My Heroes

According to Stephen Brookfield, the author of The Skillful Teacher, a book about teacher effectiveness, a teacher is simply a “helper of learning”. Therefore, the sole purpose of a teacher is to foster learning and care for the holistic growth of students. There a few people in a child’s life whose only job is to be concerned with their well-being and growth, other than their parents. This makes the job of teachers highly important and difficult. Even with the difficulties associated with teaching, it is still one of the largest and oldest professions in the world. However, today it is also one of the most controversial and under appreciated. Today, the issues surrounding teaching and education range from low teacher salaries to the teacher shortages. These issues are leading to problems with teacher stress and burnout.

In a projection in The Crisis in Education by Barry Farber, it was estimated that in 1992 the number of teachers that would be needed annually would be 215,000, but there would be only 137,000 graduates ready to teach annually. Farber feels that there has been an increase in teacher shortages because of the lack of respect attached to the profession. One would think that the profession that molds the minds of those that will go on to all other professions would be the most admired and revered, yet it only seems to warrant disrespect and low pay. Teachers should to be respected and admired for their courage, selflessness, and integrity in spite of controversy.

Courage is often a word that is tossed around about people who face their fears or failure once in their lifetime, but teachers face this everyday when they enter the classroom. A teacher must stand in front of a group of disinterested young students, who are all poised and ready to question and contradict everything the teacher says, everyday. Thomas Lickona, author of Educating for Character, says that “Courage enables us to take bold, positive action on the behalf of others.” This means that teachers must face opposition in order to better their students. Teachers must have the courage to pose the questions that will shake the foundations of their students’ beliefs and be prepared to take the back-lash of their disbelief.

Teachers must also have the courage to face failure, not only by themselves but by their students, which is the most painful failure for them of all. To see a student struggle on a test that they should have been more prepared for and then to have to give them the grade that will seal their disappointment is heart-wrenching for every concerned teacher. However, they come back everyday with the determination to make that student better prepared for the next exam.

Selflessness is not a virtue that is much sought after in today’s society, but great teachers have it in abundance. Teachers are smart and well-educated people that all probably could have chosen another profession and certainly one that would have been more financially rewarding, but they chose to work for less then they are worth. Teachers who are concerned about their students’ performance will give tutoring after school for no additional pay. Some teachers will also buy supplies for their classrooms with their own money and the only compensation they need is to see it enhancing their students’ education.

Integrity is one of the highest virtues, but one of the hardest to maintain. It is constantly tested and strained, especially for teachers. They are faced with many opportunities to take the easy, lazy, or more socially acceptable route, but they cannot because their lives are constantly on display for their students, even outside of the classroom. They are role models and heroes so they have to strive for integrity in all things or they will teach that it is unimportant in life. To teach integrity and honesty to their students they cannot allow any form of dishonesty or cheating in their classroom. In the book The Moral Dimensions of Teaching, by John Goodlad et al, it is said that “dishonesty and deceptiveness are despised among the powerless and the powerful alike.” The lesson of integrity is one of the most important in life and it is taught by example and the precedent that is set in the classroom.

Courage, selflessness, and integrity are not virtues that are generally embodied in a single person, but great teachers are a rare breed that possesses them all. They are heroes not only for their students, but for the parents of their students and the people of the community they work in. Teaching is an honorable and noble profession laced with difficulty and controversy. However, teachers should always be viewed as heroes.