Stand Up For Yourself, Teachers

It’s hard for me to retaliate to something when I don’t actually feel compelled to do so. In one of my pedagogically grounded EDU classes, we were asked to, before actually doing any profound research, state our opinion on this question:

Is teaching a profession?

Personally, this was something very hard for me to deal with. In all my years of college, I never truly saw myself as a teacher. I was typically passionate about the literature that had encompassed my life. But, as a high-school student, it was always my dream to become a teacher. When I got into college, though, it seemed that my “dream” had changed, or so I thought.

I couldn’t see myself teaching and omitting the great works of Faulkner, Wright, Shakespeare, Milton, and etcetera that I had grown to love. This is why I loved English. I loved the Canons and I loved to write. It was perfect. But, when I found that teaching would have various stipulations on this subject matter—I was skeptical to continue.

Then, as I have mentioned before, I took a core-education class for credit. It turns out, my love for teaching had not disappeared—it had only hibernated for a couple of years. Now, as I am back on the path of teaching, I was faced to confront this very tough question.

Sure it would be easy for me to use my biased opinion and strictly answer that question with a strong “yes”. But, unfortunately, I can’t do things like that. I don’t enforce my opinion unless it is truly validated, in my mind at least.

So, I took the time to draw some conclusions. The general consensus believes that a profession has the following attributes:

-Extended and extensive education.
-A considerably high salary.
-A certain prestige.
-Certain privileged information.
-Deals with serious “life or death” matters.
-It should be a “calling”.

Overall, teaching does touch upon most of these areas. Although it is obvious that if these are the set standards as to define a profession, then teaching may not be a circle-to-circle fit. Slight exploration seems necessary.

As for extended education, many of my fellow students will argue this one. It becomes frustrating for people to tell us that we don’t have extended and extensive education when it seems like we’ve been in school for a decade. In reality, though… we don’t have as much as education as other professions (for example, doctor, lawyer, and etcetera). It’s just a fact. I do, at this point, figure myself to be an intellectual; however, I don't claim to be an expert, yet.

I’m not even going to mention the issue of having a high salary. We all know that teachers make a meager living. Although, this does seem to be changing (as many of these issues are, actually).

As for prestige… well, just like the salary, teaching is becoming more and more prestigious, believe it or not.

Teachers are definitely not given privileged information. Any signs of child-abuse (etcetera) and teachers turn from mentor to tattle-tale.

It’s not hard to argue that teachers deal with serious matters, though. Come on, we have your childrens’ lives in our hands.

Again, it’s not hard to understand that teachers, most of the time, have a true “calling”. There are only certain types of people that can be teachers.

Overall, my final conclusion is that teaching is a semi-profession or a soon-to-be profession. Ask me this question again in ten years, my view will most likely have had changed.

In reality, though, it becomes hard for me to defend my passion when the other students (who in this case is a current full-time teacher) are writing trash such as this:

Teaching is certainly a professeon. Aside from our biased opinionsteaching compares in many ways in terms of required education andcontinued professional development to the other top professions in theworld. Pay is another matter, but that is a result of being within a publicly funded system. It is critical for the continued progression ofour profession that we carry out levels of professionalism in our daily activities. From the way we dress to the way we interact with students and fellow staff members we must remain professional at almost all times. There are certain aspects of thee profession that allow for some relaxed interaction with colleagues, but they are removed from the daily activities of the school. We are professionals no matter how easy the outside thinks are jobs are.

I understand that this person may have written this quickly. But, I think it is very important to use correct grammar and spelling in a “profession” such as the one we are getting involved in. If we want people to start taking us seriously (teaching is a profession), then we have to start taking ourselves seriously. I mean come on, this person should be able to write better than this ("[...] no matter how easy the outside thinks [ARE] jobs [ARE]") I bet you that lawyers and doctors compose themselves in a coherent manor.

One last thing... to be honest, this was not the worst of all of the entries… Cheers, folks.

What do you think? Am I being too harsh? I'm sure this person is a great teacher...