A reader wrote to complain that many teachers have an easy job, don’t work hard, and are paid too much for the little they do.
This teacher responds:
“I am one of those assistants in that classroom, a special education classroom. I would like to see you do it. I want you to change a teenager’s diaper while keeping them from tearing up the changing area and watch two other children and keep them safe from each other. I love these kids but they have no sense of danger. They think something a do it…please Dan…do something before you knock it. Do you know how hard it is to be a special ed teacher…well look up the job postings for a special ed teacher…yea there are jobs for them everywhere…they are always in demand cause its the hardest job in the school. These teachers make lesson plans that don’t reach all of their children cause they don’t have the resources to reach all of them and they constantly have interruptions. I worked in a classroom that had slightly behind students and completely not there students. There was also one who like to scream at the top of their lungs constantly. I love my job but I know I won’t have it forever cause I don’t think my nerves could take it for 30 years.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I totally agree with this post. I would like to add that regular education teachers in Title I schools have children that should be on an IEP or 504 plan, but it doesn’t happen. Money is the overriding issue. Many times I went to a child study for one of my students who desperately needed help. I was given strategies to try. I would try them, but in my heart and head, I knew they wouldn’t help much or at all. My last year of teaching I had a very big boy, who everyone knew had Asperger’s. He was constantly wanting to wonder the class and tell very long stories about the things he liked, usually during instruction time. I cared very much for this boy. His mom didn’t get his problem, so the principal used this as a way to not help him. Everything I have read about autism says the sooner these children get the help they need, the better. Parents of the well-behaved children take their children out of Title I schools and put them in charters to avoid having their children be disrupted by children with these problems (ADHD, etc.). I would love parents to become more informed and speak up for these children. These are the challenges that were so frustrating for me. I recently had lunch with former teammates. They told me this boy still is not receiving the help he needs. What will happen to him?
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i go with you and likewise many blames have been raised towards this honorable profession but honestly it is the most respectable job through out the world and it is not being given that honor that it deserves.
Unfortunately we are blind in fashion mania,money mania so that is why we can’t see the goodness of a teacher but very often we ignore the goodness and blame teachers at their tiny mistakes that is shameful for a student.These were my notions that i dropped from my mind box,hope you agree and i really liked this post 🙂
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It is a respectable profession every in the world but the United States.
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Let’s end this fiction that we can educate ALL students in the same classroom. My heart goes out to all parents of children with special needs, but the reality is that they will not receive the care and attention they need when a teacher has 25+ students to deal with. IEP’s call for intervention plans that do not coincide with reality. If you teach in a title 1, you know what I am talking about.
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Thank you. We are required by principals to demonstrate in our lesson plans how we will “differentiate instruction” every day in the classroom. In my school we have up to 33 students in a classroom. It is extremely difficult to teach to all of the levels in a 50 minute period-especially when you have 5-10 students who are up to 7 years behind in reading.
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Unless you are a teacher, or unless you have a deep understanding of humanity, you’re not going to “get it.” Teachers are more than curriculum deliverers. They are: parents, psychologists, motivational speakers… and sometimes wardens! Anyone who has been a parent understands the challenges… multiply that times a classroom filled with children. The throw on the demand that the kids MASTER the curriculum to “pass tests,” and do that while being a humanitarian. I went into teaching when it was still all about inspiring kids to develop their gifts. The profession has taken on .(.. or I should say has been foisted upon) many, many more roles now that is beyond inspiration, and quite frankly, humanly impossible to do effectively in every area. Indeed… don’t knock it ’til ya try it!
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Anyone who thinks teaching is an easy job is woefully ignorant.
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The reason teaching looks easy is because highly trained and experienced teachers have the skills necessary for maintaining an environment conducive to learning while also delivering instruction in a way that children can grasp. Kids don’t come to school with the ability to pay attention, actively participate in a lesson, and cooperate with classmates. They are trained to be students. In the hands of talented teachers, they succeed. If the classroom is chaotic or the instruction lacks meaning or purpose, or is just plain dull, students will not achieve. I have had several student teachers over the years. Some have come in with a definite superiority complex. I recall a few who for their first lesson teaching solo refused any suggestions I made on how to present the material. Predictably they crashed and burned. Anyone who thinks this is an easy gig should volunteer for a bit in a classroom of their choice. After parents volunteer an hour in my second grade classroom, I often am thanked for all that I do and asked how I do this every day for 180 days.
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Frankly I don’t understand why we waste air defending ourselves to people who say such things, who can thank the teachers they had that they can put together a provocative post.
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Yes, why do we engage them? It’s pointless.
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I agree. It is very similar to trying to teach a pig to sing…you will annoy the pig and frustrate yourself…
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For the reality-impaired—inhabitants of RheeWorld and devotees of the Magic of Masking Mask—I suggest you pay close attention to the comments that lead off this posting as well as to at least the first five commenters:
This is how real educators act, talk, feel.
