This won't be long (I hope) because I don't really have an answer and I hardly even have an opinion to this, just a gut reaction -- which I think is pretty strange. (but maybe it will be long because I don't have answers, but I have a long personal history with the subject)
I started this post in my previous one: "Yesterday I was listening to NPR when this guy -- a police officer -- was talking about his job and he compared it to teaching -- which is not a regular job, but 'a calling.' Hmmm... I thought, that's exactly the idea that I've been having trouble with for a long time now and I had even forgotten the name for it."
So, this whole thing about "a calling" bothers me greatly. And brings me to some early memories. See, my mother was a teacher. She started teaching during her high school years and she continued for over 35 years (with a few breaks). Mom was also an academic, she got her master's degree in education when I was about 11 or 12 [I will try to blog more about that for mother's day]. And the thing is, my mother did NOT want me to become a teacher (or, for that matter, a professor). She actively advised me against it.
I think the first time was one day when I was reading on my swing (oh, I wish I had photos of those swings my dad put on a couple of tall trees in those magic five years when we lived in a rural area at a boarding academy)... we were talking and my mom told me she didn't want me to be a teacher. It's too much sacrifice, she said, too much work.
She retired with glee on the year Kelvin, her first grandson, was born (2002) and never looked back. And she was an awesome teacher and professor, one that countless students remember and talk about to this day.
So, yeah... I guess I tried to escape it, but it was useless. I've always LOVED to study and learn and what can a person who enjoys studying for years on end do but teach? So I've taught. I started with private tutoring and then teaching English to kids and teens when I was in college, and in graduate school I taught TONS as well.
Now that I'm back in the classroom and particularly in the past two weeks when I really began to be more involved with several of my students (including some of those who are really struggling in my class), I've been thinking about the whole "calling" issue. I'm obviously very familiar with this word with a religious sense because of my upbringing and background, and I wonder if its use to refer to education is precise or not.
What is this "calling" referring to? To the fact that if you teach you spend countless hours doing things that you cannot really be adequately compensated for?
I really like what Anastasia wrote on Tuesday here (and I've been so busy I only read today):
Teaching requires mad inner resources.And it does, it really does (and I'm so sorry you don't have the physical resources you need, Anastasia. I feel really really lucky that I do -- well, I shouldn't!! It should be the minimal right of anyone who teaches, right?)
What say you about this issue of calling and teaching?
P.S. I'm sure my friend Aliki could say insightful things about this subject too. Feel free to write a post of your own about it, Aliki!
I think for some people it can be, and also I think that most really good teachers find personal satisfaction in the act of teaching, and are motivated to continually develop their skills and knowledge.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the whole notion of "teaching as a calling" also contributes to the devaluation of the profession in general-- sure, people wax poetic about how important teachers are in educating our future generations, etc, but there is also this idea that teachers willingly spend large amounts of their personal time and resources on their jobs, are expected to go above and beyond to sometimes great extremes, but this is all fine and good and doesn't need to be compensated or remedied, because teaching is a calling, not a "regular job."
It takes talent, patient and love... however there are plenty of teachers out there are don't have any of those qualities. There's a difference between a teacher and an educator. The calling is the difference.
ReplyDeleteHow appropriate, Lilian--I was just thinking about this subject the other day. I vowed I would NEVER become a teacher. Why? I don't know, except I grew up with two teachers and I just had other ideas about what I wanted to do. But I, like you, love to learn and study and to be in the classroom environment. I'm not sure I think of teaching as a "calling" but I do know I enjoy the aspects of it that maybe come naturally. I love to connect with people; I truly enjoy being in front of a class, and guiding my students through a tricky reading, or watching that "a-ha!" moment happen in them when they truly *get* something. However, I also think a large part of what I find so satisfying about my teaching job is that I work with students from very underprivileged backgrounds and I serve not just as teacher, but mentor and counselor, too, and I get a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction from connecting with students this way.
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