Teaching: What is its true meaning? Most people will tell you that it is an act of working at a school and showing children new ideas or principles. That was the case a few years ago. If you were to ask any teacher what the definition of teaching is, they would most likely tell you that it is a job that is almost never a 9-to-5 job.

I have watched teaching change over the years watching my mother, who is a teacher. My mom decided to go back to school and get her degree in education around the time I was 2 years old. My mom used to love her job as a teacher. She was happy and loved seeing her students succeed. This changed over the years.

In the state of Virginia there are certain tests that students must pass in order to move to the next grade level. Teachers also get evaluations each year on how they are doing. They have their principals, vice principals, and officials from downtown in their classroom to watch them teach a lesson.

People underestimate how much work teachers really do. For most jobs you would work a regular 9-to-5 shift or something of that nature; for a teacher that is not the case. Teachers have a list of things they must do for their classroom. Teachers have to write lesson plans and grade work, and are expected to attend meetings, after-school activities at their schools, and to work with their grade levels or departments. Most of these tasks are done at home, taking away from their family time.

Lesson plans have changed over the years, as well. Lesson plans used to be about two or three pages. These days lesson plans can be up to 30 pages. Teachers are so worried about how their lesson plans look they aren't really teaching the children what they need to know. The focus needs to be on how well the children are doing and not what the teacher's lesson plans look like. The students are not learning, because teachers are more worried about how they look.

Teachers also do not get paid enough for the job that they do. Teachers, in my area at least, are the lowest paid in the area. Over the last couple of years, teachers have gotten raises, but how is it that teachers are making less? Teachers are making less because they are having to pay more for their retirement, and also their insurance is going up.

Teaching used to be considered an art form and was rewarding. Teaching now is not good and a lot of teachers do not find it rewarding. There has been too much stress put on teachers. They already have a hard enough time with the pressures of trying to teach their students. Virginia children are not doing as well on their standardizes testing, but city employees are not worried about that; they are more concerned with the grammar and length of a teacher's lesson plans.

Everyone needs to stop looking at the teachers as the problem. It's not the lesson plans that is the problem, nor is it the teachers. Most likely the problem is the environment that these children are being raised in. They mostly likely are not getting any help from their parents or guardians.

Let's bring teaching back to an art form. Let's make it more rewarding and stop putting so much pressure on teachers.