The state of education 2 (teaching)

Hello everyone,

My good friend and mentor Tom Woessner has said that "teaching is a calling."

(He might have actually said that "teaching at Garfield is a calling," but the difference between the two statements is insignificant for my current purposes.)

Teaching is something that many of us feel "called' to do. The voice calling us may be our personal deity, our country, our family, our sense of duty, our love of youth, or even our passion for our disciplines--but we hear the voice, and we have accepted it.

I am enough of a realist to know that many of us really just hear the voice of desperation--we have fallen back on teaching because something else in our lives has failed us. (Some of us have heard the voice of desperation and have had it turn to the voice of love of teaching, though.)

Some of us hear the voice calling to us, and we might be better off ignoring it.

But I think the majority of teachers take the calling seriously. The majority of us really want to do right by our students. And the majority of us are able to.

What does this "calling" mean?

It doesn't mean working in isolation. Teaching is a collaborative profession. Really. If you don't have students, you can't teach, which means at the barest level you need to collaborate with someone to even do your job. Accept the reciprocal nature of your relationship with your students; work with them, not against them.

Ditto with the parents. They pay you to be a support to their efforts to accomplish the difficult task of raising a decent human being; work with them.

You're not in competition with each other, either. I understand that, sometimes for your own health, you might insulate yourself from a toxic work environment; but there are friendships to be had and lessons to be shared. Don't let your insulation be impermeable--ever.

Most administrators want what you want. I have always believed that, even before I took an out-of-the classroom position, and even when I worked with some terrible incompetents. Administrators serve an important function in the school; their jobs are hard; their hourly wages are lower than teachers', which means that they have to work more for less (they work more days per year and more hours per day, so their yearly salary is higher). While I think a teachers' job is paramount--and the hardest in the school, I think that administrators perform a vital function. Collaborate with them; help them help you; be clear about what you need them to do and resist being unreasonable.

Some of the anger and frustration we feel in the course of our profession is directed at those we feel, rightly or wrongly, are interfering with our sense of the call. Because of the high stress that our jobs engender, we sometimes react powerfully to things that are not proportional to our reaction. Step back, take a deep breath, look at the proportions of everything, choose battles that are winnable with the fewest casualties (if you must choose a battle), and keep everything in perspective (ie., the kids really are the most important).

We are called to take young humans in varying levels of ignorance (a word which means simply "not knowing") and help them rise to the highest levels of understanding we can in the short time we work with them. We must be efficient, but realize that we aren't working with machines. We must be wise enough to know what we don't know. We must be above them to lift them, but humble in our height.

The "gnosis" (knowledge--the root of "ignorance") we are trying to give them is an agreed upon collection of facts, skills, and wisdom that society requires, combined with our own experience, understanding and wisdom (which should be constantly growing--indeed we will always learn more from our lessons that our students will), leaving out certain beliefs or wisdom that are considered too personal to share with children that are not our own (religion, sex, and politics, for example).

We practically have to be the supreme combination of diplomat, actor, motivator, psychologist, dictionary, encyclopedia, and surrogate parent to accomplish this.

We can't do it without help. We should seek help wherever we can get it, from whatever legal sources public and private we can find. (And if modern teaching is a calling, it's a mendicant calling. We beg for much of what we need.)

Given all of this, we can't forget that we are professionals, not volunteers; we have contacts to fulfill; we have families to support; we have outside interests and duties as well as what we face in school.

Above all we are called to do good--with limited resources, tough conditions, and conflicting responsibilities--we are called to be good.

Tom was right.

Jeff Combe

PS This is likely my last email. Some of you have asked me to continue writing. If it's possible, I will, but I don't know what responsibilities my job will impose on me from now on, so I can't promise. Keep in touch; my email address won't change.