It is not about frenetically burning oneself out in a year or two or three and then fleeing the classroom forever. It’s not about data points like test scores. It’s not about padding your resumé in preparation for your “real” career. It’s not about the sneer and the smear and the “I’m outta here” while you go on and on to friends and employers about how your all-too-brief stint in a classroom has made you an expert in all matters educational.
It’s about taking the time to do it right even when educrats and edubullies want you to do things fast and dirty. About knowing the students you work with and doing your best, every day, to do what’s best for them. It’s about heart and mind and soul.
And one of the most important things: when the going gets tough, we keep going, even if we don’t always accomplish what Albert Einstein laid down:
“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
Krazy props to all you SpecEd teachers and TAs out there from one KrazyTA.
🙂
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Masking Mask = Masking Tape.
I regret my error. I take full responsibility.
Michelle?
Can’t hear you…
🙂
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I get tired of people who comment about my having summers and other times such as spring break off. In reality, it is my students who reap the benefits of my having time to figure things out such as how to teach the Common Core standards (I don’t know how many workshops I’ve gone to/how much reading I have done this summer regarding this), work in my room and yes, do things that help me to relax so that I can be my best when I’m with my students. It’s not like I take time off when I am supposed to be teaching
and neither do the majority of other teachers that I know.
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Anyone who calls teachers lazy has never taught. Period.
And while you’re pointing fingers, how much time have you spent with your own kids reading to them, playing with them, asking them about the lessons they learned in school that day?
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People who call teachers lazy reveal their own natures. If THEY had the opportunity to punch in at 8, punch out at 2, and never do a whiff of work otherwise, they’d take it. Also, they don’t understand what it means to be “on stage” for the majority of the those 6 hours at work, in front of an audience that would generally rather be somewhere else and understands that there will be no real consequences for acting out.
I prefer to listen to the opinions of those who have actually taught AND done other work. Most of these tell me that careers other than teaching are “different”. Not easier or harder, just “different”. Different stresses, different good and bad points, etc. That makes sense to me.
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My father,wife, daughter in law have been involved in public & private teaching for 50 plus years. I taught junior high Sunday School for 15 years. Many things can be said about teaching and teachers, but I conclude ‘lazy’ to be a politically motivated term.
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They’d last about one hour then walk out. I get tired of people trashing people who actually work for a living. Teachers work all day long. They don’t have down time with big breaks like other businesses who go through slow periods. Just sick of the bashing.
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Periodically I volunteer in my daughters’ classes (with two regular teachers in a 16-20 student class). I come away from half a day beat and a full day is enough to kill me. I will agree with those who say that anyone who claims teachers are lazy has never taught, or even set foot in a classroom.
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The true reality is that to do every task that is required of a teacher to the degree that some believe it should be is that is a 21 hour a day job 7 days a week.
Most secondary teachers have a class load of 150-225 students. If they grade every question of every assignment then they would never be able to take a bathroom break.
Look at the numbers:
http://davidrtayloreducation.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/does-5-more-students-really-matter/
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Here are three thoughts:
(1) I mostly agree with those who say we shouldn’t bother engaging those who say we teachers have it easy. One can only say that if they haven’t actually been a classroom teacher, so they are just speaking out of ignorance. If it comes up in conversation that someone believes the earth is flat, I might provide a brief argument for current understanding of the cosmos, but if they insist that the earth is flat, I am most likely to just talk about something else or talk to someone else. That’s what I do when someone tells me how easy I have it as a teacher. I point out things that they might not be thinking about that make my job difficult. I might also mention that I had a first career as an engineer and speak to how that job was actually easier and gave me more time off overall. But if they really want to believe that I am lazy, it’s a waste of time to try to convince them otherwise. The best I am likely to get is, “Well, you are the exception to the rule,” which hasn’t changed anything.
(2) Listening to my family members at gatherings as we update each other on our lives, I have learned something: life’s hard all over. Two of them spend over half their nights in a hotel room away from their families because of their jobs. Three spend a lot of their evenings and weekends on call, where they have to be prepared to drop everything at a moment’s notice and dash off to a hospital. One has been working the night shift for over a decade. Another confronts potentially dangerous criminals every day. I am not going to tell them my job is harder or more respectable than any of theirs. All jobs are difficult if we do our best and nearly all jobs can be made quite easy if we do shoddy work. However, when I look at the few teaching colleagues I have who are doing a lousy job, I have to agree that they are much more likely to retain their teaching job than they would a job in the private sector. We all tend to get in this zone where we see the world only through our own eyes, but that sort of thinking doesn’t lead anywhere that connects and heals us, it only serves to separate.
(3) I think a lot of this thinking comes from a false perception of what teaching really is. This is widespread and pervasive and is not likely to go away soon. It also explains why it is so easy to convince the general public that something like an online charter school has a chance of being successful. I will use my job as an example. Most people think that my job as a high school teacher is to deliver lectures and grade papers. If that were really true, I could EASILY be replaced with a sophisticated system of online video tutorials and assessments, so no wonder Bill Gates thinks so highly of Khan Academy. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what I do as a teacher. Most non-teachers don’t get that, because the lecture and grading is all they saw when they were in school.
