2008, p. 53). While this is sometimes seen in a purely academic context, there are also many instances where teachers are confronted with helping students in other developmental domains. The healthy development of children and young people can only occur if teachers consider the development of the whole child. This is ignored frequently in schools, and students are often deemed a problem if they have some kind of lagging skill in the social or emotional domain that is impacting their academic success. Ross Greene (2008) stresses that all kids want to do well and that “kids do well if they can” (p. 10). When teachers don’t help children develop in all developmental domains we end up failing some as they can’t keep up in an environment where help only comes in academic forms. I believe that teachers need to view children and young people as always wanting to do well, and if they experience a situation where a child is not doing well, then they need to find out what help they need to provide so that the child can succeed. If someone does not desire to help children in any way other than academically then teaching is not the correct path for them. While fulfilling the demands of the standards has become a necessity in America’s schools, helping children develop dynamic skills that they will use daily as adults is more important.
Most teachers will identify that the most important goal they have for their students is to become empathetic individuals who have a desire to do their best and work hard. There is rarely a teacher who views meeting all the prescribed standards as the most important thing they will help their students learn; many also question the purpose of the arbitrary standards. Further, the learning environment is also threatened by the increasing dependence on standards as it “decreases the chances that young people will grow up in the midst of adults who are making hard decisions and exercising mature judgement in the face of disagreements” (Meier, 2000, p. 5). To cultivate critical thinking and problem-solving in children, adults need to demonstrate these skills. The overreliance on standards to dictate instruction leads to classrooms where critical thinking does not take place because the teachers are not thinking critically. There then comes the question of who is actually creating these standards. The standards are almost always created from a perspective so far removed from the classroom that they fail to directly relate to the students and focus highly on what politically is deemed important to learn. This makes the standards not relevant to the students themselves, thus making the information learned from them not useful. Unfortunately, meeting the standards has become almost the sole focus of school administrations and lawmakers. This leads to teachers who are limited in the amount of help they are able to offer their students outside of strict academic deadlines. I view this trend toward only helping students meet standards and not helping them develop as a whole child as a dangerous one. It ignores the many differences among children and instead focuses teachers’ help on those students who are already set to succeed. Instead of helping children when they are in distress, we now see teachers who ignore the children who desperately need their help because to help them with anything but meeting academic standards is to distract from the apparent necessity to teach to the test.
I personally have witnessed this change in the type of helping that teachers provide and have seen the damage that it can do to a child. In a pre-K class that I recently observed there were many children who did not fit the ideal mold of the easy-to-teach student. The student who struggled to name letters of the alphabet was treated as if they were wasting the teacher’s time and not worth the extra help. The student in visible distress when one of their classmates walked in on them in the bathroom was told to be quiet because a math lesson was occurring. The student with autism who was mostly nonverbal was kept at arm’s length from all other students in the class and thought of as a nuisance. Helping the student to be a part of the class or to learn was seen as too much of a distraction from the main objectives the rest of the students needed to meet. What did this teach all the students in that class? It taught them to ignore people who need extra help and that needing help isn’t something you want because it will not be given to you. This example is one illustration of how the state of schools is contributing to the current “crisis in human relationships” and “absence of any sense of responsibility for one’s community” (Meier, 2000, p. 13). To really understand why this can have devastating consequences to society, it is vital to reevaluate the purpose of school. Too often schools are just viewed as a place to instill a bunch of knowledge into children about the core subjects. When schools are instead viewed as places to create citizens who will positively contribute to society then how much America is failing at creating a sense of responsibility for the community becomes much more alarming. Schools are where students should be learning how to build strong human relationships that emphasize helping others. Teachers need to help their students in more than just academics and create a classroom community to cultivate these qualities in their students. When teaching is viewed as being vital to creating future citizens and building the foundation for a democratic society then the impact that a teacher has is thus viewed as formidable. While there are other occupations that help children, teaching is one where you can help children beyond what any other profession can do. It is because of my view that teaching has the potential to have the greatest impact on children that I want to help children by teaching.
In my opinion, teaching is one of the most important jobs there is. This is because “the experiences we provide for our young people today will shape how they see themselves, one another, and the world” (Sapon-Shevin, 2007, p. 236). How we teach children will greatly contribute to the outcomes they have as adults. I sometimes joke that I want to teach to make sure that when I am older and in need of care by the younger generations that there are individuals I will trust to care for me. While it is a joke, it is rooted in a reality that how our education system teaches our youth greatly impacts society. An individual teacher has the ability to contribute to the outcomes of anywhere from 20 to 200 students a year. Nearly every single child in America will attend school at some point in their life and have a teacher affect their life outcome. This job should not be taken lightly because of the impact it has. Americans have slowly started to realize that our education is not up to par with many other first-world countries. We see the societal impact of that, and many fear for what will happen if we continue to perpetuate our education system’s problems by confounding them with more of what does not work. As Greene (2008) emphasizes, the continuance of practices that do not work is “an exercise in frustration for everyone involved, and it’s time to get off the treadmill” (p. 9). If good teachers do not step off the treadmill and facilitate a change toward better education practices, then the result will be a society that continues to fall behind those of other first-world nations. It is extremely important for teachers to be advocates for this change because of the impact that our education system has on student outcomes. My desire to help facilitate this change and positively contribute to the future of society through teaching children is one of the biggest reasons I have found that I not only want to teach but feel I need to.
To recognize that teaching is something you feel you need to do is a vital realization that teachers and future teachers must have. Wanting to do something can easily change over time, but a desire to do something because you feel you need to do it is much harder to get rid of. There is no question that good teachers are needed now more than ever. Nearly half of all teachers leave the profession within the first five years of teaching, and many who stay quickly conform to the teaching-to-the-test mentality. We need teachers who understand all that teaching entails and are willing to persevere when things get tough because they know that doing their job well is vital to not only the future of the students in their class but also the future of society. It is by no means an easy task to teach, but it is one that requires vigilance. A good teacher is a hero in disguise, and if dedicated individuals don’t don a cape and teach, then students will suffer. I feel I can not only handle this burden but want to, and that is why I am becoming a teacher.
For Further Exploration
Meier, D. (2000). Will standards save public education? Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Meier, D. (2002). In schools we trust: Creating communities of learning in an era of testing and standardization. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
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