How Hard Can It Be to Teach?

[proud2BlibKansan]

The Challenges Go Well Beyond the Classroom

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: July 11, 2007

One of my all-time favorite moments covering the New York City public school system occurred just before Christmas in 2003, at Public School 28 in Harlem. About 50 or 60 second graders, onstage in the school auditorium, serenaded Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein with a perfect rendition of “Feliz Navidad.”

When the singing stopped, Mr. Bloomberg applauded. “Children, that was beautiful,” he said. “Now, what I want you to do is say ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year,’ first in Spanish, then in English.”

The problem was not a language barrier — nearly all of the children at P.S. 28 are bilingual — but rather the mayor’s notion that he could give four simultaneous commands to a group of 7-year-olds, as if they were his aides in the bullpen at City Hall or executives at his company, Bloomberg L.P.

more . . .
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/education/11education.html?fta=y

[shenmue]

1. It's not easy

:yoiks:

[RebelOne]

2. My daughter is a middle school teacher

and from the stories she tells me, I think teaching is one of the most difficult jobs. I couldn't do it. You have to have plenty of patience, which I don't have.

[EFerrari]

6. I can't teach anyone under 17. Don't have the patience and never did.

Don't know how I managed to raise two kids -- to the extent that I did. Hats off to teachers who have the stamina and the creativity to deal with little ones.

[BlooInBloo]

3. It's pretty hard - everybody thinks at least slightly differently - and that's just the teaching.

[EFerrari]

4. LOL! He'd last about five minutes.

:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. My thoughts exactly

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. There are a lot of people out there who think...

if you can read and do arithmetic then you can be a grade school teacher.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Any of them are more than welcome

to do my job for a day.

[Blue_Tires]

9. i'm a sub and that's hard enough!

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. You have my utmost respect

[Blue_Tires]

13. and I back to you

and to those that do this full-time....one of my small comforts whenever i'm having a bad day is the knowledge that at dismissal, i NEVER have to come back to that classroom or school...

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. I hear ya

I subbed for 2 years before I started teaching. I used to tell the kids "If I know your name by 9:00, you won't be having a good day."

[kineneb]

11. I applaud classroom teachers.

I know I could not deal with the stresses. I will just keep plodding along, teaching individual piano lessons, which takes different skills.

[treestar]

12. It's close to impossible

Everyone is indulging in every consideration but mere learning.

[madokie]

15. we have many teachers in our rather large family and I can tell you it's not an easy job

many hours they spend. It pisses me off when I hear someone say oh they only work 9 months a year, I think in the 9 months they spend way more than the average joe does in 40 hour work weeks for 12 months. and if those 40 hour workers get vacation then more so. I wanted so to be a teacher but wasn't smart enough to do it, plus I took up drug research about that same time in my life. bummer really but thats another story
:hi: Teach

[necso]

16. I've never taught

in a school environment; but from experience, teaching (training) people is (typically is; can be) very difficult.

In the first place, when you try to build something (in a solid, lasting way; here: some framework of knowledge and understanding), you must build upon some strong foundation (here: holdings, character/nature; but as influenced by other circumstances). And this foundation typically varies greatly across individuals (the traditional approach being (more or less) that these individuals must have/build some common foundation; think a certain way -- be a certain way; a horrendously bad assumption and assertion, inherently disadvantaging many very capable people, including those who might bring new insight to the field, or to human thought more generally), making bringing them all to some common/compatible understanding complicated and almost necessarily multi-threaded (although much of this path is typically left to the individual, even once those who can't play this game well have been discarded).

Then there is the matter of motivation. Even in a environment where people are motivated to learn* (because they are there "learning" more-or-less as a matter of choice; because they need to learn the material, since clearly good things will happen if they do -- and clearly bad things will happen if they don't), this can be very difficult, particularly with relatively obscure/**difficult material.

Which brings this discussion to the problem of demonstrating the utility/reasonability of what you teach. Because if what you teach has no readily-apparent utility -- or appears to be just twaddle*** -- then only those who are good at/like twaddle are likely to do well at it, or even remember it for very long.

A complicated business.

*: I was on a project once, where we were in a competition to sell the military a field-system (something harmless). We were competing against a major defense contractor, and everybody (who knew how things really work; not including my bosses) knew the other guys were going to win, even though we had the superior product. (Hell, while we were still in "competition", the military passed out a press-release about the new system with a picture of our competitor's system in it -- as the new system. Talk about "(the hand)writing on the wall"!)

Part of my job (in addition to putting together the acceptance test, material for the user manual, a maintenance manual; doing the sys-admin work; building the computer side of things; programming; etc) was training some NCOs how to use the system.

Now, I knew -- and they knew -- that the other guys were going to win. But these NCOs also knew that they had to go through the motions like this was for real, even though it wasn't. (Just like real life often is: there's the real game; and then there's the game that (almost) everybody pretends to play -- and pretends is for real (or even takes seriously if they don't have a clue), because you can get in real trouble if you don't.)

Needless to say, it wasn't the easiest crowd (but I've had much worse; these guys were at least disciplined, if cynical); and the only guy who demonstrated any real enthusiasm was more interested in learning something about UNIX (I has happy to oblige) than the system we were trying to sell.

**: The "/" is a natural and handy replacement for "and/or".

***: From my college days:
BS: Bullshit;
MS: More shit;
PhD: Piled higher and deeper.

(M I T, P H D, M O N E Y -- sung to the Mickey Mouse Song.)

I'm often amazed at how much importance and prestige is attached to having college degrees (and other matters of a curriculum vitae nature), without any real reference to the "titled" person's actual capabilities/performance. Some of the stupidest (in act) and most incompetent people that I've ever known have had fancy degrees (some from "prestigious" universities and colleges).

But these degrees can mean little. It's what the person can do (and does) with what he "knows" that's important; and his "knowledge" (wisdom, understanding, etc) is most important only insofar as it is a foundation for his capabilities (and acts). Indeed, good judgement may be more important than any holding, although good judgement (in the particular case) typically necessitates having a certain amount of "knowledge", although this may not be consciously held.

In no small part, we're a pretentious and superficial society. And a great deal of what is treasured in this society as "knowledge" is simply twaddle.