The Heart of a Teacher

"Oh! I could NEVER do what you do!"  If you are a teacher you have heard this before.  Somehow, despite all the misconceptions that teaching is a "cushy" job, people understand that there is something different about teaching as a profession.  Indeed, there is something different about teachers themselves.  It's our heart.

 

A colleague in my facilitative community at Saint Mary's passed away last week, and she was well known for her big teacher's heart.  Carol Erickson was a teacher for 43 years, and I was privileged to know her toward the end of her career.  My abiding memory of her is how passionate she was about teaching as a calling and how she loved Parker Palmer's work, especially his book, The Courage to Teach.

Frankly, it does take  courage to teach, and even more so in today's world, where everyone from parents to politicians feel free to  let fly and blame teachers for all that is wrong with society.  But that is fodder for a whole other blog post, and my own personal experiences are heavily weighted in the "feeling valued and supported" side of things.

I truly believe that the very best teachers, the ones we remember and tell stories about, are the ones who teach because they are called to teach.  They cannot imagine themselves not teaching.  Their identity is teacher.

The media tells us daily that classrooms are full of "bad" teachers.  "Unions protect bad teachers..." "If only we could get rid of bad teachers..."  American students are falling behind because of bad teachers..."  These are flat out lies.  Unions ensure due process.  Competition for jobs in education is so high that a bad teacher will not last long in the classroom.  And as for American students falling behind - well I could go on and on about the connection between parents/families and academic success, and the need for free preschool and so on, but again, that is more fodder for another post.

Like many teachers I know, I am a teacher because I am an Educator.  It is the essence of who I am.  It is in my blood.  It is my calling.

It took me twenty years to begin my formal journey as an educator, but I got there.  

In high school I knew I wanted to be a teacher.  We took this ridiculous "Kuder Occupational Interest Survey" and I must have been having a bad day because the survey told me I would be happy as a floral arranger, court stenographer, or bank teller.  If you know me, you are laughing now.  No disrespect to successful people in those fields, but REALLY?  When I told my guidance counselor about my plans to go to UW-Madison and be a teacher she shook her head and said, "Oh no, that won't do.  You aren't cut out for teaching.  And besides, there's a glut of teachers now."  So I didn't do it.  I didn't go for it.  I spent a year floundering in the nursing program ("Your father is a doctor and your mother is a nurse.  Wouldn't you like to be a nurse?") before I switched my major to Sociology, a field I enjoyed and had some interest in.  When I worked in retailing I found a way to teach as I managed the staff in my department, and later wrote a "curriculum" to train staff with the kind of product knowledge they needed to sell fine china, crystal, and gifts. Later still, I found my need to teach fulfilled by working with middle and high school young people as a youth minister.

When I had the opportunity change the course of my life, some twenty years after I'd allowed myself to be talked out of following my heart, I followed it.  I went after it.  I became a teacher.   It took a lot of work to manage family life and school, but I persevered and drank in the learning.  The foundational child development and educational pedagogy courses I took provided me with a deep knowledge base that continues to inform my work with learners of all ages.  I'd had a career in business and youth work, and I could have taken the "Teach for America" path into the classroom, but I am glad I didn't.  A six-week "boot camp" is not an effective alternative to a degree in education.

I taught middle school and loved it!  It was where I was meant to be.  I geeked out about science and math all around us and worked my tail off helping kids be as excited as I was about learning anything and everything.  It was exhausting and fulfilling, and I was determined to be the best teacher I could possibly be.  I earned my M.Ed. with Saint Mary's University in a learning community where I discovered the power of collaboration, and I've been blessed to be an SMU facilitator myself, now having worked with over a hundred M.Ed. and other adult learners.

Right now I am out of my own classroom for three years serving as an instructional coach at one of the high schools in my district. It is a privilege to work with teachers who care deeply about their students and are passionate about their content areas.

My former colleague Bob Downs coined the phrase that became the name of this blog.  He would shout, "Let's go change some lives!", pump his fist, and high five us just before the bell brought students into our classrooms.  He understood the transformational impact that teachers can have on their students.  So did Carol, my colleague from SMU.  So do countless other teachers who love children and have the courage to teach.  So do I.