost my patience, my passion and I burned out.
I have the utmost respect for the teaching profession and I hope to see drastic changes that encourage teachers to teach and students to learn. Unfortunately, the rapid growth and constant budget cuts are collaboratively destroying education. Class size and supply shortages have made it nearly impossible to conduct an orderly lesson. There are literally not enough chairs for the students who show up the first day of school! The education system definitely needs some reconstruction, and teachers are only human. Fix the system; don’t blame the women and men who wake up everyday with a new plan to inspire children to learn!
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