Any One Can Teach
By Caroline Mackay
How many of you have heard this? Well, I’m here to tell you that this is false. Everyone can teach, but not in a classroom. Some years ago the newspaper reported of a very successful lawyer who had always dreamed of being a teacher. He had made a lot of money as a lawyer and decided to follow his dream and become a teacher. He became a teacher and because he was a very successful lawyer he felt that he could be a very successful teacher. He started in September and lasted until Christmas and then resigned. It was too much work.
Everyone teaches someone and something, but teaching 32 students is a whole different matter. Some people feel that since they have raised a family of five children then surely the classroom can be no worse. Maintaining control of 25-30 students takes talent, persistence, and training. From day one until day 190 you must maintain with no days off. If you are lax one day it will take you two to three days to get the student back. Maybe that is one reason that teachers do not take many days off because if they get the wrong substitute they have to retrain their students
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A teacher in a classroom of students is not like a doctor ordering nurses around or a coach directing his team because many students do not want to be in the classroom and they don’t get paid for being there. Now the nurses receive some pay and the team wants to be there because they enjoy it, but that is not the case with all students.
Teachers are not like many other professionals because they deal with multiple students at a time while most other professions deal with only one person at a time. Teachers don’t schedule appointments with the students, they must deal with all the students NOW, not when they get around to it. When that bell rings in the morning the teacher cannot walk in 30 minutes late because they have been dealing with something else, they must be there.
Teachers are not like CEO’s. They may be over the classroom, but all the students do not jump to do their bidding like other employees would with a CEO. In fact it takes talent to get those students to jump and do what they are required to.
Teachers are not like food processors, or resteraunts because if they receive materials that are not up to par they cannot send them back for replacement. If the blue berries are bad they go back, not so with a students that has problems. Teachers must work with the students they receive at the beginning of the year, they don’t get to send them back for a better batch.
Teachers are not like manufacturers because if the product doesn’t turn out like the mold then they cannot melt it down and start over. They have to work with the misshappened student that has not been fed, is cold and doesn’t care if he is in school..
Basically teachers are not like any other profession because they have no control over the incoming, raw product. They must deal with the student as they are and try to make them a better person in only one year.
About The Author
Caroline Mackay is a retired teacher of thirty seven years and writer and producer of many school programs. She is the host of http://www.ezeducationplays.com/articles.html and http://www.ezelectronicelements.com/page/page/3966316.htm
