In praise of teachers?
Umm, not so much, actually. In fact, reflexively overpraising them is a big part of the larger problem.
Many factors have contributed to the downfall of America’s schools. One rarely discussed issue is the disproportionate praise heaped on the teaching industry, which has led teachers to believe the scope of their influence ought to extend beyond the teaching of facts and figures. As a society, we have praised teachers to the extent that even mild criticism of the profession is met with a chorus of boos. “My sister is a teacher!”
“Teachers are heroes” is practically an infallible dictum. It is unclear why teachers, by default, deserve the disproportionate praise our society gives them. Even suggesting that they might deserve merely the same amount of respect we give most other professions (the horror!) will be perceived by many as “an attack on teachers.”
The prevailing wisdom suggests it is particularly noble to be a teacher. Is it especially noble to teach fourth-grade social studies? Is it more noble than delivering packages? Is one of these industries more replaceable than the other? Kids can and are being educated by parents at home — a practice growing in popularity as our public (and in some cases, private) schools deteriorate into cesspools of leftist orthodoxy. Short of actually working for UPS or the like, parents cannot replace a nationwide package delivery system, suggesting that one of these professions is at least partially replaceable by parents.
Many educators see themselves as quasi-parents who are responsible for crafting our children’s values and beliefs. When we regard teachers as heroes, we should not be surprised when they believe their duties include having discussions normally reserved for parents. Teaching long division is not heroic, but if our society convinces teachers otherwise, it is unlikely that educators will place appropriate limits on the breadth of their influence. Because we bear responsibility for creating this hero complex but also want teachers to stick to facts and figures, Republicans have asked for two mutually exclusive concepts.
At the very least, teachers ought to demonstrate they are good at their jobs before deserving disproportionate praise (or any praise). Is there anything more pernicious than a bad teacher? How about a public school system filled with bad teachers? We ought to examine empirical data and draw conclusions about the performance of the teaching industry over the last few decades. We might discover that the way we have lionized teachers bears no proportion to the amount of praise the industry deserves. If the teaching industry is not to blame for how our children have been educated, then what is?
Ooh ooh ooh, that’s an easy one! It’s because we haven’t poured anywhere near enough taxpayer money down the gullet of Big Progressivist Education, of course. Or so some would have us believe, at any rate.
Yes, having in my circle of friends several both active and former teachers, I am aware that teaching in Amerika v2.0 has become a tough, even physically dangerous job, what with
Classrooms full of vicious, unsocialized and ungovernable thugs given to violent assault at the slightest provocation, such as any attempt at maintaining discipline
Inflexible curriculum standards and course syllabi which mandate not drilling students in the Three R’s but pure socialist indoctrination
Entire buildings full of chowderhead administrators peering over classroom instructors’ shoulders
The gradual transformation of government schools from educational institutions into de facto daycare centers wherein indolent ghetto families can warehouse their unruly offspring for six to eight hours every school day
Those amongst many other factors, the rise of the all-powerful and lavishly funded teachers’ unions being probably foremost among them.
I well remember, during the dark, dismal days of the Great Scamdemic Lockdown, being greatly annoyed by all those “Heroes work here!” signs all over the place exalting essential workers ordinary Janes and Joes—from hospital staff to the most humble WalMart employee—for the saintly sacrifice of just, y’know, doing their jobs. Fine folks? Of course, most of them anyway. Heroes? Well, no, not exactly, not quite. Bottom line, then? Just this:
If teaching facts and figures is courageous, then surely insurance brokers and UPS drivers are also heroes. In that case, employed society would consist almost exclusively of heroes as most professions have value. That is not to say that being a teacher is easy, as nearly all professions are challenging in their own way. Being a great teacher requires certain skills, just as being a great carpenter has its own requirements. Dealing with a classroom of screaming kids requires different tools than building cabinets, but being different does not mean being heroic.
A better approach would be to reserve the word “hero” for those who pull people from burning buildings or dodge bullets on the battlefield. Honesty is a critical component of fixing our public schools. We currently treat teachers like emotionally fragile beings unable to accept a truthful characterization of their profession. Taking this dishonest, condescending approach will benefit only those who see our public schools as yet another opportunity to infect America’s youth with harmful ideology.
Precisely so. Funny, innit, how most if not all of our seemingly-insuperable contemporary predicaments share a common solution—ridding ourselves of the plague of Progressivist locusts that is devouring our society. Seems as if there ought to be some action Normal Americans could take to resolve the situation in their favor and re-balance the scales, so to speak. If we could only figure out what *cough-cough FUMIGATION cough-cough* it might be.