It’s been a while…
This has been an interesting year, with some ups and downs–mostly ups, though, so that is a good thing. I honestly can’t complain about my students, because mostly they are a great group of kids, a bit too talkative at times, but that’s their biggest flaw. They’re smart, and funny, and goofy, and fun to be around.
Things are not perfect, though. My district is short about 200 teachers at this time, and my department alone is short four. And subs are a rare commodity in an economy where working virtually any job in the oilfield guarantees someone a truckload of money, and working as a teacher (or worse, a substitute teacher!) most definitely does not. What does this mean on a daily basis? It means that someone has to teach the kids who are in a class without a permanent teacher, and with no sub on the horizon. Fifteen teachers, myself included, have found ourselves with an extra class added to our schedules. We adopted those kids three weeks in to the school year, and have been playing catch up ever since.
What else can we do, though? It’s not the fault of the students that there aren’t enough teachers to go around. We can’t leave them in the lurch. We have to step up and make it work. And all of us are doing our best to make that happen.
I hear the same story from all around the district, and all around the state. And it spreads beyond the borders of Texas. A Facebook group I’m in that consists of secondary ELA teachers echoes the same issues from all over the country. But how did we get here?
Teaching is an honorable profession. Teaching is an incredibly difficult undertaking. Teachers are tasked with impossible responsibilities, and held accountable for everything that happens, even things completely beyond their control. They are overworked. They are underpaid. They spend their own money on classroom decorations and supplies, because they want their students to have the materials they need. They carry an emotional burden because they truly care about each and every one of their students, and want them to succeed. They work long hours outside of school because there is just not enough time during the day.
And teachers are vilified every day. Rarely does a day go by when I don’t hear or read a criticism of teachers. We are constantly under a microscope. We’ve all been lectured by parents, or even people in line at the grocery store, on how we should do our jobs, how we need to keep kids in line, how things should be handled in our classrooms–it goes on and on. But those people aren’t the ones standing in front of a class, knowing the enormity of what needs to be taught so the kids can pass a standardized test, knowing that some kids have so much going on in their outside lives that the last thing they care about is a standardized test, and knowing that their ability to do their job will be judged based on the results of a standardized test. Sometimes, it seems like an impossible challenge. Yet, every day, those teachers are back in front of the class again. This doesn’t even include the comments about how teachers get the whole summer off (every teacher knows that is just not true–there’s training, and planning, and again, never enough time). If you’re an English teacher like me, you’ve no doubt heard how easy your job must be, just sitting around reading books all day. If only, right?
So, teachers should be treated like the passionate, devoted professionals that they are. If they were, maybe there wouldn’t be a teacher shortage. Maybe teachers wouldn’t be leaving the profession in droves. Maybe, people would have the desire to take on the hardest job they’ll ever have, and the most satisfying they’ll ever know.