Educators
are Today's "Punchos"
When
my kids were little and got angry and frustrated, I told
them to go into the next room and take it out on the
"puncho." This was a large inflated toy that
sat waiting for the next punch. Recently, I was at
a friend's house - she's a therapist - and she showed me
the anger "wands" that she lets adults
use to let out their angry feelings. These are soft foam
rubber sticks that let you bat away all those frustrations
without hurting people or things. I thought about
these punchos and wands recently as I visited a local school
and asked teachers to how they feel about their work and
the perception that parents and the public have about them.
Their report is this: they feel humiliated, assaulted
and under attack. These attacks come from parents
who are not sure what they can expect from school and always
expect more, from communities that have been told that their
schools are failing and that teachers are lazy, from politicians
who find schools very easy targets, especially at election
time. Schools are today's punchos. They stand in
almost every neighborhood, an easy and accessible target.
Nearly everybody has gone to school so everybody is an "expert"
on education. So, why not jump in and take out stress
and anger and frustrations on school. Schools/teachers
are quite defenseless. They don't bounce back like punchos.
The attacks, unlike the foam wands, leave wounds and these
are hard to heal.
What can teachers do? What does the public need to know?
Here are three points teachers need to make and as needed,
make them over and over again.
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Teachers Aren't "Terrible": They're Human
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Teachers Are Doing More And Working Harder Than Ever
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Not Even The Best School Can Do The Job Alone
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Teachers
Aren't Terrible: They're Human.
Recently, I asked teachers across
the nation to respond to this question: Do you agree or
disagree: Teaching is the Hardest Job. Answers came
in fast and they were no surprise. Everyone agreed, as do
I, that teaching is the hardest job. Of course, there are
stronger teachers and there are lazier teachers and teachers
that discourage and teachers that inspire. The day of the
old-maid teacher whose life was only in the classroom is
over. Teaching is an extraordinary job. In an ideal world,
it would be done by only extraordinary people. But even
to teach in an ordinary way takes a lot more than what people
give on most jobs. Here are some answers from teachers:
______________________
"I have observed new teachers
many times over my 20+ years of teaching. One of the most
memorable days was when a young engineering graduate, teaching
for the first time, spent some time with me after school.
The main topic for discussion was the multi tasking required
of classroom teachers. Call roll, write cut slips, check
the attendance sheets, keep your class engaged for the entire
class period, manage discipline problems, mediate disputes,
teach, counsel troubled students, nurse the sick, and teach.
We had a good laugh over her notion that teaching was easy."
______________________
"It seems there are far too
many parents willing to turn over their responsibilities
for their children to educators. More and more, we get children
in our classrooms whose basic needs have not been met in
the home and are, therefore, not ready to learn. Teaching
would be much easier, but still very challenging, if every
child came to school happy, healthy emotionally whole and
excited about learning." "I think
the most difficult thing about our jobs is that we care
about the kids. It breaks our hearts when they are hurting.
It frustrates us to no end when they reject or ignore what
we have to offer. We feel despair when, despite everything
we try, we lose them. We still don't give up."
Teachers Are Working Harder Than Ever…
I believe that teachers are working
harder and better than ever and I say this from a perspective
of 40 years in the field. Teachers face problems brought
into school they never faced before. Teachers are trying
to educate more children than ever before.
Teachers are attacked in headlines
and sometimes in classrooms: Everyone seems to know more
about teaching than teachers. There is a lot of anger about
education today and a lot of disappointment. While teachers
cannot soothe everything away, they can start to put across
the message of what a school, even a great one, can and
cannot do, and what every parent, great and not so great,
can and must do.
___________________
Here are five messages that I urge teachers to try to get across to parents and the wider public:
- Hold realistic expectations of what even the
best school can do.
- Care about what is really important and help
make things happen at the school.
- Send the message to children about the importance
of education and underscore this at home with reinforcing
words and actions.
- Take school home and take
home to school: they connect academically and emotionally.
This is the critical synergy for student achievement.
- Believe in
this education "law": There
will not be great teachers in every classroom. But along
the way, most children will encounter teachers who do
their extraordinary job very well. Those are the teachers
who will make the big differences in children's lives
and it may not take more than one or two to do it.
Not Even the Best School Can Do The Job Alone
Reviewing the No Child Left Behind education legislation which
puts so much responsibility on the school and so little accountability
on the home, I am worried that parents, even with the best
intentions, will continue to have the idea that it's all still
the school's job to educate the kids. I wish I could wave
that magic wand and make it happen, but it won't and it can't.
I want to make sure that in the rush to judgment about schools
that we don't let families off the hook. The right to know
more about their schools, which parents now have, means the
responsibility to do something about what's learned: from
children's grades to tests and beyond. Empowered with information
from the school, families and communities have to act responsibly.
No more can parents play hooky.
To get better, schools and the people in them need to be
encouraged, not told that they are terrible. Teachers
need what the rest of us need: support, training,
trust. That's the tried and true road to improvement and
it starts in every school and every home.
___________________
Dr. Dorothy
Rich is founder and president of the nonprofit Home and
School Institute, MegaSkills Education Center in Washington.
She is the author of MegaSkills and developer of the MegaSkills
Teacher Training Programs. For additional information:
www.MegaSkillsHSI.org
