Educational Rant- Guilt…or, in other words, teacher appreciation week

It’s teacher appreciation week.  So far I have received two emails- one from the principal and one from the superintendent.  There is a staff luncheon planned for Thursday and a breakfast too.

A while back I was watching an interview with a fellow colleague, a teacher.  The interviewer thanked her for her service.  I sat watching this interview wondering about this term…service.  Is what I do service?  Let’s think about that word, what does it actually mean.  I looked it up.  Basically, it means doing something for someone or an act of assistance.  There were more definitions than that, but that’s the gist of it.

Is what I do is a service?  I suppose I am doing something for someone…a whole bunch of someones.  But is it a service?  An act of assistance?  I guess that is part of my job.  I assist people all day long.  Another definition I saw was about being a servant.  Yeah… I am so not that.  Or am I?

The thing about this appreciation week…I don’t need it.  I don’t want it.  And there are all these teachers out here buying into it.  This appreciation.  How come we do not have a Doctor appreciation day? Lawyer appreciation day or scientist or engineer appreciation day?

I will tell you why.  Because those are professions that are deemed as professions.

What happened to teachers?  How did this profession end up so in the trash?  I am sitting here in a bar trying to write this shit about appreciation, and I am struggling because I am so pissed about it.  I lie.  It’s not because I am pissed but because I have a beer in me.  But never mind that.

I do not need to be appreciated.  I need just to be a professional.  I need to be allowed to do my job the way I see fit.  Isn’t that what professionals do?  I mean, honestly, I do not know.  I am guessing though.  I have many friends that are professionals.  Like real ones that don’t get appreciation days.

So, what’s my point?  I do not need to be appreciated unless it comes in the form of professional respect.

As teachers, we have been underpaid, degraded and have had our profession overrun by people who haven’t set foot in a classroom in how long…?

I do not need a mug, a Starbucks card or Hershey’s kisses on my desk.  As lovely as these gestures are, they are not what I want.  I want better pay.  I want to be respected as the professional I am.  I want the professional freedom to do my job as I know how to do it.  I want to have input on policy.  I want to do what I know is best for the people I work for- the students.

I do not want society to feel sorry for me.  I do not want this appreciation.  I would much rather have those things I mentioned above.

Here’s what I think…not that I have hesitated to tell you what I think…I believe appreciation is what society does to assuage the guilt.  Yep. Guilt. You know it.

We know it.  We shouldn’t stand by and accept this “appreciation.”    Why are we buying into this nonsense?  I mean, I don’t want to be rude, but really?  See it for what it is…appreciate merely is society’s way to assuage the guilt for treating teachers like servants.  And it all goes back to that…thank you for your service. Or in other words, thank you for being a servant. Serf.