One of the most effective things I have ever done in confrontations with angry parents who don’t think I am doing enough to help their child is to just calmly and honestly talk to them at length about what I have observed about their child, what I have tried with their child and the decisions I have made about their child in particular and my teaching methodology in general. I use the language of our profession and extensively back up my decisions with research and experience-driven rationale. Almost universally, before the conference has concluded, I have won the parents over. When they realize that I am a professional who knows what he is doing and why he is doing it, I can almost visibly see their respect meter moving up. I think this is how we should handle ourselves in as many interactions as possible with adults outside the teaching profession. Whining about how hard our job is (and it is very hard) or how important our job is (and it is very important) is not an effective approach.
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Excellent post all around. We live in a republic where everyone has an opinion whether its supported by any real knowledge of the topic or not.
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I now remind everyone who bashes teaching as a easy profession…every other profession is built on Teaching’s back. Where would they be without teachers? Do they really think they would be where they are today without teachers? Could they read? Could they balance their checkbooks? Would they get along with others as well as they do with the nurturing environment of Public School? NO for the most part. Yes, many home schooled kids do great but many others don’t…and for the most part both parents have to work today, so who would be educating your kids if not for Public School?
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There is no answer to the question, “How can we get rid of the bad teachers?” It’s just another “talking point” which has utterly no meaning.
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Answer with this question: how can we get rid of evil lawyers and politicians and economists who try to increase the wealth and power of the 1% of 1% while disenfranchising and emotive rushing everybody else?
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Answer with this question: how can we get rid of evil lawyers and politicians and economists who try to increase the wealth and power of the 1% of 1% while disenfranchising and impoverishing everybody else?
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Elin,
One first ahd to define “bad teacher”. . .. We know how reformers do that.
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Teaching is a labor intensive profession.
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Teaching is an extremely difficult job with insane levels if stress. The poorer the kids, the harder the job, by far; and the more likely the teacher is to be rated low by VAM algorithms and scripted evaluation tecjniques. I am glad I was able to do 31 years and retire. Despite my many failings as a himsn being. I think i taught a lot of kids a lot of math and showed that DC public school kids can give private schools a run for their money on math-counts competitions….
But I don’t think I could have survived any more than that.
I defy those who write n
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What you describe is the norm in many regular classrooms in innercity schools across America. The difference is we have 24+ students, no assistant, and MAYBE no diapers, although this is not uncommon. Additionally, the kids don’t have IEPs and are expected to master the curriculum, measured by the standardized tests.
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I have completed several long term, substitute, teaching assignments, including handling several special education classes and taught elementary schools, where teachers were shot at on a regular basis. (No lie! It was not fun.) I left, not because it was hard, because the testing and teaching to the test were unethical. It was killing the soul of the child. I now run my own business, and I realize that teaching IS and always will be the easier of the two! Yes, teaching can be tough! Handling a class of students of mouthy kids who don’t care, or teens in diapers is frustrating, and can reduce you to tears. Been there, done it! But, there is nothing like building a professional consulting business that has me traveling 10 different directions, each hour, as I work with clients around the globe. Dealing with clients at 2 p.m., 10 p.m., 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., or 10 at once, is quite frustrating, and exhausting, when you are building a professional business that serves clients in five continents. I will work approximately 4,000 hours this year alone, and it’s much more challenging work as I deal with obtaining resources, meeting with government leaders,dealing with paperwork, completing bids at 3 a.m., running a business means more multi-tasking, more hands-on work than a classroom. It’s grueling! Because of that I am looking at leaving, and going back into teaching. Because, even if I am running a tough inner city classroom, in the worst school in America, I can be a sleep at 3 a.m., and enjoy dinner on a Saturday with a friend.
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Amen to the blogger. I’d like to see anyone who has anything to say about special education teachers being lazy to get in a classroom (especially with adolescents) and do it themselves. What a ridiculous notion about teachers and their paraprofessionals. I know with all of the experience I have I could not do it. Kudos to the teachers and shame shame shame on the critics.
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I put in nearly 33 hours of unpaid overtime EVERY week this past school year and spent over $2,400 dollars of my own personal funds to buy critical teaching supplies. Most weekdays I would arrive home after 7 pm.
I am not lazy. I am not undedicated . . . .
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Being a special ed teacher for 32 years, i liken myself to a pair of crutches. The students lean on me to learn and mature. I smile when they throw the crutches away and go off on their own. The best responses from parents is “Thank you for treating my son like a person.” You didn’t just teach, you are a teacher.
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To all special education teachers who are reading this: Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. One of my own children required special ed services. Those teachers went above and beyond every single day. I will never be able to express enough admiration for their expertise, professionalism, grit, and kindness. My child is now a college grad. Our family owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the teachers that helped that happen.
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