When I started writing today, I thought I
was going to write a blog about my 10-day camping trip in the Pacific Northwest, which, as a special bonus, would have included an open letter to a Jackass. But you'll have to wait a day or two for that one, because I just wanted to get this off my chest first.
I was in the elevator in my condo building today, taking my camping equipment back to my storage unit in the parking lot. A man that I hadn't met before got on the elevator and glanced at my backpack.
"Going on a camping trip?" he enquired.
"No, just getting back." I smiled.
"Oh, so back to work then. Too bad."
I should have just agreed with him. But no, I wasn't smart enough. "Well, I'm a teacher, so ..."
"Oh, a TEACHER," he said. "Two months off. Huh. Must be nice."
Okay. I never know what to say to this, and this is the response that every teacher gets from everyone they meet as soon as the teaching thing comes up. It may or may not be delivered as a "joke," but it is always spoken in the same disdainful, slightly accusatory tone of voice. It always makes me feel like I need to either a) apologize for my offending holidays or b) offer justification as to why teachers really do earn their vacation time. Up until recently, I did neither - just stared at my shoes and shuffled my feet apologetically, and maybe murmured something about all of the evening, weekend and yes, even summer commitments that teachers have.
Because here's the thing; it is nice. It's awesome. Teachers do get better vacations than pretty much anybody else - summer vacation, Christmas vacation, March break. We know this, and it's easy to feel guilty about it when a sensitive individual on an elevator focuses on the perks of the job rather than the monumental work involved. (Note: I wonder, what Mr. Elevator would say if he were introduced to a lawyer? Let me guess ... "So you're rich. Huh. Must be nice." Hmmmmm ... somehow I don't think so.)
But no more! I refuse to feel guilty about my summer vacation anymore, because I have EARNED it and I'll tell you how. Let's just assume that we all agree on the easy stuff here, shall we? The lesson planning, the marking, the coaching, the theatre club, the dance supervision, the lunch duties, the staff meetings and the parent/teacher interviews - yep, they all take lots of extra time above and beyond the normal workday. But it's another, lesser acknowledged reality that can take its toll on a teacher. I am speaking of the relative lack of anonymity, and the constant awareness that everything you do will be scrutinized by a larger community. This is true of your classes, your marking, your material (and of course, it SHOULD be) but it extends further than that. For example, whenever I am in a bar I am always worried that I will run into an underage student that has been able to sneak in. What are my responsibilities at that point? My night out at a bar shouldn't have anything to do with my job, but it's within the realm of possibility that it could, and that's unnerving.
A teacher's website or online blog can be a professional nightmare. Earlier this year, the head of a private day school in Toronto resigned after an anonymous email (I really have to wonder here WHY the email was anonymous, but I digress ... ) was circulated to the parent community which featured six of the several poems that were displayed on his website. Penned sometime between 1973 and 2003, these particular poems contained sexual and violent themes and material. His biggest mistake was arguably not actually writing the poems, but putting them on a website instead of hiding them in a place where no one would ever would ever see them, such as inside the pages of a book of poetry. As a result of the content of the poetry, questions immediately arose in the community as to whether or not he was an appropriate person to lead the school, despite the fact that he had been recruited from England for this specific position four years earlier.
Now, a few things about this. We should probably note that the guy has been writing poetry for twenty years, and only six poems were singled out as offensive (and really, they are not even very good poems.) We should also note that displaying the material on his website (now defunct) was not only dumb, but irresponsible. He knows what the Internet is after all, and he knows what a private school principal is. Finally, we should acknowledge that parents place a huge amount of trust in teachers and principals, and that they are absolutely right to be concerned about and protective of their children.
But is a writer one of the things that kids have to be protected from? One of the first things that I teach my students is that the AUTHOR is an entirely different entity than a NARRATOR or a CHARACTER (or in the case of poetry, a SPEAKER.) If we assume that the content of a literary work reveals the intention or personality of the author, then Stephen King would have to go to prison, and we should probably execute Thomas Harris, who wrote "The Silence of the Lambs." Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Alice Munro would certainly have a lot to answer for in their writing if they were teachers. And Shakespeare wouldn't even be able to make it through the front doors of a school if we were to assume that he espoused the values of his characters (cannibalistic chef extraordinaire Titus Andronicus comes to mind.) You can pursue artistic interests if you are a teacher - but you'd better be careful that your art is appropriate and palatable and that it is not easily accessible ... and a pen name may be in order.
Being a teacher impacts your entire life, and once you have the enormous responsibility of educating and caring for children, your whole public persona needs to be evaluated and perhaps reconsidered. You agree to carry your professional responsibilities into your personal life to some degree, and you accept the fact that you are held to a higher moral standard than people in most other professions. I'm not saying that this is wrong - far from it. I'm just saying that THAT'S one of the ways that you earn your two months of summer vacation.
In the end, these consessions are worth it for me because I LOVE teaching. Love it, love it, love it. I love summer vacation too - that's part of the package. And, for all of you people who lurk in elevators and sneer resentfully at my vacation time, buck up! There's no need for jealousy! YOU TOO can have two months off a year! Just follow these six easy steps, and eight weeks of bliss will be yours:
1.) Quit your job.
