Matthew Gates 5m 1,225 #odetotheteacher
The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.
Teacher Appreciation Day: In Honor Of The Teacher
When I was younger, the teacher was the authority. The teacher was our guardian for over six hours a day. She or he taught us everything we were supposed to know, from math to science, language arts, and social studies, and even physical education. As I got into Middle School, there was still some respect for the teacher, but telling teenagers what to do was in of itself, almost impossible, and some of them would do whatever they pleased. Luckily, I did come from the generation where there was still a certain amount of respect for the teacher. I could not tell you what it was like today, over two decades later. Looking back on it, however, there are some teachers I remember clearly well, and then there are teachers whose names I have long forgotten.
What makes a teacher great? What makes a teacher stand out? Teachers are not and will never be millionaires. They will never make the salary of a doctor, yet they are largely responsible for being the influencers of generations. They must say “hello” and “goodbye” every year to a new generation of students. Teachers are the ones who are the true social scientists, who can tell us exactly where society is heading based on the behaviors of students. From K – 12, teachers will see the actions of students. What can we predict about society based on the education, common sense, and actions of their students?
This confession was written to honor the teacher who wakes up every morning, eager to teach and guide a generation of children to hopefully make our world a better place, and that very same teacher, who may not leave until she or he knows their students have left the classroom and the school safely.
Ode to the teacher who stands up to bullying, something that most teachers never did for me, and educates the students on how bullies never win anything. In fact, it is the very nerds sitting in your classrooms that will likely design the programs that change your life and change the world. I know because I am one of them: a programmer, a web designer, a web developer, a freelancer, a psychologist, a writer, a poet, and many more titles that I could easily take on. Where are my bullies now? Definitely not as successful as I have been. Good old Facebook assures me of that. And most have no idea what it is like to live in another country, let alone another state, both of which I have done, or traveled several times across the United States by car just for fun. Where are my bullies now? Don’t know, don’t care. I do know enough to know that none of them ever made anything of themselves enough to brag about it. Not that I am bragging about myself, but I am certainly content with my accomplishments so far, and still working on many more. Karma at its best. Stop the bullies. Definitely no place in my life for them, just as there is no place in your classroom for them, either.
Ode to the teachers who understand that very few people will amount to anything without stressing the importance of education, not just to sit there and take it in as truth, but to question everything, to understand why the world is the way it is today and what we can do to change it for the better. I remember that one college professor I had, he once said, “Don’t believe anything I say. Don’t believe anything this book says. It was written by people who claim this as truth. Acknowledge it, understand it, but you don’t have to believe it. However, it doesn’t mean that I won’t give you quizzes and tests on it, and I would certainly hope that you understand enough of it to pass my class.” Thanks for being honest, professor.
Ode to the teachers who stress the importance of saving the planet, protecting the world, emphasize the importance of the difference between trash and recycling, and acknowledging that 90% of our garbage is recyclable. Why stress something so important? Because when it comes time for that kindergarten class of yours to retire, there will still be a planet. Recycling is something my teachers taught me and something I still do to this day, everyday, and I have even switched my house off electricity and on to solar panels, because the great big ball of fire in the sky contains unlimited amounts of energy, 5 billion years of it, to be exact. I do this so that I may at least be the contributing factor to the further decaying planet that we live on. It is the teacher who stands between the real world and the world of learning; a world where we can obtain knowledge, and a world where we can actually use that knowledge.
Ode to the teacher for coming up with lesson plans each week, following a somewhat limited curriculum set by the education system, but also overstepping some boundaries to try and instill some common knowledge of survival into those children who will listen. The time and effort you put into your lessons plans and what you get out of it is a reward only you know, because only you can explain it, and experience it, and it keeps you going. Very few outside of the education system understand what really goes on and what you do; from the time you spend shopping for your kids, to all the finances that are not even covered by the school system, yet you treat your students as if they are your kids.
Just how many kids are we talking about here? Some of you see no less than a hundred students you call your own everyday. As the generations pass, it also seems you find yourself explaining more and more about the outside world. From the birds and the bees, to social media, and even the terrorist attacks. You also deal with parents who sometimes could also be taught a lesson in raising their kids, but between you and I, we’ll keep that to ourselves, because Lord knows we don’t need another parent-teacher conference to discuss who really isn’t doing their job *whistles*. Yes, once children begin to demean your authority, it means they will have no problem in disrespecting the law or police officers who enforce it. You are definitely an authority figure and need to be respected and treated as such, because once you lose that authority, so it seems, it trickles right into everyday society.
Ode to you teachers. You deal with more emotions than most people could ever know. You deal with more attitudes than parents can ever imagine. You call yourself a teacher and you know you are, but in this day and age, your other title is that of a babysitter. Yes, it was not in the job description, but somehow it became acceptable by the education system and parents alike. You are not just an educator, you are the person who is preparing these children to actually function in the real world, to use knowledge, to use information, and intelligence, in order to ensure that society continues to function, and more specifically, you prepare them for the inevitable, Corporate America.
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