Teaching is Easy

Teaching is easy. I wanted to say it just to see what it sounds like, since I have never actually said those words ever before in my life. Well, probably I said them when I was a snotty, know-it-all, 17 year old talking to my friends about our teachers. Never, though, since I have been a teacher,have I uttered those words. Here's the ironic thing. In it's most basic form, teaching IS easy. It is passing on something I know to smaller people who don't know it. I have been "teaching" all of my life. Whether it was as captain of a sports team, or partnered with someone in study group. I always found myself naturally comfortable in a role where I was breaking down information for other people to try to learn. So, why then is the occupation of teaching so hard?

I know what you are thinking. "Oh no. Here we go. More about how hard teachers work." You don't want to hear it. After all, we already have a whole week dedicated to appreciating our occupation. You have countless friends who are teachers, and you read TIME magazine. You know why teaching is hard. Long hours, not enough pay, parents with unreasonable expectations, limited support at home, too many state assessments, Common Core...and on and on. Here's the interesting thing though; you've got it all wrong. It's true, those things (and a whole bunch more) make teaching very difficult. However, those state tests, and parents who want me to parent for them are really not the hardest part of teaching. The hardest part of teaching, for me, is making the tough decisions.

When I talk about the tough decisions, I do not mean whether to take off 1 or 2 points for sentence structure. That's simple stuff. The decisions I'm talking about are much, much harder. Like, do I write a note in a student's agenda for bad behavior when I suspect that punishment at home for a bad note is extreme? What do I do for the student who practically can't see because he needs glasses, and no matter how many times I try to let his mom know, I can't get through to her? The hardest part is trying to decide whether or not to call The Department of Children and Families. As mandated reporters, teachers have a legal obligation to call DCF if we suspect abuse or neglect of any kind. That's a tough call to make. We don't want to put families through an investigation unnecessarily, and we don't know for sure that what we suspect is actually abuse. Plus, if a child is being neglected, is it better for them to live at home with their siblings and neglectful parents than it is for them to be taken away and put into a state system? Will the parents pull their kid from my class, angry that DCF contacted them? If so, is it because that child really IS in danger and they have something to hide? Tough decisions. When the student looks at me, with hungry eyes, and tells me he didn't eat since his free lunch at school yesterday because the only food his mom could buy at the store was formula for the baby, what do I do?

My students think I have all the answers. After all, what I can't answer off the top of my head I can find in a Teacher's Edition or answer key of some sort. What they don't know is that the answer keys only give answers to the easy questions. The agonizing decisions that make me lose sleep, and soak my pillow with tears don't come with a solution manual. I'll tell you what though...if someone could come up with one of those, teaching really might turn out to be not so hard after all.

:)

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.”
― Galileo Galilei