Before, during and after class

“Those who can’t do, teach.”

Whenever I hear that saying, it tends to rub me the wrong way. Not that I blame anyone for saying that. Logically, that saying makes a lot sense.

It rubs me the wrong way because I know that there is a lot more to teaching than just “teaching”.

I come from a family of educators. My mom is a family consumer science teacher, my dad teaches English and Civics, grandparents from my mom’s side were both teachers, my grandpa on my dad’s side was a long time administrator, my sister is currently finishing up her teaching certification in history, my future brother in-law is a high school business teacher, my aunt is a teacher, my cousin teaches elementary school … and to top it all off: my girlfriend of two years, who I plan on marrying in the near future, is currently finishing up her student teaching.

Sometimes I feel like I am the only person in my family who is not in education — which is not far from the truth.

So why am I not a teacher? It’s very simple: I couldn’t do it.

I’ve come to realize if I had half of the patience of any of my family members who are teachers, I’d get pretty far in life. What they deal with on a daily basis is nothing short of incredible.

Still don’t believe me? Allow me to list a few reasons to explain why teaching is more difficult than at least what I do.

I generally like kids. I was a volunteer for Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Laramie and I had a blast with that. I like being around my girlfriend’s nieces and nephews. I also like covering school events with my job.

But most importantly, I like the fact that I don’t have to deal with them if I don’t want to.

Managing kids is one of the more difficult part of the job. If you have ever stepped inside an elementary classroom for more than two minutes, you would realize that these teachers are borderline miracle workers.

They are trying to deal with a variety of maturity levels, keeping hyperactive kids under control, keeping the one kid from crying because his art project got ruined, while another kid is making a mess with glitter in the back of the classroom.

And on top of that, they have to teach them basic math, reading, science, geography and social skills.

The best part? They only have six hours a day to do all of that.

It’s not like high school teachers have it much easier. Dealing with students who are going through changing bodies, constantly jumping in and out of week-long relationships and focusing on their future, while trying to teach them allegories in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

Yeah, that does not sound like a picnic to me. I’ll keep my job where all I have to do is manage myself and the occasional angry reader who disagrees with my articles.

It would be so nice if we could just let teachers teach. Unfortunately, that is just not realistic.

Educators are constantly having to learn the new “the scientifically proven most efficient way to be a teacher,” which is usually designed by a group of people at the state or federal level who have never actually taught before and have unrealistic expectations of what can be done in a classroom.

But, hey, those are the people who know best, right?

This means that as soon as a teacher gets used to teaching a certain way, they have to change it up to fit that mold which the experts think is the best way.

Their students can learn a lot of interesting things that will stay with them for years on end, but if it is not the “right” thing to teach according to standardized testing, their pay will be docked. Obviously that will motivate teachers to teach better.

And the best part about these tests? It doesn’t matter if a teacher’s classroom is in inner-city Chicago, where half of their students are wondering if they are going to have food that night, or if the classroom is in an affluent neighborhood, teachers are expected to teach the same way and students are expected to learn at the same rate.

For my job, that would be like having to go from AP style writing to a different “more efficient” style of writing, while having to produce the same amount of stories as the New York Times does and, if I can’t write 20 articles a day and receive one Pulitzer Prize a year like the most successful papers do, I would get my pay slashed until I can.

No thank you.

Yes, teachers get weekends, holidays and summers off, and that is a major perk of being in education. However, if you think for a second that teachers only work during the school day, you really don’t understand the education process at all.

My parents used to be at school hours before the first class and hours afterwards to do their lesson plans and grade papers. They spent weekends setting up their classrooms, and my dad, who is a head football coach, spends more time on top of that coaching and planning.

That’s only during the school year as well. During the summer, teachers have to go to meetings, fundraise for school activities and many of them even pick up summer jobs just to make ends meet. For the most part, my parents only had about two weeks off a year for vacation.

I would guarantee there is not a single teacher out there who only works during the school day. I would guess that most teachers work the same amount of hours I do.

I guess my point is that teachers deal with a lot more than what is on the surface. It’s not just having fun with kids and getting summers off. There is a lot of crap that they deal with everyday and they do it with very little pay and complaints.

So next time you think about saying “those who can’t do, teach,” really think about it: can you really do what they do?