“Teachers teach for the outcome, not the income.”
That sound nice, doesn’t it? Until you really think about it.
It’s true to a degree, but don’t get it twisted. If teaching was a totally unpaid gig, there would be a whole lot fewer of us. Bills don’t pay themselves.
Don’t get me wrong. I love my kids, even the ones that are harder to love. I want the best for them and to help them become the best people they can be. However, teaching as a profession, is tough. Not because of the teaching, but because of the unspoken demands placed on us daily. We have to make sure they have access to the tools they need to be successful,of course but that isn’t all.
We have to make sure our kids get fed or we’re having a bad morning.
We have to make sure they have clean clothes so they won’t get teased.
We have to make sure that they know someone loves and cares about them.
We have to report any mistreatment we become aware of, regardless of how our reporting could make the situation worse.
We have to give the kids our best every day because they may not be getting it anywhere else.
Do all that with little resources or funding for your classroom and stick to the state mandated curriculum that is not enjoyable to teach or learn.
And make sure the kids are constantly engaged through the day.
And that they do well on these bias assessments they can’t opt out of, regardless of their ability level.
And try not to have a breakdown while having lunch. You only have ten minutes to eat, pee, and make copies before recess is over.
And if you insist on crying about it, do it at 1 am. You won’t be sleeping because you have to come up with another intervention to try because some of your kids aren’t getting the lessons over parts of speech that week.
Or do it on your way to work. That way, you may have time for a healthy sob on the parking lot before the buses arrive.
Because teaching is a lot. They don’t prepare you for that in college. You could write the best lesson plans on the planet, but you won’t know how to console a crying child because they watched their parent get arrested, or worse, the night before.
This stuff is learned in the trenches. It’s hard and teachers do not make a fraction of the money that they deserve for all the time and energy they give to their students.
Just something to keep in mind during the pandemic.
