Professionals

Teachers have demanded to be treated as professionals over the years. For the most part I have supported and actually fought for that kind of recognition. I have hated axioms like: “Those who can do. Those who can’t teach.” I think they are unfair and misrepresent the truth. I have heard things like “if education was run like a business things would be a lot different.” Given businesses track record over the years, especially recently, I don’t think we want education to emulate it.

There are, of course, plenty of areas where we can improve. One that I wrote about at length in one of the 80s journals was my frustration with teachers who didn’t want to take any professional development classes or graduate courses. They complained loudly about continuing education and claimed that it was a waste of time. If they did take a class they wanted it to be easy, quick and cheap. They don’t want to do any work. I could hardly believe it when I heard things like that from teachers. I always wondered what they would say if their students acted like that. I wondered what sort of educators could fell that way about education.

I taught a whole language class at the elementary school in Crawfordsville. I remember at the first session the room being full of teachers. There were to male teachers in the group from Morning Sun or Wapello. I can’t remember which?

My practice was to outline the course and my expectations at the first session. I thought folks should know what to expect. I did that this time. It included that each person would have a project; there would be lots of group work and reading.

During the break the two guys came up and said they were dropping the course. They were disgusted that they would actually have to do something during the class. They told me they expected me to lecture and all they had to do was sit there and listen. One of them even said, “I’ve paid the money! Teach me! I don’t want to do anything. Just tell me what I need to know.”

That kind of attitude is a crime against education and goes against all we know about learning. I felt it was unethical, unprofessional and deceptive since they were going to get paid more after completing the class. I can only imagine what kind of teachers these guys were. Others in the class told me the guys were lazy and had bad reputations as teachers. I knew the type from personal experience.

The boldness of the two guys startled me. They didn’t take the class and I was not a bit sorry to see them walk out. Educators, in order to be professionals, need to eagerly, aggressively pursue continuing education. If teachers were paid better they might take more classes, but they should be making enough that they don’t take a course just for the money. Unfortunately, nothing much has changed since I wrote about this twenty years ago.