Teaching – Win or Lose?

By Dr. Marcia A. Davis-Dawkins

Many, many, many years ago I decided to enter the classroom as a teacher, but with much trepidation. Teaching for me was not first on my radar since most of the people in my family were teachers and it just didn’t seem like the career choice because, as most people may know, there is little financial gain in this profession. Needless to say, I did everything (or so it seems) I could to steer from being a teacher. Suffice it to say, when the opportunity presented itself for me to go to college under the stern advisement of my aunt, with whom I lived and was a teacher, I took it, but with a fight. The carefully worded newspaper ad enticed me (rather my aunt who then yelled and made it seem as if it would be a missed opportunity, if not taken) to apply for a spot in the world of teaching. The ad also emphasized that I would have a double career – one in business as well as a teacher of business studies! I was caught, but again, teaching was not my choice. I wanted to be in the business world – an administrative assistant or the first step in being an accountant. As fate would have it, weeks before graduation, I was hired on the spot by the head of the business department of my high school, as a business teacher.

I taught until I migrated and it seemed only fit for me to discard, or so I thought, my teaching career path and decided that I would again study business in a new country. Well, no sooner was I done studying, when I wet my feet in the business world and decided that I would return to my other choice – teaching! I decided that even though, it hasn’t made me rich or famous, it has it rewards. It also has it ups and downs. It also seems as if the days when the teachers were seen as the authoritative figures as well as the disciplinarian are over. Many teachers, including myself, get despondent because of the role reversals in the classroom. Many of us spend our time trying to manage students’ behaviors instead of teaching. It is with lots of hassle, and might I say struggle, because so many of our student enter the classroom with lots of psychological problems, it seems. Some parents who believe that we could be the enemy sometimes challenge us. As it were, because of the challenges and the fights that we can we, at times face, we get despondent and wonder why we entered this journey called teaching. But we are reminded of the students whom we reach and who contact us to say what a great job we did with their students and that our job did not go unnoticed.

One of the advantages of teaching is that teachers can usually wipe the slates clean and start over for each school year, but then there are constant reminders of the headaches; will there be any unfortunate stories or items in the news, school fights involving students or even students and teachers, teachers being taunted, teachers being allegedly complained about, teachers being fired because of unexplained behaviors among other things? Where are the lines drawn? Are we too busy worrying if we are next instead of doing what we loved the most or are we being given a chance to do that which we really enjoy: teach? Can we prove that we care about our students and want to see them succeed?

I often wonder if when interns are in the classroom, based on what they see and/or hear they change their minds about teaching and ask themselves why they bothered to go to college to be a teacher? Without asking them, I usually come to the conclusion that like me, they realized that they are good at teaching and want to make a difference one student at a time. I do know for sure that some interns or even teachers buckle under the pressure of teaching and quit. The reasons may vary. They may think that the students are too disrespectful, the financial rewards are not equal to the stress of teaching, teaching isn’t the right fit for them or simply that they realize that they are horrible teachers!

There is a constant war in my head encouraging me to study to show myself approving, to understand my craft more, as well as to be compensated, but how can I climb the ladder without being an administrator? Is that what I really want to do in education? Maybe I don’t want to be the manager of teachers! I simply want to get better at my craft that I enjoy.

For me, I know that since I won’t get the compensation I want, I must continue to meet the amazing parents, students and even fellow educators; naturally that is a big gain for me. Therefore, it has been a great experience for me, and I still look forward to hearing the wonderful words, “Oh I get it now!” from my students. Let’s be clear here: teaching can cause anxiety and if I am not careful I can be stressed out and possibly lose my mind. I once read, “Our resumes are different from our eulogies – No one will be at my funeral saying I was such a great teacher that I brought test scores up. Of course that would make me feel great, but is that all I am worth— to raise test scores? I think the important thing to me is to make a difference in a child’s life and that will bring inner peace to me.

Interestingly enough, I do think that we get and should use the summer break to evaluate our lives, our career path, our teaching styles and get revived, revitalized and restored. How can we do that? Well, the choice is yours because once we decide to go back using that clean slate, we have to raise the expectation bar and craft out a new school year!