IN DEFENSE OF OVERWORKED TEACHERS
by Yoka Reeder

If a teacher is worn-out at the end of the day, she has been doing things other than teaching. She has been dealing with people who presented her with problems and didn't let her teach, and non-compliance. She has found herself having to deal with all these, which have nothing to do with what she wanted to do: teach.

One such teacher, with all the fire burnt out of her and a neatly typed-out business plan for a very lucrative Cookie Company under her arm, landed in my office recently. All I did was tell her how I teach, and the Cookie Company washed away in a flood of tears she shed for the loss of her beautiful purpose - to teach.

True teachers are such a passionate breed!

While she spoke and sobbed, I quietly made a list of all the hats she was wearing: mother, father, nurse, negotiator, arbitrator, judge, detective, and Quality Control. None of these officially, mind you, all were part of the teacher's job.

She also spoke tenderly of a few students she would miss terribly if she went ahead with her Cookie Company. Those few students she said she would miss had a common denominator: they were paying attention and wanting to learn, in good communication with her and working at her direction. They were there to be taught.

The rest of the children were never really IN her classroom to be taught. They were, therefore, ON THE WRONG PROGRAM. The right program for these children would be one which would begin with something they COULD DO, and should have been taken through the program until they were truly present, in communication, wanting to learn and working with their teacher toward that goal.

It can be done, and it is vital for ANY further progress.