There was this episode of "Leave it to Beaver" in which Beaver's teacher comes over for dinner. I forgot the premise of why, but one thing lingers deep in my mind about the episode. Beaver's teacher came over wearing shoes in which her toes were exposed.
Beaver called Larry Mondello to come over and they were in shock. They were mesmerized with the fact that their teacher had toes, or that she was wearing such "risque" footwear.
I got to thinking about this during that entire Polazzo imbroglio in which some of the comments made by Stuy students were shocked that how a teacher can write nasty, snarky, sarcastic posts in this blog. Or one comment in which someone commented that at 7 PM I should be correcting papers, doing lesson plans, etc... without realizing that teachers do in fact have lives. Well, most of us do.
Why are teachers put on such a pedestal? Yes, I know we work with children, and there must be a certain amount of decorum. But, why are teachers constantly singled out? And I think this leads back to this entire Bloom/Klein of bashing teachers.
There is this stereotype that is still out there that a teacher must still be virtuous, virginal, and chaste. That all we should think about is the students. But why aren't cops, or firefighters, or CHILD PSYCHOLOGISTS held to the same unrealistic standard as teachers? They are all very important, if at times not more so to the community than teachers.
Back in 2005 when we were negotiating a new contract there was talk of a strike vote. I was with some colleagues and we were discussing it. I mentioned that I am ready to strike if need be, when this new, TFA inane drone said, "how can you talk about striking, what about the children?" I explained to the TFA inane drone that the children don't put food on my family's plate, nor will they put my child through college. He shut up fast.
I am just getting tired of us getting dumped on as a profession, by people who do not know, nor care about education. Thank you for letting me rant.
1 comment:
Have you ever read the book "Teachers on Trial" by Prof. James A. Gross? It was published over twenty years ago, but still contains a lot of vital information concerning teaching in New York State, the perception of teachers as "role models," and the tenured teacher disciplinary process.
See:
http://books.google.com/books?id=AilGTNBVFGcC&dq=%22Teachers+on+Trial%22&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=q7fsYZw4Q4&sig=9wOuVgifnQMMMeKhUEziUojQnkQ&hl=en&ei=d1YRS4zECtWzlAeqr6CxAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false
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