WHEN I GROW UP...

Growing up, I knew lots of little girls who wanted to be teachers. I wasn’t one of them.

Never lined up my stuffed animals (or recalcitrant siblings) to play school. Never got into shopping for pencil boxes. Never dreamed of standing in front of my very own class of adoring faces. In fact, I thought that girlfriends who wanted to be teachers didn’t have much imagination.

It was a big surprise to me when I discovered how intellectually fascinating and variable teaching could be. Not to mention difficult. The difficulties I encountered as a new teacher, after backing into the profession, were both predictable (getting students’ attention) and unexpected (figuring out why colleagues thought graduate courses in education were productive only from an increased-salary standpoint). Many of my fellow teachers had adopted the philosophy that teaching was not rocket science, and that following a well-trodden path (i.e., assigning 30 questions or the same essay theme every September) was more than good enough. Back in 1975, the idea of having a teaching practice, let alone continuously improving it, was not part of the deal. A lot has changed in the past three decades in the discourse around teachers as skilled professionals. Or so I thought.

I was a little surprised, then, to see teaching listed on U.S. News and World Report’s most overrated careers. And somewhere between insulted and incredulous to read the “real” lowdown on what teaching was like. After accusing teachers of choosing their career based on summers off (haven’t we debunked that old chestnut yet?) and high salaries (!!!), Marty Nemko says that teaching is overrated because:

In many public schools, classes are grouped at random, which means one class can include special ed students, gifted kids, and foreign-born children who speak little English. Trying to meet all their needs can be exhausting, if not impossible. Government rules often put pressure on instructors to teach all students high-level material, even if it's over their heads. And summers aren't sacrosanct: Increasingly, teachers are required to work, or "volunteer," for part of the summer. 

So—let me see if I’ve got this right. You shouldn’t choose teaching because you could find yourself dealing with diverse groups of children? Because government “rules” force you to teach challenging content that kids will never master? And you have to work in the summer after all, like everyone else? Don’t even get me started on “foreign-born children” as a so-called drawback to becoming a teacher. 

Should you want to (ahem) “make a difference,” Nemko suggests private schools that (reasonably, of course) screen students, as well as private tutoring companies. Evidently, Nemko has not done investigative work on the salaries paid to these employees, or he wouldn’t be promoting them as preferable alternatives for those trying to decide on a rewarding career.

Shame on U.S. News for publishing such a shallow conception of teaching, which now involves more deep knowledge and skills than ever—as well as a major uptick in pressure to perform, causing a loss of professional autonomy. It’s a rich, fabulous career, but it’s worthwhile in ways that perhaps only those who actually master teaching can appreciate. To understand why teaching is satisfying and gratifying, you must approach it as a believer in the complex, redemptive and transformative power of education. Not as an opportunity for fame, fortune or that easy, well-trodden path.

Comments

[John in NC]

What more can be said, other than Tom Toch, former senior education writer at U.S. News and co-author of a pretty good new report on teacher evaluation, must be spinning in his think tank.

Alas, the magazine has gotten so thin, it no longer even makes good fire starter, which is a double negative here in the mountain cabin.

[DrPezz]

Isn't U.S. News and Report the one who ranks schools based on the percentage of kids taking AP classes? More and more credibility lost...

[Nancy Flanagan]

You got it, Dr. P. Although-- U.S. News screens all high schools first, through statewide assessment test scores (to see how well they're serving all students, they say). Then, using the top tier of those schools, they look at AP enrollment. You can pretty much figure out who's going to wind up on their list, before they even do their data analysis.

As a print subscriber to USNWR (which a friend calls "Useless News and World Distort"), I read lots of mainstream mags because I often get more insight into what real folks are thinking about schools and teaching than I do reading Ed Week or edblogs, which often seem to be about a very limited number of Important People.

[Marsha Ratzel]

Nancy,

I am also one of those people who never thought of becoming a teacher. I wanted to be a lawyer and settled for being a health care economist. Which then took my career path into hospital administration. I worked at that for 10 years before deciding I needed a change.

My college buddies still gasp when I talk about being a teacher and finding it intellectually engaging. They are doctors, lawyers, executives and businesspeople. I say let them "____ air" because it is their snobbish attitude that keeps them from understanding how complex teaching can be.

It doesn't surprise me a lick that something like US News and World doesn't get it. A career like teaching is subtle...it seems so simple but it is, when done well, multi-layered and like a fine chess game.

I love this post...

[Rose]

Thank you for this. I only seriously considered teaching when, in my conversations with some very interesting high school teachers, saw how intellectually engaging it was. I am lucky to have gotten such a positive insider's view of it instead of the sh*t this article from the US News and Report tries to sell -- under both the so-called "appeal" and "reality".

[Nancy Flanagan]

Thanks, Marsha and Rose.

There does seem to be permission these days to casually dismiss teachers and teaching as low-brow. You see it everywhere in mainstream publications and especially on the web. Some blogs seem to attract a set of rabid critics of American teachers.

I don't know if teaching is rocket science, but I do believe that most people go into teaching for the same reasons that people go into social work, health care or the clergy--to help others. The right reasons, in other words.

[Pat]

Great post! Even though I have always wanted to be a teacher, it is articles like this that make me want to scream! We need good committed teachers out there and to run off possible candidates by writing this in the US News and World Report is truly a sad time for people whose children are just entering the public education system.

[cleverusername]

I think you people are misreading the original article. If you follow the link to its original page, the writer states, "People enter such careers as teacher or nonprofit manager to make a difference, only to encounter frustrating roadblocks at every turn." I think the point of the article is to highlight how demanding our job is, not to demean it in any way. Go back and re-read the blip on teaching and the original article.

[Nancy Flanagan]

Oh, yeah--and Marty Nemko provides lots of examples of how other worthy careers (law and medicine, for example) are "overrated" because of the hours, the tedium, misconceptions about the actual work.

Nemko's personal politics showed up in his assessment of teaching, however (as well as a boatload of stereotypical assumptions). People shouldn't become teachers because they might be forced to teach "foreign-born" students? If you want to make a difference, then you'll be willing to help change those less than ideal conditions. Deciding that you don't want to be a teacher because you have to teach mixed-ability classes is pretty much proof that you didn't "get" teaching to begin with.

[rockmt]

I think there is some misunderstanding about the US News article. US News, I believe, is not trying to put down those already in the teaching profession. Rather, what they mean by "overrated" is that so many non-teachers want to join the profession without enough knowledge about its shortfalls that they had best look for something else. Some of the reasons given in the article such as getting summers off are old and lame but other reasons such as increased beauracracy, assessment, and accountability are new and scary to potential public school educators.

Yet once these individuals start teaching, they will then realize that teaching is quite the opposite, an underpaid, understaffed, underappreciated, and most underrated profession. I speak from experience as a public school teacher myself and personally, I would warn anyone interested in the career that they are in for a very difficult job.

[Nancy Flanagan]

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Just to clarify: I don't believe that US News was trying to demean teachers.

The thrust of the article was a very one-sided view of teachING, not teachERS. And I heartily disagree with the author who says that service-minded candidates for teaching should shy away because they may find themselves teaching classes of kids with mixed abilities (among other things).

Rockmt is right--teaching is a very difficult job. Just as criminal defense, social work or staffing the emergency room would be difficult. But I sure am glad that some people step up to those challenges, even though they involve hard, dirty work, long hours and dealing with all kinds of people.