What's on Katie's Mind? Katie: The artist, teacher, and social commentator.

I was listening to Dylan Ratigan’s show this morning as we have a snow day and it got me thinking and this is why I felt a need to write today.  He had a man on from New York that was pushing charter schools.  They talked about how to improve education.  This always gets me going because these talking heads from the media and the so called “leaders” of education never talk about the one thing that’s going to make a difference in a child’s educational life.  The child needs a teacher with a heart as well as the educational ability.  You can’t make someone love teaching but there are a lot of people out there that love to teach that are kept out of the education system through the “screening” process of interviews during college.  If we rely solely on the resume of a person for hiring teachers we will never end up transforming schools.  To transform schools we must have people teaching and administrating that care not just about their own children but about everyone’s children.  We must have teachers and administrators that have a heart and understand that the job is not about them but about the children.

I’ve been busy over the past month.  I was working on the middle school art curriculum review.  My school has been very supportive of the arts in education which includes both the visual, and the performing arts.  I needed to make an assessment of what I was currently doing and what I thought would be the best direction for the future.  I was to compile a wish list of items that I feel are necessary to develop the best possible art program.  I want to say, “I love my job.”  I needed time to do the review and do the work on Atlas, (A program on the web that helps teachers develop curriculum.) that was required of me.  I was given two days with a substitute, so I could get the work done.  Of course I had to devote time outside of this as well to adequately complete the review.  The reason I’m writing about this is to share the fact that my time wasn’t wasted.  Often times in school we are asked to fill out papers or some other request that ends up being put in a file and forgotten about.  Many teachers know this and get tired of repeating the same old task only knowing that it will end up being a big waste of their time.  Time is often wasted in school when we are asked to sit through meetings where it appears that we are working together as a team on some big plan.  Often times I believe the decisions are already made about the plan by the administration and the meeting is set up to make the teachers feel like they we’re a part of that the decision.  This time the decisions were made by me, the teacher, with the final financial decision made by the administration.  To me this makes the most sense as I am closer to what is happening in the art classroom than anyone else.  When treated with respect, as I was, a teacher will rise to the occasion.  When treated disrespectfully a teacher can also fall to failure.  I’m happy to say my requests were honored.

I know there are teachers out there that are not like me.  They go through the motions waiting for the day they can retire.  I’ve even heard young teachers discuss retirement, which always puzzles me.  They may think they are doing the best possible job for their students and blame any failures on the system, the parents, and anything else that pushes their buttons but the truth is there are many reasons for failure and one of them is at the heart of why someone becomes a teacher.  If we are to listen to the government the implication is that teachers today are not qualified to do their jobs.  Teachers are tested even though they just went through four or five years of test taking in college.  Teachers are required to have a major in the subject area they are teaching which means many classes taken in a single area whether it is math, science or art.  The government leaders would have us believe that we need to improve the teacher quality through their math, science and other abilities.  I think this is a false premise.  While there may be teachers that slip through the cracks with their educational abilities.  I think we need to have teachers that have the heart of a teacher.  We need teachers that are excited about children.  We need teachers that can look at a troubled child and see possibilities not problems.  We need teachers that can develop relationships with their students to ensure success.

Students today have a lot more going on than when I was in school.  Many of them come from homes with multiple marriages or live in relationships.  They have half brothers and sisters, dads out of the picture and moms and dads out dating.  I don’t remember anything like that when I was going to school in the sixties and seventies.  The lack of stability in many of their home lives can create chaos for any young person.  I think that the school system needs to insure the quality of their teachers by making sure that they hire people with great paper credentials that also have that heart necessary to teach in these troubled times.  You can improve your resume through classes and professional development but your heart is another matter.  If you are considering teaching ask yourself, “Why?”  Is it because you want the summers off, or you think it’s a good job while raising your own children, you like sports and want to coach or do you really love working with children and helping them develop their abilities?  To be a great teacher you have to stop thinking about what you need and start thinking about what your students need because it’s not about you!  You have to not be the star of the show but be able to set yourself aside and help develop the true stars of the show, your students.  Some people are too self-centered to be a great teacher.  Great teachers inspire others.  They don’t suck out the air in the room with their verbosity and pomposity.  We can all think back to the teachers that inspired us.  I bet you will remember teachers that made you feel good, smart or special.  The teachers we remember with hatred and disgust made us feel bad, stupid, small and unimportant.  If we really want students to excel in this world they keep labeling the “global community” than we must hire teachers that inspire and are devoted to their students.  We must hire teachers that have a heart and love teaching children.