Last week, NPR Ed interviewed me and four other teachers for its 50 Great Teachers Series in an article entitled: “5 Great Teachers On What Makes A Great Teacher.” I was gassed because they actually took the time to draw a cool sketch of me for the piece, and the drawing looks like me. Just as important was the fact that we actually took a reflective look at the teaching profession from the lens of “why teach” and not “why does teaching suck?” That opens up a different dialogue than I currently see in [hyperbole alert] 90% of all teacher blogs right now.
Then I jumped into the NPR Facebook comment section. For why, I’m not sure.
Maybe I wanted to know if what I had to say made any sense. My friends seemed to like what I had to say, but they’re not a good measure of my writing because they actually like me. What about the people who haven’t read my blog, my book, or anything I’ve written in the last five years, before I became a mainstream rapper?
Parsing through the comments, I’ve selected just a few to respond to because these ideas, even coming off Facebook, are prevalent enough that I think the teaching profession will go nowhere if we keep letting the errorists win. I stripped their identities because you can find it for yourself.
- I’m tired of teaching taking this sort of focal point – as if we’re trying to justify our jobs 1) to the nation 2) to our communities and 3) to ourselves. We’re never going to see an article called ” Five great butchers on what makes a great butcher” or “Five great code writers on what it takes to be a code writer” because those jobs aren’t constantly getting ripped by outsiders and politicians or by anyone in an armchair who thinks they can do it better than we can.
- I’m looking for the piece that finds five teachers who are great without anyone in the public eye knowing it. Five teachers who are so busy doing their job that they haven’t become bloggers, administrators, college professors, etc. They are the really great teachers because they love it so much that it is all they do.
- (the follow-up) The real best teachers wouldn’t be interested in this type of self-promotion.
- I’d like to hear from five teachers who have remained in public school classrooms for their entire careers (at least 30 years). I tire of hearing from the teachers who were so great that they left the classroom to instead discuss and write about it.
I know, I know. It’s my fault for jumping into comments, but these folk attached their real names to their opinions, not to mention that I’ve heard some of these on more than one occasion in other forums. (I replied to all of these personally, so there.)
Let’s start with the contradiction that many teachers currently harbor: teachers do a thankless job, but many of us want to be thanked, not just in person, but in the media. Which one is it? And when an entity decides to do a piece with actual educators and folks respected in their fields, we decide to crap on their efforts because they couldn’t possibly be real teachers? Is this a profession of long-term self-loathing? Do they genuinely believe the featured teachers didn’t somehow deserve the accolades, or is it because they wanted to be interviewed?
The other contradiction we clearly face is what it means to be in the public eye. We can’t simultaneously say that teachers don’t seek the media or writing opportunities and then get mad when we don’t get to speak about education in the public. Which one is it? Do we want a profession that can’t speak about its own profession for fear that teachers are seen as too ambitious? If so, we can’t get mad when others don’t speak about teaching the way we want them to.
For many folks, it’s unbelievable that a teacher wants to write an article about their jobs, get on television to speak about how proud they are to teach students, or have meetings with policy officials about the ways in which laws and mandates affect their profession. That’s leadership, too. We need to stop buying into the idea that teachers only teach at the behest and under the thumb of whoever their district leader is.
In other words, rise up. Yes, it’s worth prefacing all of this by asking ourselves what makes a great teacher. But if we don’t even want to hold each other up, what chance does the teaching profession have for growth? I don’t know three of the panelists personally, but Renee Moore doesn’t see herself as the “only one,” but one of many, all of whom deserve to shine. I’d say more, but she would blush because, as hundreds of folks would attest, she’s a forever teacher, regardless of where she is now.
It’s one thing for a teacher to get out there without real pedagogical skills or experience in the classroom, but we have to find ways to revere the profession even amongst and within our ranks. That helps us all.
The old adage is that the comment sections of any blog are where debate go to die, but we might have also found the gravesite for the future of teaching. What do you think? Am I onto something or am I nuts?
No, you’re onto something. I’m a big believer that if there are certain qualities you want to see applauded, revered, and recognized in the world then you need to 1) hold them up for others when you see them and 2) applaud for them when other people hold them up. And don’t piss on people because they don’t perfectly express the things that you won’t stand up and say yourself. If you want it said– say it.
