Is the Teaching Profession Dead?

[proud2BlibKansan]

When I've studied the issue of who chooses to teach and why, its status as a profession always comes up. In case you haven't noticed, teachers as a whole are not taken very seriously these days. Teaching as a respected profession has been on life support for quite some time. Current so-called reformers appear poised to finally pull the plug once and for all.

Teaching is and should ideally be viewed as an intellectual profession. As such, educators should challenge conventional wisdom and encourage students to do the same. I recently called into question my own dual role as an educator and activist, rethinking how I negotiate the fine line between them. Someone whom I respect greatly suggested that I read Representations of the Intellectual by Edward Said to understand this struggle. A particular passage resonated with me that I think applies to educators of all kinds:

The fact is that the intellectual ought neither to be so uncontroversial and safe a figure as to be just a friendly technician nor should the intellectual try to be a full-time Cassandra, who was not only righteously unpleasant but also unheard. Every human being is held in by a society, no matter how free and open the society, no matter how bohemian the individual... In any case, the intellectual is supposed to be heard from, and in practice ought to be stirring up debate and if possible controversy. But the alternatives are not total quiescence or total rebelliousness (p. 89).

One big problem with the debate on education reform is the tendency to trample nuance and force people into two exclusive and competing categories: reform versus status quo. The reform camp on one side is pushing a very specific vision of change in education based on a particular ideology. Those on the other side, typically classroom teachers and their oft-criticized unions, possess their own ideologies. Yet, they are erroneously tagged as pro status quo only because of resistance to the prevailing reformers' arguments. And status quo is used as a derogatory term in the reform debate.

more . . . http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shaun-johnson/is-the-teaching-professio_b_1343521.html

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Teachers don't get the credit they deserve. If it is up to the republicans there will be no schools

in 25 yrs. Everyone will have to do it on their own.

[MichiganVote]

3. Exactly right. Then we will truly be raising the type of underclasses that

in the past have given rise to revolutions, to greater disease and even more wars.

THAT'S how important an educated populace is.

[southernyankeebelle]

5. Why can't the teabaggers see this. Hell I only have a high school education and I can see it coming.

I want better for my grandkids.

[MichiganVote]

8. Your effort f/your HS diploma was not wasted on you.

You know, on average, each year a child is in school, we pump usually between $6-10,000 per kid. So for the sake of argument, let's take the $10,000 amount even tho' that is at the high end.

$120,000 for a k-12 education. 12 years to get your act together as a kid, learn to be responsible and take the skills that are learned to the adult community to be successful.

Can you think of anything else in your life, that you trained in for 12 years that didn't cost you or your Mom and Dad a dime?

I can't. And that's IF you are not in need of an extra year, or a preschool program and your not special needs.

Public Education is a bargain that too many people throw away before, during or after it has been offered to them. As I tell kids, this is your one and only free and appropriate educational experience. Use it or lose it.

[southernyankeebelle]

10. Wow, your making me drop a tear or 2. Thanks. I feel I did the best I could do. Not everyone

was made to go to college. It is funny I come from a large family with 6 six kids. A couple of them took one or 2 yrs pass high school. My parents had 4 kids and then 2 more late in life. So those 2 got the benefit of being around us older kids. I mean I was 13 when my baby sister was born. She is as smart as a pistole. My father was old fashioned. He believed that us girls we get married and our husbands would take care of us. So he felt there was no need for us to go further. I don't blame him it was they way they thought back then. I respected and loved my dad. Now a few years later my dad died leaving 2 young kids 11 & 4. My mom never worked or drove. So I was lucky that I had typing experience and was able to get a government job working for the army. My other 2 other sisters did also. Now I never wanted a high paying job because I can't take stress very well. But my sisters both worked their way up the latter. My oldest brother ended up being a high school teacher and coach and retired 3 yrs ago. My youngest brother died at 39 of lung cancer and he never smoked. My youngest sister was the one that we girls in my family encouraged to go to college. She is extremely smart and she became a dentist. I often wonder how all these kids in one family turn out so different. Yet I think if my dad had lived I wonder if my little sister would have gone to college. I would like to think yes because she is such a go getter.

I have to say it bothers me and worries me for my grandchildren and public education. I just think the republicans are tryig to ruin the higher education system. My granddaughter is in kindergarten. She gets a decent education. I swear they have to learn spelling words and they just started have to know how to use punctuation. My just in kindergarten. But who knows what is going to happen in the future. I live in a red state and I sure don't want them teaching my child rewritten history that isn't the truth.

I guess people need to see what happens once they dismantle education then maybe they will never vote for another republican again. Education truly is the way out. I tell my granddaughter especially that she needs to learn to depend on herself and not a husband when she gets married someday. I tell her just think you can take a laptop with you when you go to college, instead of saying if you go to college.

[MichiganVote]

12. Life is much more than a college degree or not. I have two. Ok, good.

But baby it was a lot of work and sometimes I question whether it was worth it. So we all make our choices. Some of our choices may be mistaken but the 'choosing' is not.

Best wishes to your Granddaughter. I'm sure she'll do fine. But in the future, much of what she will do in education will be done using software and online. Even the brick and mortar charter schools will be a faze.

Its all moving in the direction of online learning and away from the collective schooling in public systems you see today. One day people will apply for public funds for education in the same way they do for food stamps. And there will be an allotment for students regardless of religious affiliation.

