While reading a recent copy of our local newspaper, I found a letter-to-the-editor that caused me to express frustration to my SO. (Only in a muted and demure tone, of course.) A central focus of the letter dealt with the education system and what the writer thought should be done differently by the teaching profession. There was no shortage of suggestions to be found from this writer......who was not, by the way, a teacher by training.
This caused me to reflect on a curious phenomenon in this country. Is there anyone out there who thinks they could not do a better job teaching than the teacher? Over the years, I've listened to countless people (and read just as many letters-to-the-editor) express their views on what teachers should do differently. "Why, if they'd only......." or "Those teachers! They should......." or "Why don't they just.......?" It seems as if everyone has an opinion on how a teacher should teach, what they should cover, or how the subject should be presented in the classroom.
What I find fascinating is that I seldom hear people express those same views regarding other professions. I do not believe I've ever overheard a conversation that began, "Why, that surgeon! He should have tied off that leaking artery so much sooner." or "Did you see how that waste handler handled that container. I'd.......", or "That engineer was way off. She could have ......."
Why do we presume that we could do a better job than the teacher? Why do we feel so free to criticize those who teach? Why do we naturally assume that 'any live body' could stand there and teach? As a former educator, I can only say that I am thankful that no 'one' ever doubted me to my face, although I'm certain an army of dissenters had plenty to say behind my back. I am proposing that we begin giving the teacher a little slack here - that we not presume, from the get-go-, that the teacher doesn't know what he/she is doing - that we reserve criticism until we have had formal training to be a teacher, putting us on equal footing with the educator(s) in question.
Until then, we must assume that the educator is the trained professional and we are simply interested laymen and laywomen, of necessity interested in what the teacher presents and how it is presented, but recognizing that the educational professional went to school to become a teacher and we did not.
That, is a fact.
Ancora imparo
