Teachers are the reason for our greatest people and achievements in life. Somebody always starts somewhere by learning and getting taught. We would only be able to do half of what we have done in this world without teachers. You must be a special type of person to become a teacher, have patience, know how to teach in different teaching styles, understand kids and their brains, you need to always have that passion and love for teaching, to be able to fulfill the shoes of teaching kids and young adults. It is no walk through the park, lots of teachers struggle, even the teachers who have been teaching for 10+ years are always learning, and switching up their style because no teacher is perfect.
From teaching elementary school to being a professor they all have their difficulties. Teachers who are instructing younger kids need to have patience and the kids need to learn because so young they are learning their life skills in a way to get them through the rest of their schooling career and their life. Middle school teachers must deal with seeing students with so much potential to do well in life, you help them, give them advice, suggest ways to change, and give them multiple options in a way you are guiding this kid to do well. High school teachers have a problem with kids giving up, not having a passion for school, not understanding how important high school really is and trying to set them up for college so they can get the path they want. Heavy workloads, large classrooms, and a rundown school environment can contribute to this stress. College professors have a stressful workload as well, they do have kids who have a passion for learning, however, you must be a good, qualified professor because you are setting these kids up for a real job, and a real career path, the way your teaching skills are could heavily affect a young adult.
In an interview with an English teacher, a high school teacher who teaches freshmen to juniors, I asked her what her biggest struggles with teaching are. “Having a block schedule is difficult to plan around, overall being a new teacher is sometimes hard because I am still learning. It is very time-consuming I must come early and stay late; it is hard to keep work at work” I then asked her if she could change anything about the system of being a teacher and what it would be. “I would change phones, I think phones have heavily affected kids and their learning because instead of them being motivated to learn and listen to me, I always see at least 50% of my class having their phones out and cannot take their eyes off it.”
In another interview one of our science teachers who has been working as a teacher for 20+ years about the biggest issues she deals with as a teacher she says, “Having to do multiple people’s jobs including my own, having a bunch of people in the classroom telling me how to do my job. Teachers are getting burnt out and it is getting tiring. I then asked her if she could change anything about the system of teachers, and she said, “Decisions should be decided by teachers, or at least treat me like the professional that teachers are.”
I also interviewed a science teacher of 30+ years, I asked him what his biggest difficulty with teaching is. “Phones and social media really impacted students, gets not showing up to class can really ruin it, and if I could change something about the system it would be the pay and more manageable class sizes, too big or way too small.”
This shows teachers have difficulties teaching that are not just about the students, it is hard for teachers to deal with all sorts of problems students do not even think about. Our teachers deserve a little more respect and people need to realize just how much they do for us and our world.
