“You make your living by teaching, but your profession is humanity.”
Over the course of the last week, we have been discussing teachers and how they are looked upon and respected in other countries. We heard from three speakers at the beginning of the week who gave insight on their teaching experiences in other countries. The graduate student who spoke about Korea said that teachers in their country are very well respected and very appreciated in their profession, whereas the other two speakers did not speak as though teachers in India and Great Britain were regarded as high as teachers in Korea. We know, comparably, that teachers in the United States have increasingly become more and more under appreciated for their work. However, appreciation for teachers is declining all around the world.
My question is, WHERE IS THE RESPECT FOR TEACHERS? Why are teachers these days given such little respect in the classroom? Not only is this lack of respect coming from students, also from the government and even parents. An article entitled, “Why Parents Don’t have More Respect for Teachers,” comes from a Canadian educational magazine that can be found here:http://teachmag.com/archives/128. This article highlights on all of the disrespect that teachers are receiving from parents. Perhaps one reason why teachers are so under appreciated and do not receive respect in today's society is simply because parents do not have respect for their child’s teachers and it is from the parents speaking out that people are made aware of these false accusations. This article goes on to explain that many parents do not appreciate teaching as a “career.” They consider teachers as not working the typical “9 to 5” job and only working six hour shifts to teach and leave, even though many teachers put in extra time and hours with no extra pay to ensure students are getting the direction and the help they need to excel in the classroom. People are also finding it easier to blame teachers for things that are going wrong in the education system, even though those things may have absolutely NOTHING to do with the teachers. Another point the author of this article points out is that since education is looked at as more of a requirement rather than an achievement, teachers and education are not valued as much as they used to be. Do you think this is okay? Don’t teachers deserve more respect from parents and from others for all of the work they do? Why do people think it is okay to place blame on teachers for the education system? It saddens me that teachers receive such little respect for all that they do.
I totally agree! I hate how teachers have lost respect from not only students and parents, but also society in general. I think the loss in respect stems from the fact that teachers' incomes aren't that high relative to many other professions. In the field observation I had for FEEP, the parents and the students would not respect the teachers. The parents would often be late for meetings or just never show up. Students wouldn't pay attention in class and trying to get them to do homework or stay on task was laughable. The teacher had no control over the class and therefore no respect. How did teachers lose the respect? Society has started to devalue teachers and their jobs, and this attitude has trickled down to individuals that come in contact with teachers everyday. It is sad.
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