You don’t get a useful dialogue by trying to shut people up. The more voices, the more choices. You may correctly guess that my classroom is not quiet.
FWIW, I had almost ignored the article’s headline when I saw it because NPR keeps burning me, but I’m glad I read it. Great ideas from all involved. And thank you for being an assertive, outspoken and visible voice for teaching.
For the record, your friends would totally be honest with you and call you on your BS if we needed to do it. :) Also…I’m so tired of defending my choice of leaving the classroom. No, I do not teach 160 students anymore but I am responsible for over 500 teachers and I take that to heart with all that I am because what I do can potentially have direct impact on their students.
No more reading the comments Mr. Vilson…no more.
You’re not nuts- it’s just, ugh, the comments section. I’m not saying they don’t reflect some people’s opinion but they definitely don’t reflect most or all. That being said, there is a tendency in the profession to not want to highlight specific people (for fear of favoritism) or best practices (due to the sense that they all just come and go anyway). But you’re right, it’s important to highlight good teaching and best practices and I, for one, am interested in doing it in a way that doesn’t mirror corporate structures or traditional hierarchies. Which is tough because that’s the forms of leadership we’re used to- even within our unions.
You ran right into the martyrs of our profession. Teachers don’t want any attention, but constantly want to compete about how late they stayed at school, how many papers they graded, and how many red pens they burned through. I have so many thoughts on this, especially because the special ed martyrs real get me, but I’ll just agree that this is to the detriment of our profession. People bash teachers because a lot teachers are so busy telling everyone how hard we have it rather than having productive conversations on the challenges of working in a public position with so many interconnected human factors. Thank you for putting yourself out there to change the conversation.
I’m strolling through these comments, reflecting on Jose’s statements on NPR, the statements on the FB page and then these, here on his own blog, and come across something I would never have expected to hear, ever, but in this context: “I have so many thoughts on this, especially because the special ed martyrs real get me….”
I don’t even know what this means or what “bradylobeth” can possibly intend by it. I was a special education teacher in an urban school in the middle of one of the most dispossessed communities in New York City for three years–many teachers don’t even consider me a “teacher” because it was a short tenure. I was not for one minute supported in the work I did, was never once encouraged by any member of the administration to persevere in face of the many challenges I faced every day and was forced, until I blew the whistle on my principal and resigned rather than violate another IEP or write one that was contemptuously and knowingly false–and IEPs are legal documents.
I’m sure that there are many special education teachers who do whine and moan, as do many general education teachers, but to hear this from you, presumably a general education teacher, confirms what many of us special education teachers always knew–that you worked with us because you had to and because the law required it but that you held each of us in contempt every day.
Thank you “bradylobeth” for stating the contempt for special education teachers (and, by extension, special education students) that is obvious inside most any public school but also for demonstrating how fatuous a discussion can become when teachers start to talk about themselves and their own profession.
Just two things, I actually am a special educator and have been for many years, so I’m speaking from within that community. (My profile links to my blog that says this, I figured readers might be familiar with my twitter bio.) Secondly, you just proved my point by feeling the need to share your tale of woe working in special education, you are the one who made it about gen ed vs special ed by making assumptions.
My regrets for making the assumption. I’m aware of “special ed martyrs” but never heard it quite but so baldly by anyone in the profession, much less a special educator. I own up to not having responded as intelligently as I might have.
I absolutely want to hear more about how to develop the profession. I want to sing the praises of those who are doing a great job. I think what frustrates me is that every publication seems to relish the opportunity to host a piece on education when the intention seems political. Who’s the audience for this? Teachers can use it, certainly, so then why’s it hosted on NPR rather than a more focused publication? I’m not saying an article like this shouldn’t exist, but because it’s on a news-outlet organization, it reads more political to me. And it’s frustrating that other professions aren’t dissected in the same way. Love the content, frustrated by the context. Maybe that’s splitting hairs?
Thanks for the shoutout, and more important, for taking the time to comb and analyze some of the feedback to our interview. You’re right, of course, that we teachers should not have to constantly justify our professional existence. Nevertheless, we have to take some of the blame for how we’re treated and perceived; which is why I appreciate opportunities to reset that public image.