The goals of socializing kids in a school environment will be gone. Busing-gone. Integrated schools-gone. School athletics-gone. Links for kids or families who need help-gone. Special needs learning-gone. Adult role modeling-gone. Ditto for all the bullying programs, self esteem programs, tutoring groups, PTA's, Title I, these constructs will be gone.

Sorry, that's they way it is going.

[southernyankeebelle]

13. It's so bleak, isn't it. Yes I was figuring that out to. My granddaughter loves to play

Zoodles.com. It's educational and you can play for free but you also can pay by the year and they will show you their progress in the different areas. I live in a rural area. I want my granddaughter to get the best she can get. My husband and I will make the sacrifices to make sure she gets what she needs. I guess if it goes in that direction maybe some of us parents and grandparents can work together in helping our children. But I see what your saying is the way it is coming in the future. She asked me about getting this disney website mouse.com (or something like that). I checked it out and I think I will get it for her starting the summer. It has like over 400 educational games. Its around $76.00 for the year. I don't think that is bad. But I told her that she would have to work on it at least a hour a day. Just to keep her from not forgetting.

[teddy51]

2. It's not just in the US that Teachers don't get the respect they deserve, but it also exists

big time in Canada. Look at BC Teachers currently and you will see the Government jacking them around there as well. The Government in BC is in the process of forcing a settlement on the Teachers instead of negotiating a contract.

[Starry Messenger]

4. People want us ground down to hourly wage workers.

Easy to control and exploit. In a profession that is largely peopled by women.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. They have fired all the pre K teachers in my district

and are replacing them with "instructors" who will be hourly employees.

And yes, we have wondered if this would be happening if those pre K teachers were men.

[Starry Messenger]

9. Damn.

I was just speculating, that really hurts to hear that it is starting to happen. It's like the race is on to see just how much we can suck as a country. I hope men who think that there should be more male teachers take notice of this too. Allowing this to befall the profession is certainly not going to attract men used to professional-level wages.

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. The answer is legislation requiring certified teachers in PreK

But we are too busy fighting nasty legislation to promote anything that does some good.

[Reader Rabbit]

6. A big part of the problem is unspoken misogyny.

As someone mentioned up-thread, teaching is still primarily a female profession. No one would be attacking it if it were dominated by men, as are most other professions. And people with no teaching experience wouldn't be telling us how to do our jobs if teaching were a male-dominated profession.

But obviously we silly women can't be trusted to understand or have the right opinions, so we should just sit back, don't worry our pretty little heads, and let the big (rich) men take care of this.

[NYC_SKP]

14. I'm gonna say "Yeah, the Teaching Profession is Dead."

Now, it's just too damned complex to say that it is universally true, that it's dead in every school and district in every state.

I see schools and classrooms all the time that make me say YES!-There it IS! Education!!!!

But, as an industry, it is kaput.

If it was a manufacturing industry that had to compete it would be completely dead by now.

Bless the schools and teachers and programs that inspire and succeed despite the impediments, bless them.

And to teachers everywhere:

"thank you for your service."

[Modern School]

15. Unconventional Thinking: Maybe Teaching Is Just a Vocation?

So, let's try some unconventional thinking.

What if teaching is just a vocation, or at least a mixture of intellectual and physical labor?

Blue collar workers use their brains, often in creative, complex and sophisticated ways. Yet society still tends to portray them primarily as physical laborers, working class, of lower status than "intellectual" workers, like teachers and scientists. Yet teaching is a very physical job. We spend hours stooped over to be at eye level with children. We are constantly moving about the classroom. Our presentations are often quite dynamic.

Why the distinction?

After all, we are all workers, employees, members of the 99%. Everyone who works for a wage, whether "intellectual" or "physical," has more in common with each other than with the bosses, owners, managers and administrators, who have the power to hire and fire us, promote or demote us, impose more work without compensation, and otherwise control our working and, by extension, our living conditions.

Perhaps the increasing attacks on the teaching profession is due in part to the fact that teachers tend not to want to engage in confrontation or conflict and thus do little to resist the attacks. As an organizer, I often hear colleagues say they don't want to picket, work to rule or wear a union t-shirt because it is "unprofessional." Teachers gripe about NCLB and standardized tests, but continue to comply with them because it is part of their professional job duties. In fact, teachers do all sorts of things that are against their own interests or those of their students because they are "professionals" who follow the chain of command, from superintendent to principal to department chair to teacher and do what is expected or asked of them.

Maybe if teachers were to look at themselves less as professionals and more as members of the working class, and to look at teaching as an occupation and a means to livelihood first, and only secondarily as an important contribution to society, they would be more willing to take militant and concerted actions to improve their salaries, working conditions and status.

My sense is that we're more likely to be taken seriously as professions by standing up for ourselves and fighting for our interests as workers than we are by always being polite and "professional."

[NYC_SKP]

16. You make a couple of compelling points.

In the end, the term "profession" has lost it's specific meaning, if ever it had one that applied equally well to teaching, boxing, tailoring, dentistry, or prostitution.

You point out a number of things teachers do in the interest (they believe) of remaining professional that are against their own self-interests, and that properly suggests that there might be another, better way.

In a different culture, teachers might be elders, shamans, most-highly revered and thus provided for throughout their lives, to live in great comfort and with the greatest respect.

In our culture, we're to blame for everything that goes wrong with kids and we're supposed to fix it all on an increasingly smaller budget.

It is, in the end, a symptom of a problem with our culture that athletes and celebrities like the Kardashians, for example, are respected and rewarded so much more than educators.