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So you want to
be a teacher?
Guest editorial, published in
the Oakland Tribune, April 23, 2002
IN the post-Sept. 11, post-dot-com
world, teaching has acquired a sudden
allure. Where else can you find a job impervious to recessions
with 10
weeks vacation each summer whether or not you need it?
For some reason, math and science
teaching positions are still hard to
fill in Oakland, where I teach. Why is this so? One-half of the
equation
is the relatively low pay of the profession. But it is more than
that.
Let me describe the experience of
one gentleman who recently passed
through my school. He was in his 50s, with a background in business
management. He thought he was going to bring his real-world experience
to
benefit his students. He never had a chance.
While he was knowledgeable about
math, he did not yet have a handle on how to present the curriculum
or manage a classroom. His students did not meet
his expectations, which he made clear to them.
The students' reaction was predictable.
They had no great desire to earn
his respect; it was much easier to deny him theirs. They talked
when he
tried to teach, and he sent them down to the office. After several
months
of this, he reached an agreement with the administration and
moved on,
leaving his students to be taught by substitutes.
I am telling you this not to discourage
potential teachers. Teaching is a
fantastic profession. There are always new ways to teach, and
the students
are all different, so it is a fresh challenge each day.
Three wonderful groups of students
spend time with me every day. I see
students enter in September as nervous sixth-graders, still children
in
every way. By the following spring, they are still nervous, but
now they
are adolescents.
I have students from many cultures,
many lands. My students come from
Oakland, El Salvador, Mexico, China, Vietnam and Laos.
I visited Mills College recently
and ran into a former student, now a
senior, soon to enter medical school at Columbia University in
New York.
She said I had been one of her inspirations when I taught her
biology 10
years ago.
Now in my 15th year at the same
school, I have taught more than 2,000
students. I know I haven't inspired them all, but I think I have
made a
difference for some of them.
So if you do want to be a teacher,
how can you avoid the fate of the
businessman I described? Here is some advice:
Find a credential program that honors
your choice by having you actually
student teach under the supervision of an experienced teacher.
Avoid
programs that have you act as a teacher while you go to classes
at night
or on weekends.
THERE is so much to learn as a new
teacher -- taking time to student teach
allows you space to learn before you are overwhelmed with the
responsibility of teaching full time. Make sure you take time
to observe a
variety of teachers. There are many different styles, and you
need all the
role models you can find.
When you do start teaching, don't
expect gratitude from your students for
your sacrifice. Adolescents are not known for a great deal of
perspective
on these things. If they sense that you need their approval,
then they
will give their disdain. Your reward may be deferred -- it may
take a
chance encounter with a former student a decade after you taught
her
before you know the impact you made.
Meanwhile, try to take satisfaction
in the knowledge that in your
classroom at least one person is learning, even if that person
is you.
Anthony Cody is a national board-certified
teacher who teaches math and
science at Bret Harte Middle School in Oakland. He lives in Berkeley.
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