Remember way, way back in your childhood when people would ask you what you wanted to be when your grew up? Of course, no ever said something like “actuary” or “insurance salesman”. We always replied something along the lines of “cowboy”, “firefighter” or “teacher”. Did you play school as a child? Pretending to teach with lots of art projects and coloring. Then again, my experience in kindergarten WAS a lot of arts projects and playing that taught us without even knowing it. It was just fun.
Was teaching ever “fun”? Did my kindergarten teacher turn in her lesson plans to the principal a week prior, with EALRs and Blooms Taxonomy highlighted? Was she just given a script to read from as many teachers are given today, no deviation allowed for any reason?
Today I was talking to a teacher from a distant district about all the budget cuts being made in his district this year. Pay cuts for all staff members, increase in medical insurance (which will now probably be taxed heavily to – it doesn’t pay to keep healthy in the US anymore) and layoffs. All the things my district has already done and will still probably be cutting even more. Throw in an “us ‘gainst them” environment looming over the country and you have to wonder if we shouldn’t be telling kids to avoid a teaching career at all costs. Teachers may be important enough to take all the blame for the country’s ills, but not important enough to listen to, have any respect for or regard in any manner other than the societal space formerly reserved for crack users and hobos.
Maybe I should have become an actuary. I think I’m going to start highlighting that career option when we return to classes after break.
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