Born to teach?

NPR’s Tell Me More program last week interviewed three teachers about why teachers leave, why teachers stay, and how teachers cope with challenging situations.

One of the teachers interviewed, Joanne Wilkerson, is a 30+ year veteran teacher. She made two comments that made me stop the playback.

If you do not see [teaching] as your call, or something you were...almost...born to do, then it can be very difficult and very frustrating.

Later:

As human beings we like immediate gratification, and there are some teaching situations in which you’re not going to get immediate gratification.  It may be ten years later. And another thing is sometimes when you work with children there is so much emotional involvement, especially as you become attached to them, and I think not everyone is cut out to be a teacher.

On the one hand, yes, not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. And teaching is, as I said just the other day, much more than a job.

But, still, something about these comments bothered me.

Somehow it feels like this viewpoint really discounts the impact of effective teacher training, mentoring, and professional development, chalking teachers’ staying power up to a mysterious “it” factor. (You’ve got it or you don’t; you can’t learn it).

I also wonder if teaching, at least the first few years, is sometimes more difficult and frustrating - or at least disappointing - for those teachers who feel called to it. The pressure to succeed at the thing you were born to do is pretty high.

I realize that I am simply not the kind of person who thinks of my life in terms of a “calling.” My argument with Mrs. Wilkerson may be nothing more than a clash of rhetorical style. But I think it’s a clash that’s prevalent in the teaching world. When we think about attracting new people to the profession, people who may want very much to teach without feeling “born to teach,” I think it’s important that we make a place in the rhetoric for them, too.

The full interview (17 min.) is here.
Related post on TEN here.

Labels:

As a career changer, I was definitely not “born to teach.” I often said that I NEVER wanted to teach, but yet, here I am, a very happy, effective (I think) teacher who made the decision slightly later in life.  I think that while people come to teaching for a lot of different reasons, the ultimate goal that motivates the greatest teachers is a desire to help children succeed.

I just had a conversation with another 5th year teacher who went through the GATE program with me and he agreed that the first 4 years were challenging because it was so difficult to see the results and he was still adjusting his curriculum and his teaching style, but in his fifth year, he finally feels like he is comfortable with his practice.  I am in the same boat.

In the end, any profession will have motivated and unmotivated individuals, but unfortunately, the motivation of money helps people in other fields.  In our field, the motivation is a motivation to positively change students’ lives.

As an experienced mentor, I believe that sharing the knowledge we have is essential to prepare the next generation of teachers.  Some beginning teachers who felt they were “born to teach” question that decision months into the school year or for an entire year or two.  I was one of those teachers.  If it weren’t for hope and a courageous decision to seek guidance, I very well could have been lost to another profession.  I consider myself a good teacher who learned more from my students every year.
Teaching is a decision …love is a decision.  I mentor beginning teachers who may be thinking…is this career for me?  I often share one or two ideas to help them manage students and then…bravo, life is better.  Teaching is a learned craft…I think that is why they call teaching both Science and Art.  The desire alone to be a teacher is not enough.