Lessons Learned, Part 1

{Published in the Stephenville (Texas) Empire-Tribune January 2, 2011 }

I’ve often wished that I was blessed with the so-called “gift of gab.”

 It has always been difficult for me to engage someone in idle conversation much less a healthy discussion on a topic as important as education. Writing, on the other hand, has served me well. For some reason it is easier for me to get thoughts from my brain to the tips of my fingers than from my brain to the tip of my tongue. Besides, it takes me weeks to compose one of these columns, and I’ve never found anyone patient enough to converse with me for that long.

Writing also let me earn a pretty good living. I was a Technical Writer for seven years. That was a terrific gig. I got paid for doing something I love, worked mostly at home, traveled occasionally, and, on the side I could work on that “Great American Novel.”  Alas, the tech writing business eventually dried up and the great novel turned out not so much.  So, the writing years served as my transition years into teaching.

Despite my advanced age, I have been a teacher for only nine years. Prior to teaching, I performed my military duty and then spent over 20 years in the corporate world; stories for another time. The last nine years have been a roller coaster ride. My rookie year as a teacher went relatively (emphasis on relatively) smoothly, but my second year was a disaster.  I nearly quit teaching and teaching nearly quit me; also a story for another time. Since then, I’ve taken it one year at a time, tried to learn from my mistakes, and, a few years ago, received a Teacher of the Year award. Go figure.

There are many reasons for the ups and downs of my teaching career, but two mistakes that I made really stand out as lessons learned. First, I entered the teaching profession with the notion, that many people have, that teaching is an “easy” job. Second, I thought my “real-world” corporate experience would serve me well in the classroom. Boy was I wrong on both counts.

 I could easily write an entire column on each of these lessons … so I think I will. This month I’ll discuss the “easy” teaching profession. And next month I’ll do a number on the “corporate reformers” who want to help us “fix” our schools.

Politicians have made numerous attempts to de-professionalize the teaching profession by ending teacher certification. Their primary argument for this has been “anyone can be a teacher.” In a way, I agree them. Anyone can be a bad teacher.

It is easy to be a bad teacher. What makes a bad teacher is not caring whether students learn. It is easy to make assignments from a book or pass out a worksheet, prop your feet up and wait for the bell to ring. Yes, there are teachers like that, but they are the 1% and, fortunately, they don’t last very long.

It is not easy to be a good teacher, but I am proud to say that they are the 99%. I am privileged this year to work with a very impressive and dedicated team of teachers who teach freshman Algebra. This is not an easy subject to teach. These teachers get to work early and leave late. They meet weekly to collaborate on lessons. During our “duty-free” lunch, they compare notes and make adjustments to daily lessons. They tutor students before and after school. They go home exhausted, but stay up late grading papers. Parts of their weekends are spent preparing for the next week.

But, what impresses me most about these teachers is that they haven’t given up. Their classroom sizes have nearly doubled and they face an uncertain future (the real cuts begin next year), and yet they keep on trying. Also, they haven’t succumbed to the “teach the test” mentality. Even though they are the first group of teachers whose students face TAKS’ demon spawn, the dreaded STAAR test, they have continued to teach their subjects to the best of their abilities. Why? Because, they genuinely care about their student’s learning.

So why do the myths against teachers prevail? Because many people drink the Kool-Aid.

Mixed by politicians and pundits, this potion has been designed to poison minds against teachers and public education. They have administered it in ever increasing doses for decades until the general public has come to believe that teachers and schools are responsible for the ills of society. Their goal is to undermine public schools to justify the transfer of your tax dollars into their pockets.

As a teacher, I have been accused of self-interest in writing these articles. I can live with that. Personally, I think teachers do themselves and their students a disservice by not speaking out more. But if you are the parent or grandparent (as I am) of school age children, ask yourself to whom you want to entrust their educations: teachers or politicians? I am around teachers literally 24/7, and there is no group of people I would trust more with my grandchildren.

I would love to hear your comments. I have received some nice feedback and had some lively conversations along the way. (Shout out to Wade – I never agreed with you, but I enjoyed the debate.) All of my previous columns and blogs are at http://onetexasteacher.blogspot.com/ and I have a Facebook page called One Texas Teacher. If you’d like to debate the plight of public education, please drop by.

In the meantime, I’ll keep writing.