The New York Times ran a conversation (Teaching: No ‘Fallback’ Career) covering a subject that regularly comes up at our house and, currently seems to be on many peoples’ minds as they consider the stability of civil/public service careers- “maybe I’ll go into teaching?” In the framework of a struggling private sector, it’s a nice sentiment; it sounds good; people think the schedule is good; it’s indoor work and, for some reason, people perceive at as an easy, second-tier profession that anyone can practice without too much difficulty.

After all, we don’t pay teachers particularly well and they certainly aren’t accorded much social status. But with the collapse of finance and the contractions of other industries, ‘maybe I’ll teach?”

My wife and I shake our heads in wonderment. “Do these people have any idea what a classroom is like? I’m dumbfounded by how little people seem to know about classrooms and, sometimes, irritated by the opposite side of the same coin, how much they think they know about a profession that they’ve never pursued.

I have been a high school teacher and administrator and my wife still is a high school math teacher and has been an administrator. My argument against such sentiment usually begins something like- “X has no idea what’s it’s like to live and function among high school students for your entire work day. There’s no way he/she can spend their day not speaking adult.” Or, my other primary observation on the topic- “So-and-so finds no amusement or joy in kids being kids. The first time that a student responds like a teenager instead of an adult so-and-so will explode.”

Most adults aren’t built for teaching based on the basics of the situation- being an adult in the student or kid world all day. I haven’t even needed to address teaching practice and thinking to get most adults to think twice about their teaching sentiments.

To teach well, one has to love being among kids- all day. Be professionally adaptive and adept. And, operate with a heightened sensibility of service. It’s not about you.

In “Teaching: No ‘Fallback’ Career” The New York Times collected the thoughts of five education professionals on the subject of moving into the classroom.

Their observations should prompt our thanks for those who make the classroom their profession and give pause to those who believe the classroom easy.

Pam Grossman professor of education at Stanford University:

“…Because all of us have spent thousands of hours in classroom observing teachers, we may underestimate the skill required to engage a group of children or adolescents and ensure that they are learning. Much of the teaching we do in everyday life, as parents or employers, involves telling or tutoring. As parents, we help children with math homework, test them on their vocabulary words, answer their questions. But teaching is much more than telling, and teachers have to know more than right answers.

Good teachers must also be connoisseurs of error. Over time, good teachers can anticipate predictable errors and misconceptions, understand the logic behind the error, and help move students toward a deeper understanding. Work on the teaching of mathematics at the University of Michigan has demonstrated that what they term “mathematical knowledge for teaching” distinguishes teachers from mathematicians and more effective teachers from less effective ones…” (NYT)

Patrick Welsh English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA:

“…The notion that anyone can teach is pure myth. No matter how much one may know or how altruistic one may be, some people are just temperamentally unsuited to teach and are toxic for kids. The problem is that it is difficult to identify those types.

….It won’t take you long to know whether you love teaching. As nervous as I was, it took me about 10 minutes after first walking into my first class some 40 years ago to realize that for me the classroom is a magical place where I wanted to work. At the same time if you realize you don’t love it, do your students a favor: get out and look for another line of work…” (NYT)

Kenneth J. Bernstein teaches social studies at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Greenbelt, MD. He blogs about education and other subjects as teacherken at Daily Kos:

“…it took me until my third year before I was fully competent, even though the students, parents, fellow teachers and administrators were all pleased with what I was doing. I learned to rethink each lesson, from class to class as well as from year to year, and to adjust my lesson plans according to the students in each class.

That’s the hard part, thinking more about the students than about the content. It is probably the biggest challenge for many career switchers. One doesn’t have to be their buddy, but one has to build relationships of trust…” (NYT)

I asked my accomplished math-teacher wife to chime on this post and she adds this series of thoughts:

“Manager. Entertainer. Mathematician. Care. Performance. Preparation. Knowledge. Teaching always appears easy to the outsider. Poor teachers make it seem easy because they do nothing. Effective teachers make it seem easy because they make teaching seem effortless. Either way, the public is duped. The only way to understand the level of commitment and expertise necessary to be a good teacher is to do it yourself. Do it for a minimum of three years. Then, decide if A.) it’s the place for you and B.) if it’s easy.”

Photo credit: Bright_Star