ATTO
In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors,
television people and politicians are admired and rewarded.
Not teachers. Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions.
Teachers are told to use the service door
or to go around the back.
They are congratulated on having ATTO (All That Time Off).
They are spoken of patronizingly,
and patted retroactively, on their silvery locks.
Oh yes, I had an English teacher, Miss Smith,
who really inspired me.
I'll never forget dear old Miss Smith.
She used to say that if she reached one child
in her forty years of teaching it would make it all worthwhile.
She'll die happy. The inspiring English teacher then fades
into gray shadows to eke out her days
on a penny-pinching pension,
dreaming of the one child she might have reached.
Dream on, teacher, you will not be celebrated.
k
I didn't write this.
Frank McCourt did.
What are your thoughts.?
True?
Harsh?
Too harsh?
Too true?
l
What are your feelings about teachers?
k
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 6:19 PM
9 Comments:
We make a huge mistake by not paying teachers what they are worth. We hurt ourselves by not making it a more financially lucrative career.
I know a lot of good teachers who have had to quit because they couldn't support their families on a teacher's salary.
Miss Smith's one child reached.
Like Emmy's fainting robin.
Makes it all worthwhile.
__________________________
I'm not sure what McCourt's getting at. His teacher was celebrated. By him.
But the point is that she never knew (unless she read his book of course). People tell teachers that they are "planting seeds." But the farmer gets to see the seeds grow. Teachers just have to hope that the work that they put in to the student comes to fruition, but they won't really see it. And if they do, they won't know that it was because of them and not someone else.
She didn't say she had to know; just that reaching one child would be worth it. And he didn't say that she would be celebrated but wouldn't know, but that she would not be celebrated. But she was!
If you stay in teaching long enough and don't get burned out you can experience the joy of watching your talmidim grow up and in some cases even have the zchut to teach their children! Though it makes me feel old, it also makes me feel appreciated! If a parent who was in my class requests that their child be in my class I feel that this is a high compliment and very gratifying. I also love to go to my students s'machot!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe I'm just very lucky.
Thanks to all. I am gratified to see substantive (sp?) comments from four different people.
I am holding back my own added thoughts this time...
There's probably some personal bitterness speaking there in McCourt's poem. As I recall from the sequel to Angela's Ashes (I forget the name at the moment), he was quite unhappy and felt unappreciated as a teacher.
My step-daughter has said she might like to go into teaching. We're kind of counseling her to major in computer science with education as a minor. Possibly add a fifth year to obtain a teaching certificate.... I think Texas has such a program.
If a person really wants to teach, then that is a wonderful way for him or her to make a contribution to the society, the community. And that's what we're here to do. But I hear so much about the frustrations, the red tape, the low pay and long hours, that I don't think you can be happy teaching unless you really are driven to teach.
There is bitterness. I broke it up as a poem, but it's actually prose from McCourt's book Teacher Man.
I actually cited this piece and more from the book in the past (http://rabbifleischmann.blogspot.com/2007/07/man-wrote-about-his-childhood.html). Shoshana's positive comment about teachers deserves to be included in this gratifying collection of comments.
Also, it's clear to me that McCourt's Miss Smith is a made up example. He's referring to the many Miss Smith's in the world (I am Miss Smith).
Miriam - it's good to be grounded and real in parenting and also positive and supportive. It's not easy from what I can see.
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