Ms. Moore, taking blame and making changes will help jumps start an honest reform.
Teaching is an art, and like other arts, one often asks what make the successful ones great (great chef, great artists, great movie director, great writer, etc). I don’t think the problem lies in the question, but as some suggest in how the answers are used. As you mentioned in a previous post, we do need to build trust, and that requires building consensus and understanding differences. Continuing the dialogue is the only way to accomplish that.
I have been asked by one prominent education blogger-writer-commentator, “Why don’t you have a blog?” I’ve tried, started, stopped, and I know how I am: I would not be consistent in my entries, much less maintaining it’s look and feel. Maybe I’m too much like my teacher father, but the only people whose opinion-respect I care about are my students and parents; those folks in the media who denigrate teachers have never met me, probably never met my former students/parents, thus know nothing about me as an educator. Now, if I were approached to share my views I would not be shy, but in the meantime I have student work to grade and of this writing we’re going on a field trip in about 3 ½ hours.
Oh, what makes a great teacher?
1) Commitment: “in loco parentis”; at my age, I got students now calling me ‘granddad’ or ‘father time’ :-o
2) Content: teach it
3) Expectation: high, consistent, fair
4) Opportunity: Every child must have it
5) Assessment-Feedback: keep it real, keep it often.
I think comments need to be read through filters (such as whether people have identified themselves or not), and with some emotional disentanglement, but they give us information.
It seems there’s a swath of people who think teachers should be silent, self-sacrificing servants, and that they should be so busy that there’s no time to write an article without shirking some other duty, and they really can’t do more than they’re told to do by their ‘leaders.’
I’ll bet that there *are* gatherings where butchers or just about any professionals discuss what makes a good one… and NPR has been known to interview them.
I have taught for 30 years and I am still IN the classroom. Not an administrative position or resource room, in the classroom. I am actively involved in making my class engaging for my students. BUT, I also blog. Why would a teacher think because all they do is teach, and not any of those other things that Jose does, it makes them a better teacher? Or makes him less of one?That concept is so ridiculous! How can we not congratulate these teachers on their accomplishments, be happy for them, and stop trying to demean and villify them because they do what they do? If you don’t want to be out there, then don’t. Stay in your classroom, grade papers, or whatever else you do. It doesn’t make you less of a teacher, but it certainly doesn’t make you better than the teachers in this article!!!! (Maybe you would have preferred if they interviewed Michelle Rhee?
While I tend to see the comments as sour grapes because NPR is not interviewing them, I think some of the comments may stem from a frustration that I also share and Jose (I can’t figure out how to do the accent mark, sorry), unfortunately, got thrown in with the current spate of education writers, usually writing on technology in education, who know exactly what’s wrong in classrooms across the country–and it’s always what’s wrong, seldom what’s right– along with knowing exactly what teachers do in the classroom i.e. force feed content down the throats of their students instead of say working collaboratively to solve real world problems with the use of technology (Sometimes I think about writing some of these experts and asking them if they have ever studied group dynamics and the various problems that arise within groups; I’m not against collaboration, but it’s trickier than many make it out to be).
Many of the ed tech experts I am thinking of have not taught much or at all. Or else they have taught in posh private schools where kids really are digital natives with a Mac and an IPhone 6 plus at their disposal along with a clear shot at a bright future, and therefore the experts know relatively little about the problems teachers face in less privileged communities and, from my perspective, don’t bother to find out because, well, they just know what teachers do. And they especially know that those who have been around long enough to pre-date the technology revolution never did anything but try to pour content, content, content into empty vessels, whose own interests the teachers flatly ignored because they had yet to be enlightened by today’s current “experts.”
I think those making the derogatory comments about the interview were aiming more at those kinds of education writers/ experts/bloggers and somehow, as Jenny above points out, Jose’s excellent content got churned into what has become a highly charged and often antagonistic context, where those who teach or have taught for a long time are furious at how they are portrayed by many of those who write about education and, as a result, anyone who writes or is interviewed about education becomes the enemy, even if that impression is patently wrong-headed as it is in the case of Jose’s NPR interview.