I'm a teacher.
I am a teacher because I was called to be a teacher.
It's a job, technically, since I get paid.
Not much, mind you, but it's better than nothing. If you go into teaching for the money, you're in for a big letdown.
But teaching is more than a job to me. And it has to be if you want to be good at it. I was once told by a minister that, if you could be happy doing anything else, then you shouldn't be a minister. The same is true about teaching. If there is another "job" that you would be happy doing, then you shouldn't be teaching. Teaching has to be - HAS TO BE - a vocation.
Frederick Buechner defined vocation as the place where your greatest desire and the world's greatest need meet. He's spot on. If a task does not fulfill your desire, you will not do it well. You may at first, but the lack of satisfaction will wear on you and you just won't have the endurance to keep it up. On the other hand, if the world doesn't need it, if what you're doing isn't providing a positive contribution to society, then it's not worth doing and your work will feel empty. So you need both sides of the equation.
I knew for a long time that my desire was to work with young people. I wasn't exactly sure how or where, so I had all kind of different ideas. And they all involved teaching in some capacity. But none of them ever brought me peace. I considered church work, non-church religious work, private school teaching, teaching at a university, etc. I would have enjoyed myself doing any of these, but each would have been empty to some extent.
Then I had an epiphany of sorts. The greatest need in the world that crossed my greatest desire was and is the education of economically disadvantaged public school students.
There I was, Masters degree fresh in my hand, PhD applications started, private school teacher applications submitted...feeling all kind of uneasiness. But then an opportunity presented itself (an alternative teaching licensure program) and I felt a peace. I said that I'd give it a few years, that I could always go back and do PhD work, but you know right away if it's going to work.
And, yeah, it's a hard job. Actually, that's not true; it's more than that. It's hard as hell! I can't even begin to list all the factors weighing against "our babies," as we call our middle school students. The odds are stacked against them from before birth.
So, yeah, it's hard. But I would not be happy doing anything else. And, besides, if it were easy, it wouldn't be worth doing in my opinion.
To survive, to endure, to continue to bring the energy required each and every day, though, you have to have a calling, a vocation, a sense that you can't do anything else and still be satisfied. Teaching has to be something that grips you and won't let you go. It has to be something that you have to do, that you must do.
This has been left out of the current debate over the Memphis City Schools (MCS) charter surrender referendum.
Shelby County Schools (SCS) Board president David Pickler has been arguing that SCS doesn't believe in putting its best teachers in a few chosen schools. His reference is the MCS Optional Program. And his argument reveals his ignorance of how education really works.
You see, one of the best kept secrets in Memphis and Shelby County is that the best teachers are not necessarily at the schools with the highest test scores, the so-called "best" schools.
I am not saying that SCS doesn't have good teachers, nor am I saying that MCS Optional teachers aren't effective. Like any school or system, there are good and bad teachers in these settings.
What I am saying is that teachers in those settings do not have to be great for their students to achieve. Students in these schools generally enter Kindergarten already multiple years ahead and their parents make sure that they learn what is required even if their teachers are doing a poor job. Students in these schools know that much is expected of them, that they will graduate not only high school but college as well. Failure is not an option for these kids.
The same is not true, however, in the MCS neighborhood schools.
And that is why teachers in neighborhood schools must be great, must have a calling, must not be happy doing anything else. Teachers in our neighborhood schools must be the ones ready and willing and able to meet a challenge head-on. We have to convince our kids, we have to teach them that failure is not an option because they have been told, implicitly if not explicitly, that it is.
Our neighborhood schools have been an afterthought for far too long. MCS is doing great things to change this, giving struggling schools choice picks in the hiring process. Struggling schools are now given priority and are allowed to hire first. As a result, the best applicants are now being selected by the neighborhood schools.
Proponents of charter surrender need to be making this case. They need to say that Pickler is wrong, that SCS could actually learn something about staffing from MCS because our best teachers are now being funneled into the neighborhood schools where the need is greatest, not into the Optional Program as he claims.
The kids even notice this. I have had students who transfered from both SCS and the Optional Program tell me that our teachers are better. In those schools, you either get it or you don't, the kids say. And if you don't, too bad. These kids say that our teachers break problems down better and search for different ways to grasp a concept until one finally latches on. Our teachers do this on a daily basis because they have to. And that is why they are great.
It's the difference between one class of 8th graders reading on a 10th grade level and another reading on a 4th grade level. It's the latter that demand our best teachers. And that's why MCS has started trying to get our best teachers in those schools.
This same process needs to be implemented under a consolidated system if the referendum passes.
The new superintendent should throw down the gauntlet upfront and challenge all the best teachers in both the city and the county to seek employment at a neighborhood school, to turn around a failing school, to look for the greatest need.
Our leaders need to be out there making the case for teachers to really check themselves and their motives for teaching. They need to start trash talking, challenging SCS and Optional teachers to put their money where their mouths are, making the case that our best teachers work in our neighborhood schools, arguing that you will not be considered legendary unless you help turn around a struggling school.
Someone needs to be out there talking about calling and vocation. This would be great to hear from our faith leaders. They need to be making the case that God calls us to work with the least of these, which in education means the kids in Frayser and Binghampton, Hickory Hill and Hyde Park, down along 3rd Street. Teachers in the pews need to hear this and they need to be challenged to pray about where God really wants them to be.
Sure, there are some bad teachers out there. And, sure, some of them are in our under-performing schools. But I guarantee you that a great many of the teachers in our neighborhood schools are among the best at what they do. And I'm glad that I am able to learn on the job from so many of them.
We have 18 core classroom teachers at our school. And I can honestly say that I would want almost all of them teaching my own children. I would trust them with my own kids. Our teachers are that good.
The other few? Well, we need those spots filled.
And so, if you teach for SCS, if you teach in the Optional Program, if you teach in a private school, I'm calling you out.
Do you think that you are a good teacher? Prove it! Come, show us what you've got. If you really are a good teacher, then help end the achievement gap, help end the cycle of poverty, help us make a real difference in Memphis and Shelby County. Examine your purpose, your calling, your vocation. If you really are good, then we need you. We need you. Don't run away to less demanding jobs.
And while you're at it, tell Mr. Pickler and his Board that we've got a challenge for them too. We challenge you to prove that you have what it takes. Be leaders and accept the challenge of fixing the problems at these schools. If you really know how to run a top-notch school system, then what are you afraid of? Examine yourselves. Is education a calling for you? Is it your vocation? If so, then you just might want to consider what you are doing for the least of these, you just might want to consider where the greatest need is. If you know how to turn these schools around, then we need you. We need you. Don't run away from the challenge.
So, step up to the plate.
I dare you.
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