We in youth work and education quickly become accustomed to the scorn and hostility directed toward us by other professionals. “You get paid to sit and hang out with kids all day,” or, “What a cake job, with summers off and done at three o’clock every day.” We hear it all every day, but fail to realize the connection between those attitudes and the multitudes of failing schools all over America. Educators and schools are under siege everywhere you look.
I work at an after school program, and will be teaching full time (hopefully) in the next year or two. We have a student, Max, who is a notorious maker of mischief. Indeed, he fancies himself the greatest villain at the Club. You can hear him respond, when asked why he made a bad choice, “That’s how I roll.” Nevertheless, he is a great kid, and possesses fierce intelligence and can command a room more effectively than most of the adults.
One day, Max and I connected. He was throwing marbles around a room, exploring the elastic collision physics of various surfaces present. There was a pile of blocks on the table, and he was trying to knock it down with marbles. I suggested we build a tower, just to see how high we could make it. It worked; within seconds Max was totally immersed in the work. He built a tall hollow tower with an exit point at the bottom for marbles to roll out. He created a path of blocks along the table that guided the marbles along to the table’s edge, where they dropped safely into a small box on the floor, all by Max’s design.
Just then his grandpa entered the room to pick him up for the day, and with just a few words, (You actually get paid for this?) he smashed to bits all the wondrous possibility and positivity in Max’s tower. Not only was I insulted, but what does Grandpa’s comment mean for Max? What is important at home? Unfortunately, probably not the development of a young and vibrant imagination.
It’s not about the money. Indeed, for people in this business, it cannot be. It’s about respect. A teacher is an asset to the future of a nation. Highly effective teachers work long hours, invest mental and physical energy to perpetually improving lessons, and are battling new challenges with each school year’s new classroom. What if teachers were viewed with the same esteem as doctors and lawyers? In nations where this is the case (Singapore, Finland), schools, students, and citizens flourish. We need to advance our attitudes; we need to move to a place where Max’s grandpa enters the room and says, “Keep on building!”
