After today's class discussion of the way American teachers are treated in today's society I couldn't help but to think about it a little more. Throughout the past few years, the emphasis has been put more on blaming teachers for several mistakes and problems that aren't always theirs. It seems as though teachers are always the ones taking responsibility for so many different things. As a teacher it's become the idea that your job is to make sure students pass all exams with flying colors, learn new material daily, make learning fun, create personal relationships, make the classroom a community... the list goes on and on. I think this is something that we as a society need to look to divide. Why isn't the responsibility divided? Perhaps test makers need to be held responsible for some of the "failing" students. Maybe parents need to share some responsibility in their own children. And the students themselves should begin to acquire their own sense of responsibility as well. Now this obviously isn't the way school systems have been being run lately and perhaps this is the biggest problem.
After reading an article discussing the trend of blaming teachers, (http://www.nea.org/home/53524.htm) I've realized maybe people point fingers to teachers simply because it's easy. When the average American citizen thinks of school or learning they visual a teacher standing in front of a room full of children. However, what they don't see is all the other factors that the teacher must adjust to. Most people aren't aware of the types of children that are in the classrooms or the tests that the teacher must prepare the students for, or even of the way the teacher is constantly stressing on losing his/her job. As we've discussed very frequently, testing has started a new "craze" throughout the school system. This fear of not being successful when the test scores come out disrupts everything a teacher is supposed to be. Overtime, this has changed everything about the way classrooms are run and it can't be blamed on the teachers. It's not the teachers' fault that the entire school system is having trouble; it's time that as a society we begin looking at the picture as a whole instead of one single piece of the puzzle.
I think it was really interesting that you brought up that teachers do more than just stand up in front of the classroom for the few hours of the school day. Teachers do so much more outside the general "teaching" of students. I would venture that most teachers bring their work home everyday and yet most common people just think that teaching is a short work day with a long summer break. Teaching is a lifestyle that requires a lot of dedication and I like that you brought it up.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa, I really love your perspective on how teachers are being treated in the classrooms. I agree with you that teachers are seen as the only problem in a classroom. When test scores come back people do not stop to think about if the test makers made the test geared toward one type of testing style that some students may struggle with, or if there were personal problems going on at home. Outsiders see the teacher as the end all to a situation without even a second thought. As many of us begin in the career field of education we need to take the time to make others, including parents,that we (the teachers) are not the only cause of bad test scores and help to change this myth.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your perspective on teaching. Teachers get blamed for how students perform, while there are so many other factors that affect a student's performance.
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