I teach for the students, not the money

William says, as one premise of the arguments of centralizing control of public schools, “teachers in the schools are slacker” (p. 309). He continues to say that “performance funding is labeled an incentive to get teachers to work (harder)…” (p. 309).

This is where I have a problem, not with the schools or with the government, but with the teachers. Teachers, I believe, shouldn’t be given an incentive to work hard, or work at all, by the government. It is my hope that those who become teachers do so for the pure benefit of knowing that they helped children progress and succeed in their schooling – no matter what the subject. They should want to teach and teach well, no matter what the pay (and coming into it, they should already know the pay isn’t equal of a surgeon’s). To teach is to help. It frustrates me to see teachers in schools, like my former high school for example, continue to battle about salary issues (since 2002, may I add about my alma mater). Yes, I understand the economic times are hard and yes teachers deserve more than what they are given, but one (hopefully) entered this position with the aspiration of helping students, not for the money. (As a side thought here: Teachers do deserve more pay in general for they are doing – teaching. Teachers are the people parents put their trust in to (help) make their children well-rounded, smart, decent individuals. The current salaries, obviously, do serve them justice.) In that, I hope more teachers, future teachers, will realized that what they are doing is for the betterment of the community, for the state, for the country… for humanity. And it’s not hard to tell apart the teachers who teach for a job and the teachers who teach to improve. Throughout my secondary education careers, only ONE teacher stands out in my mind that I believe was truly there to help his students. One. Sure, there were others that liked it time from time but none were as consistent as he. Of course, he was open with us (he had the “open door policy”, where he would always be there for us if we needed him), and he related to us: talked to us about current events and issues we may face at that age. (Anther side thought: He was my 8th grade English teacher. At the beginning of the school year, a 9th grader had committed suicide by hanging [9th grade was in the high school, 8th grade was in the middle school so most of us didn’t know who he was], and that following day he started by openingly telling the class of what happened and told he if any of us felt depressed about anything in our lives or upset, he would always be there to talk to [along with the school counselors as well]. Of course, those weren’t his exact words but the memory of him being so open and caring for his students still sticks with me to this day.) And it was those teachers that I learned better from (whether it was about life or the topic of the class). Those teachers, the ones that care about the betterment of their students, the teachers care about what they were teaching, are the ones I remember. They made me care about they were teaching, too. I learned most from those teachers, and their attitude towards teaching is the same I strive for when it is my turn to teach. I will be like them. I will make a change.