Teaching: Is It Worth the Tears?
By Wendy Rush B.S. Special Education Mild/Moderate Emphasis and Utah Teacher Fellow with Hope Street Group
Have you ever asked a teacher why they teach? Try it. I challenge you to find a teacher and ask him or her to tell you why they do what they do. Listen as they describe why they keep coming back. Despite the challenges, heart-breaks, red tape, threats of violence, and financial struggles that they face, most teachers become emotional as they talk about why they teach.
I recently had the opportunity to meet with each of the teachers that I coach and ask them “Why do you continue to teach?” Each teacher I met with, when asked this simple question, broke down their professional walls and expressed true emotion, often crying, as they recounted their experiences. What is is about teaching that brings teachers to tears?
Working with children is wonderful, but it is also deeply painful. As teachers, we see the darkness of society written on the faces and bodies of our students. We have children that come to school unbathed and dressed in ill-fitting clothing with rips and stains. We see children bullied, rejected, and friendless. We see evidence of hunger, neglect, abuse, intimidation, and fear in the eyes of our students. I spoke with a teacher who watched her student undo her bandaged hand, burned on a stove that morning, by her mother as punishment for not listening. The bandage made it impossible for the student to hold her pencil, so she removed it. This teacher spent the rest of the day helping her student to participate as she nursed her injury.
There are countless stories of teachers spending their own money to purchase combs, soap, and hand sanitizer for their students who are neglected or homeless. Teachers keep snacks in their desks for children who are hungry. They plan activities and provide materials to over-crowded, under-funded classrooms bursting at the seams with learners, each with different personalities, learning styles, ability levels, genders, and socio-economic levels. Teachers purchase much of what they use with their own money. It is a teacher’s job to take the hand of a child who has no self-esteem, who is in a constant state of panic and survival, and elevate them to the point where they are capable of abstract thought.
There are very few people who stand up and give the voiceless a voice. Children remain some of the most vulnerable members of our communities. Children are beholden to the whims of the adults around them, and they often they pay a heavy price. Children have no voice unless an adult stands up and speaks for them. Teachers bravely stand up for children every day. Teachers advocate for their students at the school level, they call parents, they do home visits, and a few even engage with their legislators to make sure the stories and needs of children are heard and considered, as laws and regulations are drafted and voted on.
Teachers’ concerns are often dismissed, and our voices are marginalized. When we express how difficult it can be to accomplish so much, for so many, with so little, we are criticized and seen as being “whiny.” The main criticisms are that teachers aren’t contracted a full day, and we don’t work over the summer months. This is simply not the case. Teachers stay after school every day for meetings and lesson prep, they work on weekends and holidays to catch up on grading, and they work throughout the summer to create lesson plans, set up schedules, set up their classrooms, and attend professional development. And, even with all of the work beyond contract time, most teachers have to supplement their income with other part-time work, just to make ends meet.
Teachers watch students fail over and over and over before they finally understand a concept. It isn’t easy to watch a person fail and lose confidence in themselves. But when that moment comes, and a struggling student finally understands and is able to accomplish the task, there is almost nothing more gratifying. And THIS is why teachers come back. Despite the pain and heartbreak we experience, teachers live for the moment when failure becomes success! When that happens to a child, who never knew what they were capable of, a teacher gets a glimpse into the future of a person who trusts and believes in themselves. A person who could change the world for themselves, their children, their communities, or even the world.
That’s worth some tears.
Wendy Rush is a Special Education Instructional Facilitator and coach for a Virtual Charter school in Utah. She has had the opportunity to work with students and observe teachers in brick and mortar and virtual teaching settings since 2007. She has also been a mentor teacher, instructional coach, a classroom teacher in a brick and mortar elementary school, and a high school resource English teacher in a virtual charter school. Find her on Twitter @WendyRush16.
