We Need Idealistic Teachers Now More than Ever
Last weekend, at a birthday party for twin cats named Fred and George, I met a group of people that really shook my resolve to dedicate my life to the education of underprivileged children in New York City and across the world. For those of you who don’t know, I’ve recently begun training for the AmeriCorps National Teaching Fellowship through Citizen Schools. This fellowship, like many similar programs, is an alternative pathway to teacher certification.
The traditional pathway of teacher credentialing and education follows pretty much the same standard formula across the United States. Aspiring teachers attend accredited undergraduate programs in the field of education. These programs lay the groundwork for understanding pedagogy and content as well as learning about the complex web of requirements to attain state certification to be employed in the classroom. Students enrolled in these programs conduct student teaching projects overseen by professors and other academic mentors to hone their instructional skills before the successful completion of their degree. After graduation, students complete state mandated training on child safety, responsibilities of being a mandated reporter when in suspicion of child abuse. Students submit a completed portfolio including a BA in Education to the Department of Education in their state to receive a teaching credential that allows for classroom employment.
Alternative programs are available primarily for those who are career changers and individuals who were drawn to education after their baccalaureate careers were over. To prevent those who would become teachers from the annoyance of re-enrolling as an undergraduate and completing a second bachelor’s degree, alternative pathways exist. The most common pathway for career changers involve training to receive a Master’s degree in Education which clears a path to certification in the same way as a Bachelor’s degree. Many Fellowship programs create a subsidy to pay for tuition for Master’s programs, typically with on-the-fly, in-classroom training before certification.
In New York City, it’s a little bit easier to change careers into the teaching profession, as all teachers in New York City are required to hold Master’s degrees in education to maintain their teaching credentials. Of course, I only realized I wanted to become a teacher in the first place when I was 18 credits into a 30 credit Master’s program from which very few credits would transfer into an education program. I decided to follow the Fellowship route and continue pursuing the Master’s I’d already worked so hard towards rather than to let those credits go to waste.
It was in the news just this week that New York State is considering a modification to training requirements for teachers in charter schools. The modification would result in charter school teachers receiving teaching certification after a Bachelor’s degree and thirty hours of instructional training. Regular public school teachers are required to have a Master’s degree and complete over one hundred hours of instructional training. Supporters of the plan cite need as their primary motivation — charter schools, as with many publicly funded school districts across America, face teacher shortages every year.
For some, tight regulations are the only thing standing between them and leaving their careers to teach. Loosening regulations and restrictions on who can teach may well attract those who are passionate about the achievement of kids; career changers with passion for teaching are far more willing to put in the extra time and effort learning the vast array of education jargon and tactics for instruction and behavior management that all teachers have to learn one way or another. Loosening the regulations might well create a quicker path to certification for people like me — I will have nearly two thousand instructional hours by the end of the fellowship, and I am dedicated to educating and supporting underprivileged students.
However, loosening restrictions and, to some extent, fellowship programs that provide an easier pathway to certification can have unforeseen deleterious effects. With that, let’s return to the party. Six of the fifteen or so attendees at this party were part of a different teaching fellowship operating out of NYC. My boyfriend and I, AmeriCorps Teaching Fellows, expressed our excitement for the upcoming school year and we were met with sneers and insults.
“I’m going to be teaching at a middle school Bed-Stuy,” one of the partygoers said. “My students are never going to achieve anything, it’s kind of a waste for us to even be there.” Those words cut through my soul like razorblades through silk. The school at which I will be teaching next year is also in Bed-Stuy, but I know that my students can achieve great things if provided adequate support from caring adults. Many other partygoers echoed his sentiment — many of these fellowship programs require instructing at schools in underprivileged neighborhoods. They took turns describing how they planned to get their classes, supposedly full of wild kids, in line. Many of their tactics reminded me of the bullying techniques I suffered on the schoolyard of my own middle school at the hands of older kids. Yelling at children and threatening them is not how you support student achievement.
We left the party early. My blood was boiling. I’d done my best to defend New York City’s students, but my one voice was drowned out in the drone of reluctant teachers who’ve selected this career based on… well, what, exactly? I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Why would someone willingly place themselves in front of a classroom of thirty children if they don’t think those children can learn? Why would someone choose to become a teacher if they are not passionate about helping mold the next generation of American citizens to be as productive and prepared for adulthood as possible?
Sure, teaching is a steady paycheck. Teachers get summers off. Teachers get several days off peppered through the year. Teachers get fairly decent benefits. But, teaching is difficult. Teaching is working fifty, sixty, and sometimes eighty hours per week to prepare lessons, assess student progress, reaching out to students’ parents and guardians, and preparing for after-school events like conferences and open houses. No two classes is the same; lessons need to be routinely modified to ensure effectiveness. Teachers are assessed based on student scores on standardized tests that are written with a strong, proven bias toward middle- and upper-class white students. Teachers have the integrity of their profession insulted on the public stage by politicians who have never set foot in a public school classroom on a regular basis.
Teaching is difficult. Teaching is a labor of love. I know that for myself, I will walk into my classroom every day with the joy in my heart and the optimism that one of my students may have a breakthrough today, that a student will learn something, that what I do every day matters for the good of the student, for the good of the community, for the good of the United States of America, and for the good of the world.
This world is uglier than it has been at any point in my (admittedly short) lifetime. Students will never achieve their full potential if the adults around them do not believe in their abilities. Students need to be prepared to face the uncertainty that the rest of the twenty-first century has in store. It is more important than it has ever been to enter classrooms with optimism and faith that students will learn and achieve great things. Idealistic teachers are the first line of defense against a growing division between the educated and the uneducated; the poor and the rich; the accepted and the Other. It only takes one idealistic teacher to tell a student that someone believes in them and catalyze true excellence.
It only takes one.
If you’re a teacher — maybe you’re back in the classroom already, maybe you’ll be starting in the next few weeks — take a few minutes to consider why. What brought you to this profession? If it is love of teaching and true belief in the potential of kids, imbue your students with that faith and positivity. If you’re there to get a steady paycheck, consider changing your attitude or your profession. For too long have underprivileged students been told by everyone around them that they cannot do what their more well-off peers can. Believe in your students — what’s the point otherwise?
Have a great year. Let’s help students achieve more than they ever thought possible.
