Today is actually the rare Friday that I DON’T look forward to.
Have you ever rolled your eyes upon hearing someone say that “teachers have SUCH hard jobs”?
Kinda like when you think to yourself, “SCREW teachers. I have a hard job — at least they get summers off!”
I feel you.
I’ve done the same.1
It is real, though. We have hard jobs.
The truth is, most people have hard jobs.2
As a buddy of mine intelligently quipped earlier this summer,
“Every job is stressful.”
I don’t pretend to believe that teachers belong on another plane when it comes to comparing worlds of pain — that’s a game with no real winner, in my opinion.3
I cannot tell you that every teacher cares about their craft the same way.
I cannot tell you that every one puts comparable amounts of time into their craft.4
I cannot even tell you that we necessarily work harder than our peers with “normal” jobs.
What I can tell you is that teaching is consuming.5
There are many in the profession6 that will tell you this is a job that they CANNOT do halfway.7
Heck of a lot of fun.
Rarely easy.
Often has little to do with teaching.
But if you have any teacher friends (and if you believe in this sort of thing), say a prayer for them. Not just for Monday, and not just for the rest of the week, either.
Occasionally, we need it.
Like when we find out that one of our students is diagnosed with cancer.
Or when a kid loses a relative in an overnight house fire across the street from them.
Or when mom and dad are going through a separation and you have to act like sequences and series matter.
Or when a parent rips you a new one over the telephone and the opening bell rings 30 seconds after they hang up on you.
We don’t always need it. Trust me, many days we don’t.
But when we do, don’t be afraid to buy us a drink.8
Like a wise friend once said to me, “Teaching is easy — if you don’t care about the kids.”
- sometimes, even while I was a teacher [↩]
- case in point… I have a couple of friends that are nurses… and I would never trade places with them, ever. [↩]
- Besides, I believe that different people’s problems are relative to the worlds that they live in. In other words, I think first world problems are real problems… sometimes. [↩]
- Some can’t. And that’s perfectly okay. Some won’t. And… that is okay too. [↩]
- Sometimes, prohibitively so. [↩]
- myself included [↩]
- in fact, sometimes I envy those who CAN [↩]
- I’m talking chocolate milk, of course. :) [↩]