Thursday, May 10, 2012

Appreciating Teachers- The Bad Apple Doesn't Spoil the Barrel

If you didn't know, this is National Teacher Appreciation Week. I have to say, I'm glad this week exists, and it's always nice to be reminded that not everyone hates you just because you're a teacher. I was lucky enough to go through a long-term subbing assignment during this week last year and some of my students and their parents did show their appreciation very graciously.

 It is a nice change. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like students and parents alike often walk into a situation on the defense or offense against the teacher rather than on the same team as the teacher. I have wondered for a while what makes them feel this way. I think it comes in part from certain teachers and in part from the media.

I saw this story on the Today show this morning and thought it was relevant enough to include here.



What a great teacher. I want to go back to middle school just so I can be in his class. Maybe I would've liked math more back then and saved myself a lot of heartache in high school. And having, worked with middle school students, he deserves much more than a four-minute segment on a morning show for doing it without pay. 

But how many people will remember his story a year from now?

I have to say, it took me a while  to find this video on the Today website. I kept checking their website and didn't see it, so I thought it was just me being unfamiliar with their navigation and Googled the topic. Interestingly enough, I typed in "Today show teacher"--granted, a very generic search term-- for my first search and what did I find? 

This was the first hit on Google. 



This is from months ago, and I bet many more people remember this or a story like this one because it is so enraging and because there are so many similar ones in the media these days. It's horrible that these kinds of teachers even exist, and it's even more so that there's more than one of them to put in the news. But it begs the question: how many more Bruce Kravitz (spelling?) are there in the world? We don't know. The news only talks about them during Teacher Appreciation Week,

Now, I know sensationalism sells-- that can't be helped--but is it too much to hope that people would realize sensationalism doesn't tell the whole story? It's a shame that people like those "teachers" in the second video were even given jobs, but it's an even bigger shame that they are made to represent teachers in general, in the eyes of the media and of the public. 

Because we're not all evil/stupid/ bent on making your child's life miserable, 
Kelli 
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)