I’ve wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. All the way back when I was 8, do you know what I did for fun? I wrote lesson plans and forced my little brother to sit through them with the promise that “recess”—aka going in our backyard and playing on the swing set—would happen any minute now. I always knew I would grow up to be your standard teacher: enthusiastic about learning, creative, with a love and passion for kids. I had teacher blood flowing through my body, so it’s no surprise that I’m majoring in education. However, as I got older I began to realize that everyone’s idea of your “typical teacher” wasn’t the same. I’ve heard quite a few stereotypes about the teaching profession over the years, and though by chance I may happen to fit into some of those descriptions, I cannot attest enough to the fact that there is no one type of person suited to be a teacher better than another. Here are just a few of my “favorite” stereotypes I’ve heard regarding teachers:
Teaching is a woman’s job
The age old classification of people into profession fields based on their gender. Gotta love it. Well, I’ve got some news for you: teaching is no more a woman’s job than being an engineer or a doctor is a man’s job. Some of the best teachers I’ve ever had growing up have been men and their gender was the last thing I was concerned about. I don’t know if it’s because people still associate women with taking care of the children at home while the men are at work or because they think women are more nurturing or what-have-you, but to the first assumption I say check your calendar and to the second I say nurture is a non-gendered trait that literally anyone can have.
Teachers are clean cut
I think many people have this image of teachers being this preppy, hyper-organized, goody-two-shoes, super bubbly character. And while I concur that teaching requires you to be on top of things and able to run on coffee and the enthusiasm of your students Monday through Friday every week, there is nothing in the Teacher Commandments (I made that up) that says teachers have to look a certain way or have a certain personality type. Teachers can have piercings and tattoos and all other sorts of things that maybe Ms. Frizzle never did. People say that teachers are our kids’ role models and they couldn’t be more right, but the correlation between that and why teachers have to present themselves a certain way is basically zero. If anything, a teacher who isn’t clean cut and perfect shows their students that it’s okay to express yourself and be different and I think kids need that more than ever nowadays.
Teaching is for those who couldn’t succeed in the actual field of their subject
If you actually believe this, rather than go on too long of a rant, I figured I’d start you off by pointing you to this video—a particular favorite of mine—of a teacher going off about the oh-so-original remark about those who "can" and those who "can’t" and how much teachers make. I will say one or two things of my own regarding this stereotype, though. In my opinion, being a teacher is almost the exact opposite of being someone who can’t. We actually “can” harder than almost any other field because we have to be experts, pros, connoisseurs in our subject area. We have to know all the little details about our content area that most people forget after they graduate and we have to know it well, well enough to figure a way to teach it to our students so that they never forget it again. And for those who say we don’t “do.” We “do” harder than most as well. We do so hard that we’re able to raise a whole slew of can-ers and do-ers every single year.
And while hundreds of other stereotypes exist about teaching and teachers I will say one thing is true of every teacher I’ve known. They are some of the hardest working, most understanding, most dedicated people I know. How about we make that the new stereotype?
