After being “ambushed” by the parents of a child she doesn’t teach, simply because they wanted to talk to a teacher, Fred the Fish at Are We Doing Anything Today? considers the “official spokesperson” duty that seems to come with the profession:
...teachers are ambushed into being the sounding board for the teaching profession. (Regardless of your profession, once you are it, you are the voice for all. My brother speaks for the police, my friend the architect is the voice of building designers.) ... It's such an awkward position to be put in particularly because teachers are often under fire.
And some parents assume teachers to be interchangeable entities, rather than individuals with specific theories and goals about education. Fred the Fish mentions a relative who told her that “teachers weren’t really professionals and that ‘anybody could be a teacher.’” It’s the type of comment that makes her want to say “Ok, so come teach my class.”
