Introduction: Teachers are essential members of American society. They are the pillars of knowledge that shape the future of society. Through teachers, education is able to be passed down to the next generation to “better their own lives, including contributing to their society, culture, as well as civilization”(Raj 6). Because of the immense impact education has on society, teachers are given multiple expectations to meet by administration while also expected to educate their students without any type of fault. They are expected to “teach large classes, grade assignments, manage administrative tasks, and provide extra support to the students”(Kanwal 133). Teachers however are not able to adhere to these numerous expectations due to it being …show more content…
Similar to Biles' situation, teachers are placed under a lot of stress and given expectations that at times, like Biles, they can't handle anymore. In a study of moral courage, the topic of work was mentioned. It was seen that at times work expectations can be “immoral, unethical, or illegal behavior, or just plain wrong that causes avoidable failures and harm”(Thomas 13). Teaching can fall into this type of work since the expectations teachers are given can be overflowing and immoral as it causes stress in teachers. This analysis begs the question: What do the current negative effects teachers undergo due to expectations placed on them by administration suggest the need for required teacher classes before becoming a teacher in the United States? Overall, an analysis from a health, futuristic, and economic angle shows that teacher classes are needed before becoming a teacher in the United States. The requirement of teacher classes will improve teachers' mental health, strive to be part of the educator career path, and increase resources for …show more content…
The way these negative effects can be combated is by requiring teachers to take a teacher training class before being hired. Researcher Sung Hyeon Cheon, professor at the Department of Physical Education at Korea University, found that after giving teachers in Korea training on how to provide classroom structure, “teachers learned how to support students' autonomy, provide competence-supportive classroom structure, and provide these elements of structure in an autonomy-supportive way”(Cheon 6). By having teacher training on how to go about teaching and all the responsibilities that come with it, teachers in the United States will know how to overcome hardships that come from immense workload and expectations. By knowing how to manage those responsibilities, teachers' mental health and striving to teach will be intact. Also, they will learn how to better utilize the resources they have so that they don't feel the need to pay out of pocket for more teaching resources. However, there are some limitations to the solution. Firstly, schools around the United States will have to shift the way they hire teachers. The solution adds a new requirement for hiring
With the low expectations of teachers, students are limited in their ability to learn. As discussed before, it is difficult to predict how well a teacher will do at their job before they begin working. This creates doubt when hiring anyone, and employers may not know if who they are hiring is the right choice. If teachers are judged by not only the basic requirements met, but also their interpersonal skills and how well they are able to teach in a positive manner, there will hopefully be less mediocre teachers hired. In the same way, both an advanced teacher and an average teacher are paid the same wages, which creates a flaw in education. Even more, there should not be average teachers in the workforce if all teachers are paid the same. Though this harms the advanced teachers, who deserve more than they earn, it also harms the students, as they are taught at a lower level by the inadequate teachers. Gladwell mentions these flaws in his article, but he also explains the traits good teachers should have, which brings a strive forward in this issue. Because of this, it is clear America must be more selective and strict when hiring
Then she says “I sometimes look at the options in teaching and wonder why such an important job is so poorly compensated yet it receives more criticism than respect in America.” She points out how much work teachers have to do even when their students are on vacation, and she wants her readers to sympathize with how hard teachers work. She points out that teachers don’t exit school the day that students are released and confirms this by saying “There are reports to complete, rooms to organize and lesson plans to write,” and “Teachers spend hours writing lesson plans and aligning them to the standards.” Myra ends the letter by comparing teachers with doctors on this sarcastic quote, “I cannot think of another profession, even medicine, that mandates 100% success, pays little and then harps when a person takes a day off – personal, sick, or otherwise.” This articles serves the purpose of finding a way to understand why teachers may want a day off and why the public should stop being so harsh on
Teacher tenure creates complacency among teachers who do not fear losing their jobs. Once a teacher becomes certified after a certain amount of years in a school system, he or she becomes satisfied with the way they teach and act towards their students. Nixon, Packard, and Douvanis stated that some teachers have more of the ability to help care for and see students’ succeed than others might, “as some do not have any incentives to perform better than others” (Philips 2). This point also relates to the fact that “when teachers become tenured most try to only get by with the bare minimum of teaching and do not prepare in depth lessons because they believe tenure gives them a heightened sense of job security” (Philips). Furthermore, allowing teachers to bec...
In a society where kids must go to school up to the collegiate level, teaching is an impactful career choice. Teachers help contour the minds of future leaders of the world. Furthermore, teachers play a crucial role in guiding students to the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to succeed in life, and teachers lead students to make informed decisions on any topic the meet in the future. As a teacher, a person must relinquish their knowledge onto students. Finally, they must prepare their students for all the obstacles they will face later in life.
In today’s America, the educational system has been blaming teachers for the failure of students. This pressure put on teachers causes a lot of unneeded stress and can even be demoralizing. Instructors are always trying to put the student’s
There is no more critical role in our current society than that of a teacher’s. Teachers help shape the minds of the future. Tomorrow's engineers, scientists, politicians, and educators are all greatly influenced by today's instructors. Without teachers society would not be anywhere near where it is now, and only a select few would have access to learning. Sadly however important teachers are in human civilization, they are still drastically understated, unrecognized and under paid.
