Because it's nice

In an op/ed piece by a former teacher in the D.C. area, one of the reasons she gives for leaving the profession is the public's view that teaching is, to put it simply, a nice thing to do. She writes, "Teaching is an admirable and, well, necessary profession, they say, but it's not for the ambitious." The young, go-getter types of our generation are ambitious and crave the "social recognition" for the hard work we do. But the treatment of teachers as bleeding-hearts instead of driven activists, she claims, leads to burn-out and high turnover.

Although I don't think this is a justification for leaving the field of teaching, she does bring up an important misunderstanding about why we teach. There are two connotations of "nice" used to describe teaching. On one hand, people might be making a reference to our character - being a teacher reflects what a kind and caring person we are. There is a range of ideas in play here, from our love of children to how teaching is, according to my aunt, a job particularly fitting for a woman (and all that implies).

While it may be a valuable characteristic of a teacher, niceness is a separate issue from effectiveness in the classroom. Being "nice" has little to do with the necessary experience and training, authority, creativity, reflectiveness or ability to improve one's own teaching. Ironically, both students and their parents say they want a teacher who is nice in this sense. I think we can be personable of course, but we need to shed light on all the other, more intellectual aspects of teaching just as the public needs to demand more of their teachers. I look forward to the day when a child can list more specifically the qualities she wants in a teacher: someone who has high expectations, will challenge her, supports her strengths and areas of improvement, makes learning relevant and exciting, and works hard.

The other connotation which I feel is the more controversial issue here has to do with ethics. When someone says teaching is the nice thing to do, they also mean it's morally upstanding work in less than ideal circumstances, especially in the inner-city. People envision Dangerous Minds and Freedom Writers. The problem is that it implies teaching is inherently "gritty," that the ability to overcome the little professional support, crumbling schools, and safety issues and still, heroically succeed is what defines good urban teaching.

Yes, teaching is ethical work, and many of us go into the profession because of the belief in equal, public education and social justice. But we don't like to be seen as martyrs. Give us your trust and support, elevate our profession to one based, like others, on skill, talent, experience, and motivation. I'm tired of being nice.