Sunday, May 14, 2006
Teacher Appreciation Week
This past week, for those of you were not aware, was Teacher Appreciation Week. This, as Tom Lehrer might say, is just one of many such weeks throughout the year honoring various worthy causes. The difference however, is that with Teacher Appreciation Week there was no advance notification, no advertising campaign, and no lasting ramifications. It's as though the students and administration at Underwood High suddenly looked around one day and realized there were these strange people in all of the classrooms trying to provide knowledge about various subjects.
"Who are these people?" they ask.
"They are known as teachers," a voice replies, "normally you are too busy doing your own thing to notice them."
"Teachers, eh? Interesting. You know...we're not too busy right now! Standardized test season just wrapped up and the school year is winding down. Maybe we should do something nice for them."
"Oh?" says the voice.
"Yeah..." say the staff and students. "We'll get them a pen or something. Something that will show them exactly how much they are appreciated."
And that, my dear readers, is exactly what the administration did. They got us pens. Some of us even got pens that worked! Of course, the administration is not stupid. They did not just limit their tokens of appreciation to writing utensils. We also got keychains! Other than those two little items and an announcement at the end of ninth period Wednesday and Thursday informing students how much they should appreciate us, nothing more really came of it. Since none of the students listen during ninth period announcements unless there is the possibility of a dress-down day, they did not pay the week particular heed. Except that one student in every class, the real pain in the ass, who interrupted the lesson to remind their instructor that they were appreciated. And if I were slightly less jaded then perhaps I would take such comments for their face value. But these are the same kids who regularly jabber about whether or not Jesus lived at the same time as the dinosaurs or how Charmin is the greatest brand of toilet paper while I am trying to teach them about plate tectonics.
Which is not to say that the students remained entirely idle during this week long celebration of educational excellence. Far from it! The student government rallied in full force, surveying several homerooms to ascertain once and for all who were the most appreciated teachers at the school. The list was distributed to all the homerooms and almost immediately generated controversy among the staff. This was strange, because if you were to ask, most teachers would probably have agreed that the folks who placed in the Top 10 Appreciated Teachers list generally deserved to be there. The teacher with thirty years perfect attendance, for example, or the the head of the drumline certainly merited inclusion, as did our AP history teacher. What struck most people as odd was the fact taht every teacher who had been nominated was listed...all 40+ candidates. Which was fine if you were among those 40. But what did they imply about the other half of the teaching staff who were not included, like our calculus teacher, the heads of the history, science, and math departments, or yours truly?
For my part, I consoled myself with the knowledge that I'm not in this for the popularity. The money, yes. The prestige, certainly. The popularity...no. But some teachers were downright offended that the advisor of student government (whose name, surprisingly enough was in the Top 10 Appreciated Teachers list) would be so unprofessional as to publish this ranking that claimed to be extoling the staff, but also apparently aimed at undermining the morale of at least half of it. People brought it up with the building rep and the whole thing was eventually quashed. And it would have disappeared completely. Except for me. I made it into a crossword puzzle for professional development on Friday. I could think of no better way to wrap up an otherwise miserable week.
Because I found the whole Teacher Appreciation Week concept to be a big joke. I still do. You administrators and students out there want to prove how much you appreciate a teacher? Don't give them trinkets or create artificial celebrations. Listen to what we have to say. Treat us with the respect and decency that we deserve. Do not swear at us (students) or lecture at us (administrators) as though we are completely out of it. Provide the support structures we need (administrators), the classroom culture we deserve (students), and the validation that we as professionals require to maintain any semblance of optimism in our jobs(both). And for the love of all that's sacred, please don't just limit it to a single week and if you must for some reason carry on with such a charade, at least make it an effective one...not a hollow shell like this one turned out to be.
Not that I'm complaining about my keychain though. It's actually pretty high quality.
This past week, for those of you were not aware, was Teacher Appreciation Week. This, as Tom Lehrer might say, is just one of many such weeks throughout the year honoring various worthy causes. The difference however, is that with Teacher Appreciation Week there was no advance notification, no advertising campaign, and no lasting ramifications. It's as though the students and administration at Underwood High suddenly looked around one day and realized there were these strange people in all of the classrooms trying to provide knowledge about various subjects.
"Who are these people?" they ask.
"They are known as teachers," a voice replies, "normally you are too busy doing your own thing to notice them."
"Teachers, eh? Interesting. You know...we're not too busy right now! Standardized test season just wrapped up and the school year is winding down. Maybe we should do something nice for them."
"Oh?" says the voice.
"Yeah..." say the staff and students. "We'll get them a pen or something. Something that will show them exactly how much they are appreciated."
And that, my dear readers, is exactly what the administration did. They got us pens. Some of us even got pens that worked! Of course, the administration is not stupid. They did not just limit their tokens of appreciation to writing utensils. We also got keychains! Other than those two little items and an announcement at the end of ninth period Wednesday and Thursday informing students how much they should appreciate us, nothing more really came of it. Since none of the students listen during ninth period announcements unless there is the possibility of a dress-down day, they did not pay the week particular heed. Except that one student in every class, the real pain in the ass, who interrupted the lesson to remind their instructor that they were appreciated. And if I were slightly less jaded then perhaps I would take such comments for their face value. But these are the same kids who regularly jabber about whether or not Jesus lived at the same time as the dinosaurs or how Charmin is the greatest brand of toilet paper while I am trying to teach them about plate tectonics.
Which is not to say that the students remained entirely idle during this week long celebration of educational excellence. Far from it! The student government rallied in full force, surveying several homerooms to ascertain once and for all who were the most appreciated teachers at the school. The list was distributed to all the homerooms and almost immediately generated controversy among the staff. This was strange, because if you were to ask, most teachers would probably have agreed that the folks who placed in the Top 10 Appreciated Teachers list generally deserved to be there. The teacher with thirty years perfect attendance, for example, or the the head of the drumline certainly merited inclusion, as did our AP history teacher. What struck most people as odd was the fact taht every teacher who had been nominated was listed...all 40+ candidates. Which was fine if you were among those 40. But what did they imply about the other half of the teaching staff who were not included, like our calculus teacher, the heads of the history, science, and math departments, or yours truly?
For my part, I consoled myself with the knowledge that I'm not in this for the popularity. The money, yes. The prestige, certainly. The popularity...no. But some teachers were downright offended that the advisor of student government (whose name, surprisingly enough was in the Top 10 Appreciated Teachers list) would be so unprofessional as to publish this ranking that claimed to be extoling the staff, but also apparently aimed at undermining the morale of at least half of it. People brought it up with the building rep and the whole thing was eventually quashed. And it would have disappeared completely. Except for me. I made it into a crossword puzzle for professional development on Friday. I could think of no better way to wrap up an otherwise miserable week.
Because I found the whole Teacher Appreciation Week concept to be a big joke. I still do. You administrators and students out there want to prove how much you appreciate a teacher? Don't give them trinkets or create artificial celebrations. Listen to what we have to say. Treat us with the respect and decency that we deserve. Do not swear at us (students) or lecture at us (administrators) as though we are completely out of it. Provide the support structures we need (administrators), the classroom culture we deserve (students), and the validation that we as professionals require to maintain any semblance of optimism in our jobs(both). And for the love of all that's sacred, please don't just limit it to a single week and if you must for some reason carry on with such a charade, at least make it an effective one...not a hollow shell like this one turned out to be.
Not that I'm complaining about my keychain though. It's actually pretty high quality.
