Teachers are skilled professionals — not missionaries, writes Amanda Ripley in The Washingtonian. Talking about teaching as a low-status career for the selfless drives away the smart, ambitious people the profession needs.
Tuesday, February 09, 2016
It's My Job, Not My Calling
I don't know if I've had a "calling" since I got out of the army half my life ago. I've done things I'm good at, but I never felt any mysterious "this is what I'm meant to do" feeling for them, and that includes being a teacher. Turns out I'm not the only one:
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4 comments:
I don't want a missionary or a martyr teaching my kids. I want someone who is skilled and has options.
I could not teach if I didn't get paid. That's about 99% of the teachers I know. If it were a calling, one would do it no matter what the pay. How many teachers are willing/able to do it for starvation wages? (just ask any adjunct,I guess...)
I will agree with the quote. It is a job. How many other people do jobs they love but get paid?
Somehow being put on the pedestal bothers me, as if adulation is supposed to make up for everything we put up with.
I expressed a similar opinion in a recent online rant:
http://sumofallthingsaccording2me.blogspot.com/2016/01/i-am-not-teacheri-am-person-who-teaches.html
I am not a teacher. I am a person who teaches. I can no longer "be" my profession because I don't think my profession is respected at any level.
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