QUALITES DE CHEF (LEADERSHIP)
It’s hard to put into concise words what exactly being a teacher entails. There are days when I feel I fill the roles of educator, counselor, mentor, paper copier, receptionist, and PR representative for the school during the course of the day, and sometimes all at the same time. And while I have no trouble explaining to fellow teachers what I do at Clarksdale High School, trying to explain the same responsibilities I have to those outside of education has been difficult at times. I often begin by explaining that I am first and foremost there at the high school to make good citizens, not necessarily good geometers and/or good French speakers. While this may seem anathema to those who mistakenly, but understandably, think that teachers do nothing but teach, it’s true that my first goal and responsibility is to make my students into good, moral, upright citizens. Admittedly, I didn’t think this way when I first signed up to be a teacher, but I learned very quickly that having teachers serve as proper-citizen-makers is not only a more feasible goal of reaching (seeing as our students have been neglected educationally for close to a decade), but also what everyone (parents and administration) tacitly expects of teachers in the Mississippi Delta.
Springing from this misunderstanding that teachers only teach comes the idea that teachers who don’t guarantee success for all their students in a given subject matter are unskilled teachers, at best, or shouldn’t be teaching in the first place, at worst. Some people outside of teaching become indignant in their assertion that if some students in a class don’t understand the subject matter fully at the end of the year, then that teacher was neglecting his or her teaching. This is wrong for the reason that while that student’s success in the subject matter may have been small or at least not as great as that of his or her peers, that student may have grown by leaps and bounds in terms of being a better, more moral person who now has a much easier time making good choices and not falling victim to destructive habits. While I used to justify my decision to become a teacher by emphasizing that my unique purpose was to transmit my knowledge, I now find justification in my career choice by adopting a more mixed approach. I know I made the right choice because I serve the dual role of being both a transmitter of knowledge as well as a positive exemplar of how an upright citizen should act (e.g. by showing up to work every day, showing up to work on time, treating everyone with respect, dressing in a professional manner, holding myself to high ethical and moral standards, etc.). I like fulfilling these roles much more than simply being a means of obtaining knowledge. I enjoy knowing I’m more than a speaking, walking textbook to my students. This added dimension to teaching – which is often missed by those outside of it – is what truly makes this job worthwhile at the end of the day, and is the chief reason I plan on remaining in the profession even after my time in Mississippi Teacher Corps comes to an end. |