Respect for teachers

For centuries, education was only available to the privileged. Those lucky few who were awarded the honor of an education left home in early childhood and moved in with their teachers where they lived until adulthood. During those many years they were taught reading, writing, religion, moral values, and the sciences. The title "teacher" during those days was one of honor and respect.

Even today in much of the world many children still don't have the opportunity for education that we have in the U.S. For example, I visited a friend in India two years ago who has a house girl. The child, eleven years old at the time, was from a very poor family. The girl lived in my friend's home and performed domestic tasks for my friend's family. In exchange, my friend paid a sum of money to the girl's family and provided for the girl's needs - a common practice in India. With this system, the girl's family earns money to survive and feed other children and the girl lives an exceedingly more affluent existence than she would have at home. Informal education was available to the girl if she chose, but in her case she declined the opportunity to learn to read and write. This child will spend the rest of her life as a servant.

Yet here in the U.S. each morning most children get out of a comfortable bed in their own homes, they have a nice breakfast and ride to school. Children can eat breakfast at school and lunch is provided for those who can't afford it. During the seven hours or so your children are at school they have access to books, a library, athletic facilities, health specialists, computers, counselors, the Internet, and a host of tools and equipment to assist in their education. At the end of the day the bus delivers them home. By world standards, this is an amazing privilege.

At the heart of this system are teachers, but teachers are saddled with many responsibilities and functions that they must accomplish in the short time they have your children during the school year. A teacher may have to manage as many as 20 or more children in her classroom, each child at a different stage of social, cognitive, physical, and/or emotional development. Some of these children may be mainstreamed children with special needs. Those children ideally would function best in a classroom of four or five students, yet we expect teachers to not only teach them in the large group setting, but also teach all the other kids as well.

State laws and school policies often limit teachers in what they can and cannot do or say. Teachers are required to teach a curriculum that is assigned by a school board, which is often made up of elected members who are not professional educators and have little understanding of what constitutes good or bad curriculum. The teacher in the classroom is also required to prepare students for standardized tests, but they are not supposed to teach the test. Each year more and more classroom time is monopolized by government required standardized testing that sometimes literally takes days to complete. All the while, the teacher still has to complete his or her curriculum before the end of the school year.

Along with their required curriculum, teachers are also expected to teach respect, values, hygiene, safety, health, and social skills. When children go home for the day, the teacher's job isn't finished. They serve on committees, grade papers, create lesson plans, and prepare activities and field trips. Daily they may face disrespectful students, disrespectful parents, and occasionally disrespectful principals.

In just a few weeks your children will be back in school. Teachers of old had a decade of full-time mentorship to complete a child's education, but your child's teacher has to do it in just a few hours each day for the 180 days of the academic year. As school starts this year, think about all the responsibility that teachers carry. Hopefully, this will help you to be more understanding, patient, and willing to help when you can.