2.) Go to teachers' college.
3.) Graduate.
4.) Acquire a teaching job.
5.) Spend every day with kids who are not yours. If you're a high school teacher like I am, that could translate easily to 75-100 different kids during 3 or 4 different periods in a day. Spend your weekends planning things you'll say to them in the next week and reading stuff that they write. Give up your lunches and do extra tutoring and coach and direct and challenge and comfort, and prepare to get barfed on during school dances/long, field-trip school bus rides.
6.) Take your summer vacation.
See? That's not so hard, is it?
A
P.S. Perhaps you should also include step 7 - establish a pen name. I may have to myself for my upcoming "Open Letter to a Jackass."
Monday, July 14, 2008
Summer Vacation ... Ask Me How!
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I think the only people that have better holiday/salary/work schedule perks than teachers are government employees.
ReplyDeleteI can attest to the insane "extra curricular" time spent by teachers preparing for classes, marking, writing report cards, and the dreaded "meet the creature" nights. I never really get to spend quality time with my teacher friends until the summer hits and then the 8 weeks goes by too quickly or there are professional development courses that they have to take to keep their licence up to date...and so on.
People always say that the grass is always greener and maybe they are right but you could not pay me enough to go back to school to become a teacher. The jobs out there for new teachers are few and far between unless you want to teach on the reserve or in "the bad area of town" and even then it is next to impossible to find a full time stable teaching position. To have my every move and thought criticized by ignorant parents claiming that I am the worst teacher little Johnny has ever had is not appealing to me. To have to sit and take this abuse from the parents of students who clearly can't master the english language themselves is just cruel and a senseless waste of time.
Really, if people think that teachers have it made in the shade and that it isn't a hard/difficult job to capture and keep the attention of a youth for 6 hours every day all the while teaching some of life's most boring material then they should have to give it a try.
Forget Big Brother, the Amazing Race and Survivor as the big reality tv shows... start a new one where ordinary citizens/parents have to live the lives of a teacher. Contestants will go head to head trying to teach the required curriculum to a group of difficult students. They have to get up, plan, teach, test, mark, chaperone dances, meet with parents - the whole shebang. It would give people the opportunity to see for themselves just how difficult teaching can be. And what would be the reward for winning this reality tv show? You guessed it, having 8 weeks off in the summer and the wonderful opportunity to file for unemployment.
There is another possibility. Next time you get the "Two months vacation, must be nice..." Try this: "By all means, tell your MPs that you're willing to pay higher taxes to keep students in school for the whole summer" and see how that goes over.
ReplyDeleteTwo months. Pftt. We university professors get FOUR.
Your reply shoulda been: "Oh, you're a guy riding in an elevator, huh? Don't have to use your legs to ascend and descend, huh? Must be nice...."
ReplyDeleteThen you should have stabbed him with a tent-peg and hightailed it outta there.
Well said, Hunter. My response to people when I get the "must be nice" comment is... "yes, it really is nice. Why didn't YOU become a teacher?!"
ReplyDeleteWhat DID you say to the elevator guy?
Hunter,
ReplyDeleteNice work - those "summers off" comments also totally piss me!
My now standard response, is that I work a 'compressed' schedule as a teacher - I do a full year of work in the nine official 'work' months and plenty of work during holidays and other time off (March Break etc.). Moreover, lots of senior professionals have 4, heck even 6+ weeks of holidays - granted not all at once, but they are also free to pick their times - e.g. Feb. powder skiing in the Rockies, or summer trekking in the southern hemisphere, while teachers have a mandated 'time off' period, like so many other parts of our jobs, we don't have much choice in the matter!
-BT
FYI -- that is my 'nom de plume'
Then there are those of us who enjoy the freedom of teaching outside the school systems (no testing, reporting and choose your own vacation weeks). The compromise for this bliss? NO SUMMER VACATION! I wrap up the school year field trips (teacher's despirately trying to fill those last days with something salvagable once the kids have checked out for the year), and within a week I am in full fledged summer camp staff training. My staff???? You guessed it... TEACHERS! I actually had some staff members who had their end of year workshop days from 8am - 3pm and then camp staff training from 3 - 8. Don't fret, they have a whole week off after camp before they have to return to school. Now, you may be asked WHY would a teacher give up their hard earned 2 months off to work with even more kiddos in an equally exhausting position. I don't know what it's like there in Canada, but here in the States they don't have a choice because they get paid CRAP! Kudos to all the teachers out there... underpaid, un-supported and misunderstood. Those who can, teach... those who can't get some cushy high paying job with expense accounts and flexible schedules.
ReplyDeleteMarci
Oh Ms. Hunter...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I could totally hear your saying everything from "YOU TOO can have two months off a year!" on!
Second, right now I'm working at a camp and I must say I've gained a lot of respect for the teachers that can control 3x the number of kids that I do every day. Coming from a person who deals with the kids during the summer when you're on vacation, you definitely deserve that time off! I don't know how you could do it all year!
So keep up the good work! You're a great teacher and a highly entertaining person!
- Your Ex- Student (and yes I have admitted to being in love with your blog! I can't wait for this letter to a Jackass!)