An apple for the teacher

My cousin Ellen is a retired schoolteacher. I never sat in on her classroom, but I imagine she was a really, really good one. Intelligent. Funny. Kind. Understanding. She loved the work she did - teaching language arts to eighth grades - and she loved her students (even though they were eighth graders). She is an excellent reader and an excellent writer, qualities that I'm quite sure served her (and her students) well, as she could convey her love of books and the importance of being a good writer, to the kids in her classroom.

Ellen and I generally stay in touch via email and text, but last week we actually had a convo.

On July 4th, as we learned about the Highland Park killings, Ellen and I were texting when she decided to pick up the phone and give me a call.

In the course of our conversation, I asked Ellen about her oldest grandchild, who just finished up her first year of college.

When last we'd spoken, Maggie was planning on becoming a nurse. But plans have been changing, and Maggie's now considering becoming a teacher.

My reaction was that Ellen must be thrilled at the idea of Maggie's entering the profession that Ellen had so loved. But that wasn't quite the case.

No, Ellen told me, she doesn't think that, these days, going into teaching is such a great idea. 

We didn't get into the 'why's', but it isn't hard for me to imagine what they might be. 

I have a number of friends and family members who are  or were teachers. They taught in suburban schools in affluent communities. In inner city public schools. In elite private schools. In parochial schools. 

And while all of them loved their work - the ones who didn't bailed out after a couple of years and went into another profession - it's not an easy job, and it's a job that's getting more difficult.

There's 'teaching to the test,' with teachers spending half  their time making sure that their kids pass state tests that really don't reveal much that you don't already know, and really don't produce the results we need: a literate, numerate, knowledgeable, skilled, and critically thinking populace. With the teachers so focused on 'teaching to the (standardized) test,' there's little time for the creativity and exploration that my teacher friends had so enjoyed. Not to mention being judged and evaluated on whether or not their students achieve often arbitrary results. 

Then there are the parents who make life difficult. 

One teacher friend gave a student the grade he deserved. His parents went haywire. A B+ would keep him out of the Ivies. Their son needed an A. This was at an elite private school, and this wasn't the only time that parents had come after this teacher to put pressure on her to change a grade. 

Another teacher friend, who had a not-so-great student with influential parents, had given the not-so-great student a not-so-great grade - the grade that not-so-great had earned. The parents were ticked off, and pressed sonny-boy for something they could use against my friend. Aha! She had once said "BS" in class. Not directed at sonny-boy, just used in general. My friend ended up with a reprimand.

And so one.

Teachers have also been under attack during the pandemic. For wanting to wear masks. For wanting their kids to wear masks. For wanting to keep kids safe. For wanting to teach remotely while the pandemic raged. Etc.

Then there are the right wingers getting involved in what's being taught. Maybe wokeness got a bit out of hand in some places, on some occasions. But now in Florida, you can't say gay. In Texas, a lunkhead politician has proposed that, in the history books, the word "slavery" be replaced with the term "involuntary relocation." And a lunkhead politician in Ohio wants to teach both sides of the Holocaust. In this corner, the SS. In the other corner, six million Jews. Got it.

I don't imagine teaching was ever all that easy, but these days, teachers - especially those who work in poorer schools - are also expected to be psychologists, doctors, social workers for kids who come from dysfunctional families, families in crisis, families with an absent or addicted parent. 

Hovering over it all is the mass murders in schools. Columbine. Parkland. Shady Hook. Uvalde. That any day, your classroom could be attacked by some psycho with an AR-15. 

Forget 'teaching to the test.' Imagine having to teach the kiddos in your charge what they need to do in an active shooter situation. (A couple of Highland Park survivors I saw interviewed mentioned that their children knew just what to do. A good thing, I guess. But how unspeakably awful.)

Then there are the insane suggestions that we arm teachers. Oh, that's a swell idea. Gunman at the door. Get the gun out of the locked gun safe. Get the bullets out of the other locked safe. And square off with a handgun against a guy with a semi-automatic. That'll work. 

In Boston this year, there've been a couple of instances this pas year of students attacking a teacher. So, active shooter with a weapon of mass destruction aside, add in teachers fearing for their personal safety.

And let's not forget teachers having to go out of pocket to buy school supplies. Teachers generally get a small stipend, but the average teacher spends $750 a year to augment it. Thus, a number of charities - Adopt a Classroom, Donors Choose - and teacher wishlists on Amazon have sprung up to help support teachers who want to make sure they have the equipment and supplies they need to teach.

Then there's all the bitching about how much teachers get paid, so big deal if they have to pay for colored paper and markers. Sure, the pay is for the most part decent, and the benefits are better than what's on offer in the private sector, but in some states teaching pay is truly abysmal, and teachers have to moonlight to make ends meet.

Sure, teachers get a lot of time off, but a lot of that time off is spent prepping and other teaching-related tasks. Not to mention that, in this day and age, many parents and students expect teachers to be perpetually on call, and answer any email that comes their way right away. 

And don't get me going on the pressures to privatize education which, I predict, will lead to students in poorer communities being educated largely through some type of remote (and largely rote) online for profit learning, while privileged students will get to enjoy the benefits of in person learning in well-funded schools. 

I'd say the teaching profession could definitely use an apple. And a lot more.

No wonder Ellen's not all that keen on Maggie becoming a teacher.

Whatever Maggie decides to do, she'll without a doubt do it well (what with chips of the old block, and grandchips off the old grandblock). But it's a truly profound loss to the children of the world when those with the potential to be teachers as great as my cousin Ellen are turned off to this critical profession.