I am walking into a battlefield known as education. I am studying elementary education and I have never been faced with so much delicacy in a career field in my life. It isn't so easy to just go get a teaching degree anymore and be taught how to teach and that's it. Education has become all about politics that in order to be comfortable as a teacher it's a scientific equation.
It comes down to, does this state have a developed education system? How does their pay schedule work? Do they care about the teachers and students? Is learning focused on? Is the cost of living too high compared to the too low starting salary? These questions and many factors circulate over and over again in my head.
I don't just want to hear "you aren't paid enough for what you do" anymore unless there are actions to these words.
I am a warrior strapping up with armor to face the rejection from others. Every time I say I want to be a teacher I have been asked why would you want to do that? There are better options. I have even been turned away by other teachers for wanting to do this career. If no one cares to do this career what education system will we have left? What will be the future of the classroom, if it is not our teachers? This is why there are not enough of us signing up to go to battle in schools.
This is why the college of education is typically one fo the smallest and underfunded degree programs out there. No one wants to step into a career that is setting them up to doom unless they are strong enough to paint a bigger picture of this world.
A teaching degree is more than just preparing me to teach. Teaching isn't just black and white anymore. In my first year in an education program, I have learned hardly anything about how to teach, but rather what do I believe in teaching and how can I teach to A HUGELY diverse population besides just culture now. It's different learning capabilities, social skills, and home lives.
I will have students coming from broken homes and don't have social skills. I will have students that act out because they haven't been fed. I will have students that have disabilities and can't get treated for it. I will have students that come from poverty or affluence and can't learn because of what they face outside of the classroom. I am to be the advocate for these children socially and academically.
Yet I am not paid to by this country to prepare a future generation, except that is exactly what this is. Your children will be determined if they are capable of learning material by a test. Those tests will determine if your child can become a doctor, ecologist, engineer, etc. Our children are who will be voting for the future of the country.
So why wouldn't we want to put everything we can into a workforce that has the power to break the cycle of poverty and raise children to their potential?
