Teaching is a Job

Date Posted: 08.06.07

I will begin by stating that I am a teacher in a public high school. I teach 10th and 12th grade English. I am over 30. I have been teaching for more than 3 years. This should establish my bias clearly.

My rant for today is simple. Teaching is a job. I go to work every day because I am paid to do so. If I did not teach I would have to do something else to make money. I adore my job. I love getting up every day and knowing that I get to bring in the bucks by doing something worthwhile and good. However, it is still my job.

I state this so stridently because as an educator, I often hear the phrase "well, we are in it for the kids." Most of the time when I hear that phrase it is directly before or after some bright new idea to make my life more difficult. If I hear that phrase one more time I am going to rip off some vital body parts stuff them in tortillas and feed them to the hungry teenagers. Emmmm salty!

The phrase antagonizes me because it carries the tone of volunteer, charity work. When you are out in the burning sun, sweating buckets while setting up a 3-legged race to raise money for the local boys and girls club, then you are "in it for the kids." You can smile at your discomfort knowing that you are doing good out of the pure shining brightness of your own little heart.

When I go to work every day, I do not go simply out of the goodness of my heart.

I am an educator. I am well educated. I am highly qualified (another rant). I have received various commendations and accolades. My students have shown notable improvement both on standardized tests and in classroom performance. During their time in my class they gain an appreciation for written language as well as history, art, philosophy, politics and world cultures.

I keep up on all the educational trends. I evaluate them and if merited I implement them. I spend a tremendous amount of my ostensibly free time in professional development. I work frequent 10 and even 12 hour days to ensure that my students are not stuck doing the standard lecture/quiz/test routine of years past. I spend even more of my personal time with various after school and weekend activities to expose my students to the arts and help them find outlets for their own creative energies.

I deal with the insane bureaucracy that inundates our educational system. I work with other professionals to deliver integrated curriculum and share resources across schools, counties and states.

I serve as a counselor for distraught teens. I serve as a sounding board for confounded parents. I spend hours on the phone listening to Ms. Little Johnny explain why her child needs X, Y or Z. I attend sporting events and plays. I chaperone activities to ensure teenage happiness (or less angst).

I do all of this with a glad soul.

BUT�

That is my job.

Since it is my job, I feel I have a right to certain reasonable considerations. I shall enumerate these minimal considerations in no particular order of importance.

1. Consistency of job description
If I am an English teacher one year, I do not expect to be a Reading teacher the next year. They are two very different subjects. In the business world most people do not get arbitrarily reassigned to new positions. I expect similar consideration.

2. Appropriate supplies and accommodations
I expect to have a classroom. This means I expect to have a room with reasonable climate control and enough room to seat myself and my students. It should be noted that I expect to be able to seat all of them at the same time, in chairs, with the doors shut. I do not expect to share this classroom with another teacher. I should be able to maintain the environment in a manner of my own choosing.

I expect to have books since literature can not be effectively taught without them. I will even accept sharing books but the books must exists. I expect to have a supply of paper and pens. I would also like a few art supplies. I can live without technology though it is certainly preferable it is not necessary to do the job.

3. Adequate pay with adequate benefits
I do not expect to be rich but I expect to be paid enough to support myself and my dependents (if I had any) with 30 miles or less of my place of employment.

Am I asking more for my job than any other professional?

Needless to say this rant has been inspired by the fact that none of these things have been provided to me. I am an English teacher who is being forced to teach Reading (which I don't really enjoy). I am required to share my classroom part of the day so that I have no place to go when I am supposed to be planning and grading. I sit in the teachers lounge on a smelly old couch trying to grade over the sound of old soda machines. I never have enough paper. This is not very productive. Plus, I don't really make enough to support myself. I get by, but if I had a car payment or any dependents I don't know how I would manage.

But of course "I'm in it for the kids" so I have no right to be pissed.

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