Expectations of the Teaching Profession

by P. C., MA Teachers at my high school are constantly coming up with new and ingenious ways of teaching students the curriculum. Some teachers work their students from the moment the class starts until the moment the late bell sounds. Others are more relaxed, and hardly teach at all. Still, others go off on a tangent covering those bare essentials to every good autobiography, their personal life stories, how much money they're making or more important, how much they're not making. For these reasons, students in my high school have the right to be "Dazed and Confused."

Teachers should be like church and state: separate and apart. When I'm in school, I'm here for one reason and one reason only, and contrary to some opinions, it's not to hear about a grown man's or a grown woman's personal problems. Because the last time I checked, the classroom hadn't turned into a therapist's office with me as the psychiatrist.

Why is it that every teacher sincerely believes that his/her subject is where education ends and enlightenment begins. This is not reality, and, more to the point, it sounds like a drug-induced hallucination. But teachers today just don't have as much time for their students, mainly because they themselves are enrolled in courses to further their education. All of this is a noble undertaking. However, how can they keep a straight face when they're asking the school committee for a raise in addition to the cost of living? That seems somewhat hypocritical!

What I expect from my teachers parallels their expectations of my performance, which specifically is: (1) I get to class on time,

(2) I pay attention, (3) I participate in class discussion and (4) I pretend to show interest in what the teacher is saying at all times.

But, if a teacher's curriculum can't come down to earth once in a while (the planet I live on), then why should they expect me to visit them on whatever planet they come from.

Teachers who don't teach should get out of the profession while they still have an ounce of self-respect because even though the United States is not engaged in any full scale wars, there is still a plethora of students entering college majoring in education. Avoiding the draft is not the only explanation for there to be an influx of certified teachers!