Let's Ditch the Kitsch
If you spend enough time on Twitter or Facebook, you will eventually come across posts that compare teaching to something beautiful and wonderful. Because we all know that teaching is like flowers and rainbows and puppy dogs. All. The. Time.
Until it isn't.
Sometimes teaching is hard. Sometimes a student gives you a particularly difficult time. Just like rainbows do. Sometimes teaching makes you not want to teach anymore. What then? What do we tell ourselves in the times when teaching isn't like flowers or rainbows or puppy dogs?
I am growing increasingly annoyed with sentiments drawing analogies between teaching and something inferior to teaching; the "kitsch" of teaching analogies.
Seriously. Google the phrase, "teaching is like" and click on the images. You will get a healthy dose of images with inspirational quotes on them that compare teaching to whatever.
Granted, others will attempt to accurately portray teaching in chaotic terms. Often humorously.
Under most circumstances, being educated makes our engagement in culture more fulfilling. So here's my analogy; "We educate our children because we love them and we want them to be fulfilled by their engagement in culture."
Maybe not the best analogy, but I hope you get the point. Teaching shouldn't be described in an analogy. It's value should be self-evident. It's value is self-evident. Let those of us who practice the profession never forget that.
Until it isn't.
Sometimes teaching is hard. Sometimes a student gives you a particularly difficult time. Just like rainbows do. Sometimes teaching makes you not want to teach anymore. What then? What do we tell ourselves in the times when teaching isn't like flowers or rainbows or puppy dogs?
I am growing increasingly annoyed with sentiments drawing analogies between teaching and something inferior to teaching; the "kitsch" of teaching analogies.Seriously. Google the phrase, "teaching is like" and click on the images. You will get a healthy dose of images with inspirational quotes on them that compare teaching to whatever.
Granted, others will attempt to accurately portray teaching in chaotic terms. Often humorously.
Under most circumstances, being educated makes our engagement in culture more fulfilling. So here's my analogy; "We educate our children because we love them and we want them to be fulfilled by their engagement in culture."
Maybe not the best analogy, but I hope you get the point. Teaching shouldn't be described in an analogy. It's value should be self-evident. It's value is self-evident. Let those of us who practice the profession never forget that.
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