Okay, y'all, listen up. First of all, the title of this is ridiculous. Teachers do not determine the gender of children. That's just one of the things put out by various media sources to push buttons. Teachers these days are walking tightropes between Admins, School Board, Politicians with agendas, and Parents, ALL while they are just trying to teach their subject area to the children. There is so much sh*t piled on the plates of teachers these days that I am really surprised that any are left in the classrooms.
Teachers are expected to:
- teach social emotional skills to the kids, (when I was a kid, my parents did this)
- feed them if they're hungry, (again, my parents did this when I was a kid)
- refer them for counseling if there is any suspicion of a problem, contact CPS and file a report if there is an inkling of a suspicion of ANY kind of abuse (or risk losing their teaching license and livelihood),
- secure the classroom & stand in front of your children if there is an active shooter in the building, while ensuring that your children get to a safe hiding place
- react with kindness and understanding of behavior when assaulted by students, (or even parents)
- differentiate the instruction of 30+ different individual students in each class group taught (including providing accommodations for Special education students with IEPS, students with 504 Plans, and students who are speakers of other languages) not to mention the students who are below grade level or have knowledge gaps
- create a positive classroom environment
- contact parents by phone calls or electronically whenever there is an issue or concern with the student, AND to also relate positive things that the students are doing because no one likes to get bad news all of the time!
- create "classroom assessments" to determine if the students are learning concepts/info taught
- Grade those assessments
- Re-teach concepts missed while simultaneously covering new material for the day because the curriculums are now scripted and God help you if you are teaching Last Tuesday's lesson on Wednesday!
- Prepare your students for the multitude of TESTS required by policy makers and making Pearson ( the lead testing company for EVERYTHING and based in the UK) a mint of money that could be devoted to other things needed by our schools (or maybe a tax cut for taxpayers), all the while losing additional instructional time due to the actual "testing" mechanism
- create "meaningful and engaging" lesson plans and submit them to the Principal (and they must include objectives, standards, accommodations, etc.)
- take on "additional duties as assigned": bus duty, hall duty, lunch duty, Tech person, etc.
- "Cover" other classes/groups when there are NO Subs available
- attend weekly & monthly meetings regarding instruction
- participate in any IEP or 504 meetings
- participate in "Professional Development" (and I use that term loosely because most of it these days is useless and only provided as a CYA by the District
- Take graduate classes (paid for by the teacher, sometimes re-imbursed but most often not) in order to keep their license or move up in salary or responsibility
- tolerate poor leadership at times because they can't afford to quit
- cope with supply shortages (copy paper, pencils, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.)
- devote an extra 10-20 hours outside of their work day to get things done because there is NO chance to get them done during the work day
- completely tear down their classrooms every June and pack everything up, and then unpack it in August and put it all back up again, and the pressure to be Pinterest Perfect is huge (that "engaging" classroom piece above).
- basically be a robot with no feelings, no flaws, never gets sick, doesn't have family, etc.
Having just left the field after 40 years, let me tell you that
your Teachers are NOT okay! They are drowning, and leaving in droves, especially the good ones who just want to TEACH the children! The amount of bullsh*t going on in schools right now is unbelievable (especially if you're not IN it) and it is totally unsustainable. Google "Teacher Shortage" and see what you come up with for results. Because of the shortages nationwide, school districts have gotten to the point of putting in any warm body they can find. And when they can't find one, the position goes unfilled and the Teachers and other staff in the buildings lose their small amount of daily "planning time" (or even their lunch time) to cover those empty slots. And sometimes, the slots just don't get filled at all. They're combining classes (think 40+ students in a room with desks for 28), or just not even having that class or subject. My school was unable to fill my position for this school year. There is no one in my Library teaching the students how to choose valid resources, how to navigate & act online, how to evaluate media sources for accuracy and bias, AND, worst of all, the students who didn't have a whole lot of access to books, now have none.
So, don't EVEN go there with Teacher bashing. If you haven't walked in those shoes recently, you have no creds!
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