Leadership's Future: Who Teaches?
by Miki SaxonRemember the old line “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach; those who can’t teach, teach teachers.”
It’s not true. Most people who go into teaching do it because they have a true passion—at least when they start.
But passion is hard to sustain when all you hear is that
- you are too easy/hard;
- you give too much/not enough homework;
- you too often receive little-to-no respect from parents, kids, administrators and even your colleagues;
- more time is spent on politics than lesson plans;
- you spend more time teaching basic manners than educating; and
- your de facto hourly pay rate is around minimum wage in spite of a 9 month work year.
Some manage it and they are the ones who truly leave their mark.
Most of us remember the teacher(s) who really touched us, who opened our eyes and helped us see the world differently.
And we remember the worst we had, but the majority fall in-between and become a blur.
some of the best come to teaching from other successful careers.
One of the highest profile of these is Tom Bloch, who left H&R Block (the family business founded by his father) after 18 years, five as President, and a salary of nearly a million a year to teach math at an inner-city middle school in Kansas City, because he wanted to make a difference—and he has.
Listen to this interview and then read his story in Stand for the Best. Share it; maybe it will inspire others to apply their passion to teaching, but if nothing else, perhaps it will encourage them reconsider their own attitude towards teachers.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: Growing Bolder
September 17th, 2009 at 3:10 am
I agree, Miki, that it must be hard for teachers today to sustain their passion for teaching. When I think about the teachers I had during my years of public school attendance, I can’t remember any bad ones at all. Almost every year, I had at least one teacher who was truly outstanding in his/her concern for students, enthusiasm about the subject area, and skill in transferring knowledge. More often than not, what I hear now from friends with kids in public school is dissatisfaction and frustration. Do you think we have higher standards now, or have things really gotten that much worse in the past 20 years?
September 17th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Hi Becky, actually, I think things are much worse, standards are far lower, and the situations facing teachers far more onerous.
With two teachers in the family I’ve heard a good deal from the other side and it isn’t pretty. My niece has had parents storm in and scream at her for not giving their child the grade the parent deemed appropriate. One father said that the low grade in English might keep his son from lettering and that was far more important and he threatened her if she didn’t change it, which she refused to do. She faces similar situations constantly—as do three teachers I know who work in private schools and one in a Christian school.
Teachers are fired for being too tough (see the first link above) and all that matters to administrators is standardized test scores and enrollment numbers. Learning how to learn and thinking seem to be way down on the agenda.
Obviously not all parents are like this, but it is a far larger number than you would imagine. Most want better education in general, but, of course, neither they not their kids are the problem.