If ‘Teachers Should Carry Guns’, Then Police Officers Should Get Degrees in Education
Picture one of your favorite teachers. Mine was Mrs. C, a kind, encouraging woman who taught the first grade. She had this way of being gentle but firm, motivating but understanding. We learned how to count by tens, sang songs to memorize the spelling of difficult words, and had the freedom to be weird, creative little first graders. It was her ability to create a loving environment that made going to school so enjoyable. And it was her training in how to teach difficult concepts to children that helped us learn what we needed before moving on to the second grade.
Twenty-two years ago, I started my academic journey toward becoming a teacher. I majored in Education at the University of Oregon and began the deep dive into brain types, learning styles, behavioral patterns, successful lesson planning, and educational theory. Though I changed my major to Ethnic Studies, I eventually got a Master’s in Teaching. I focused on everything I started in my first years at the U of O in order to graduate, earn my certification and teaching license, and begin my full-time career teaching in public schools. I paid (literally) thousands of dollars and spent (literally) thousands of hours considering how to best serve my students and how to contribute lovingly to a future generation of human beings. I kept Mrs. C in my mind, hoping to emulate her motivating, kind, and effective learning environment.
Most teachers go into education because they believe the degrees, certifications, and continuing education credits are simply worth it. We love our students. We love our work. We will spend time doing almost anything to make sure we are fully up-to-date on whatever we need to best serve our learners and be present in our classrooms. We burn out (and yet come back year after year) creating engaging and effective lesson plans, dealing with the individual needs of our students, both emotional and academic, and doing our best to make sure students meet benchmarks of every kind. Though we are often exhausted, many of us can’t imagine doing any other job in the world.
Countless studies throughout the years have argued for quality teacher development recognizing that students deserve the best. We do so much work just to get into a classroom, and so much continued work to stay there. Our focus is on mastering our subject matter and safeguarding the emotional and academic well-being of the people in our schools.
What is asked and required of police officers? What draws someone to that career? Would any of the qualities be similar to those of your favorite teacher?
Let’s take that stark departure from thinking about an educator’s journey and examine the expectations and skills of police officers. These two jobs are extremely different in pretty much every way, starting with the training required to hold each of these jobs. To train to become a police officer takes an average of six months. Some required annual training exists, but they are often not different from ones required in other sectors as well.
And what is the goal of a police officer? What is expected of them after their (VERY SHORT) training is complete? To create a loving, motivating, and stimulating academic environment? Of course not. Most police precincts list something like “serve and protect”. (And although this is thought to be the general role of police in the US, it is important to note that the Supreme Court has ruled on many occasions that the police actually have no legal obligation to protect anyone, “absent a special relationship between the police and an individual”).
This goal has nothing to do with building future generations of leaders, understanding behavioral issues or learning styles, no mention of brain types, emotional well-being, or academic preparation. And although one could argue that police should very much be trained in human behavior and brain types, I think it would be hard to find anyone who thinks that police should know about or deal with learning styles or academic lesson planning. Why would they? It literally has nothing to do with their (supposed) contribution to society. With short training, they are (kind of) tasked with keeping us safe. It is, quite literally, one job. And after devastating mass shootings like Uvalde, we can see they struggle to do that one job well.
(And let’s be honest. There are plenty of teachers who don’t love their work or their students. They have no romantic notion about shaping future generations. But even they chose the work for reasons drastically different from the reasons people choose to be police officers.)
When people start advocating for (already very educated and exhausted) teachers to carry guns, why do they not advocate for the people actually being PAID TO DO THAT EXACT JOB to get more training? To become more adept at their job? Why is it on educators, who have dedicated their lives to helping shape human beings for the future to ALSO do the job of a police officer? If that is the case, then police officers should also be doing their jobs. Please ask them to spend 5–6 years getting degrees, learning all about brain types, learning styles, lesson planning, caring for students with learning disabilities, and more! They are more than welcome to take on our academic journey and our incredibly underpaid tasks!
One could also (quite easily) argue that if teachers are now supposed to ALSO do the job of police officers, then why do police even exist? If we have to do our job AND that job, why is someone else being paid to do that job?
On average, policing receives between 15 and 30% of city and state budgets. They receive training and equipment from the US military including tanks, armored vans, riot gear that looks as though it could survive a nuclear blast, and ENDLESS weapons. They clearly have more than enough to “protect” us and “keep us safe” without asking for teachers to step in and do it for them. With so much money, far better equipment, and far more power, why on earth should we do ANYTHING related to your job?! We have chosen our job. And we have spent a lot of time and money preparing ourselves to do it well. Why can’t the police be asked to do the same?
Do you really believe it’s on 52-year-old Mrs. C, who excels at her job precisely because she is gentle, to physically protect children from an active shooter? Do you want a woman whose natural gifts provide a nurturing and safe learning environment for little ones to don a bulletproof vest and play Rambo? The police have actual tanks and other military equipment, but teachers should now be protecting children from assault rifles? THAT IS YOUR SOLUTION?!
What makes someone a fabulous teacher is quite different from what makes one an effective police officer. And that’s okay. That’s why different jobs exist. That’s how society thrives. But asking one to take on the VERY DIFFERENT job of another is in a word, preposterous. In another word, ridiculous.
Let me be clear that I am not advocating for police to actually get degrees in education (though I question why police even exist and desperately wish their training included how to care for humanity). Police officers CHOOSE their jobs and CHOOSE to put their lives at risk to “keep us safe.” Teachers, like Mrs. C and myself, choose our jobs because we want to help people learn. We want to be trained in creating warm, effective environments for students to thrive. We become specialized and educated in our field to do just that. Our skill set could not be more different from the “skills” a police officer has (or should have).
“Solutions” that ask educators to be police officers are not solutions at all. We will happily keep doing our jobs. All we ask is that police officers actually do theirs.