While many areas in education are experiencing teacher shortages the retention of teachers in particular is a critical concern in many schools and districts across the nation. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that all teachers be “highly qualified” meaning teachers are trained and certified before entering the classroom. These “highly qualified” teachers are usually products of various university certification programs where they acquire pedagogical knowledge imperative to educational applications of academic content areas as well as relative information on ethics, state laws, and educational research. Before receiving the hard earned title of a certified teacher, “highly qualified” teachers are required to successfully pass a series of state-mandated exams. However most, but not all, certification programs include a student teaching component where aspiring teachers serve a short apprenticeship in a classroom with an experienced teacher in their respective academic areas. This student teaching experience allows an opportunity to observe and practice actual implementation of content knowledge, instructional skills, and classroom management in a “real world” setting. Unfortunately, classroom training rarely mimics the complicated stresses associated with the real life application of a trade and comparable to most careers, teaching is a very difficult profession to ...
Also it is causing others to view the profession of teaching as unattractive, creating the question of, who will replace them? In the perspective of parents, a teacher's salary is not worth the money and hard work in college. Pisa, Eggers and Calegaris articles and Lakhani’s novel all describe how people are pulled from their teaching career because of the salary. Pisa’s article is a cultural standpoint, while Eggers and Calegaris article is more personal, and Lakhani’s novel is parental.
All in all, teachers need to be viewed as professionals and not as simply pay babysitters because most do care about the students. Teachers tolerate the low wages, long hours and repetitive disrespect because they desired to place attention on student success. Teachers should not enter that career for the money, but for the devotion they will place on the students. Luckily there are ways to make teachers more valuable in society. Teachers should be given the right equipment to teach the subject that corresponds to them, the two-year skill evaluation should be more precise and by surprise, so no one knows. Also, students should be allowed to evaluate the teachers to provide feedback. Also, teachers should be aware of the surrounding cultures. In conclusion, teachers should motivate students to reach levels they themselves never thought they could attain.
Teachers serve as the guiding force in a student’s life. They are responsible for molding a student’s personality and shaping his/her mental orientation. Teachers deeply impact our lives and direct the course of our future. One cannot deny the influence of teachers in one’s life. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that, till a certain age, out life revolves around our teachers. They are our constant companions, until we grow old enough to come out of their shadow and move ahead on our own.
Choosing the teaching profession is not for the faint of heart and is not a decision that should be made lightly. Being a teacher is a selfless profession. A person has to have a calling to teach and the desire to improve upon the education system. I have made a choice to be a teacher and by doing so I have chosen to make a difference in children’s lives. I want to be a teacher who provides my students a good foundation at the start of their educational journey. A good teacher can encourage a discouraged child, can provide positive reinforcement and can make a lasting impression on a child. The purposes of education are to provide every child, regardless of their socioeconomic status, an opportunity to gain the knowledge necessary to be successful in life.
Individuals who enter the field of education reply to the question why teach with various answers. There is beauty, joy, and fulfillment in this profession, and these spirit-lifting emotions are the result of watching annually as a new group of children enter to learn and leave with the knowledge to achieve. Richard Dufour (2000), author of Why Teach expressed his views on the profession first by stating that teaching is not the career for everyone. He goes on to say, that the education profession has the ability to present the “unique opportunity” for individuals to cast a positive influence upon others (Why Teach, 2000, p.1). The smiles received from a room full of students when as a whole their individual needs, both educational and personal have been catered to, prompts a burst of passion in every teacher.
First, I realized that, teachers carry a lot of weight on their shoulders and have great responsibilities. They have to balance the curriculum, students, parents, lesson plans, common core, and upper management and still maintain a professional demeanor. Second, educators must follow a strong code of ethics. They must be professional at all times with students and colleagues, keep confidentiality, not have or show any prejudice or bias, maintain safe and positive learning environments, help students with problems, and hand out disciplines accordingly. Lastly, I found that when you’re a teacher, your education never stops. Teachers are always trying to improve their own education and professional growth, both for the benefit of their students and for the benefit of themselves.
In recent years, the cliché image of a teacher has come under attach. Research has shown that teachers often work in an isolated setting in which they are considered experts in their specific area; however they often lack the support and equipment needed to do their jobs effectively. As a result, to the inadequate working environment new teachers often leave the profession within the first five years. These conditions often exist because the educational system fails to prepare our teachers with the proper tools and experience needed to do their job well (U.S. Department of Education, 2010).
Teachers hold a very sensitive role in the modern civilized society. Regarded as social engineers, teachers possess immense knowledge on various issues that affect our daily lives as a community of human beings. Though in many countries including the developed ones, teachers are poorly remunerated they make invaluable contributions to their communities, to society and to the world at large, engaging in yeoman services with selfless love and dedication that could only be considered priceless. This paper serves to explore some of the social contributions that teachers make to the modern civilized society.