Teacher Appreciation Week

I'm not sure what the point of Teacher Appreciation Week is, or who thought it up and decided it would be this week. But this is a great time of year to thank a teacher because most of them are on the brink of losing their minds right about now! I can't think of another profession whose members are better educated, work as hard, or take as much crap as teaching. School administration runs a close second, but I won't get into that right now. The other day I was talking to a guy, who is a maximum security prison guard, about thankless jobs. He decided his wasn't as bad in that area as ours! And the amazing thing is that teachers LOVE what they do even when they're stressed to the breaking point half the time.

It's not a great time to be a public school educator in Michigan. Enrollment is down and we're funded according to enrollment, so needless to say, we're bleeding cash on a regular basis. As teachers retire and are not replaced, the remaining teachers are faced with larger class sizes. Many are being assigned to areas that they would rather not be assigned to and having to teach classes that they perhaps haven't taught in years or ever! That's one of the many lovely things NCLB has done for us. AND although there's no money for people or books, there's plenty of money for technology and it's coming whether we want/need it or not. So everybody better get with the 21st century and figure out what to do with it. Did I mention there's no money for technology training? Yeah, just the technology itself. Good luck everyone!

Here's an example of what teachers go through. I had been spending a lot of time with a particular student athlete who was in some trouble inside and outside of school. His mother wasn't happy with the fact that he was going to have to sit out a hockey game. In an e-mail to me she said that she wasn't through with me. That she was my master and I was her slave. I was offended at the time, but my years since have proven her to be correct. We ARE slaves to the public. As a teacher, you're in a classroom of 30 teenagers from 30 different homes, with 30 different levels of intelligence and maturity, and 30 different personalities; you have to teach them all the same content, make sure they all succeed, and do it in a way that pleases their parents. And you do it five times a day, five days a week, 36 weeks a year.

So, yeah, there definitely should be a Teacher Appreciation Week. If nothing else, we can appreciate each other!!