Mercedes Schneider was invited to screen a film titled “Passion to Teach,” which was produced and directed by career teachers, Bart Nourse and Sandria Parsons.
She loved it! She provides information about how you can arrange a screening.
She writes:
Passion to Teach is a phenomenal film that poignantly defies the processed-food-product nature of top-down, politically-popular, test-score-centered education reforms.
I have two favorite parts. The first involves an assignment in which students and volunteer adults recreate immigrant arrival at Ellis Island and the subsequent application process for gaining US citizenship.
The second involves the end of the film, an ending that celebrates the teacher-student connection that extends well beyond a student’s time in a beloved teacher’s classroom.
However, the major point of the Parsons-Nourse film is not merely to celebrate the teacher-student relationship. It is to fuel pro-public-school activism.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
THANK YOU, Mercedes and Diane for this one.
OY!
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The OY meant, I hope the deformers get their OY.
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The teachers that stick with the profession, despite all the slings and arrows, are most likely those that have a passion to teach. Teaching is connected to their identity. These are the young people that we need to attract to this field. Sadly, it is becoming harder to attract people to a profession that is constantly under siege.
Skilled teachers know that teaching is all about relationships that promote engagement. Teaching is more than just a curriculum. It is about building trust, stimulating inquiry and guiding students to enjoy learning, and that openness to learning will often serve them well for the rest of their lives.
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Sounds great. I must see this.
That said, I have long argued that I don’t think it’s the best strategy to pimp the whole “passion to teach” thing. First off, that is easily co-opted by reformers whereas they aggressively attack tenure, teachers unions, and teacher pensions as things that allow teachers to stay on past their usefulness and “passionate” years. Second, it’s been my experience that the best teachers are not the ones living their dream and are deeply passionate. The best teachers I know understand organically that their work is about human connection, communication, and engagement. This doesn’t derive from a passion to teach but rather a fundamental humanity. Compassion, sympathy, and some basic understanding goes a long way. As does knowing ones subject. Neither of those things requires a “fire in the belly” passion. I certainly don’t have that and never have. I could walk away from the classroom without much psychic strain. That however in no way makes me a bad or even mediocre teacher. I am a dutiful teacher. Dutiful to my students and their needs. That is my job. I am also well-tempered for it. That’s all. I do however have a passion for getting paid and making a living!! Just like every other person on the planet!
I don’t like being in a position where I have to be seen as passionate to be assumed to be a good teacher. From my “side” or the reformer side.
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