Opinion
Teaching Profession Opinion

I Was a Doctor. Now I’m a Teacher. Why Don’t I Get the Same Level of Respect?

By Kim Talikoff — May 09, 2018 4 min read
BRIC ARCHIVE
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

During the early years of the Great Recession, after 14 years in medicine, I hung up my stethoscope and began training to become a teacher. It was a dismal time for public education in North Carolina. Deep funding cuts resulted in increased class sizes, decreased support services, and stagnant wages. Now, a decade later, our economy has recovered, but our education spending has not. In my state, as in many others, morale is low. Highly qualified teachers are leaving our public schools, and the field struggles to attract new talent. What drives people away, my colleagues explain, are chronic deficits of pay and respect.

It is relatively easy to gauge the degree to which we underpay teachers. A quick comparison highlights North Carolina’s compensation problem: Only three states pay teachers less than we do. Teachers from across North Carolina are planning to protest on May 16 at the state capitol for higher pay and education funding.

Disrespect and poor treatment, on the other hand, are far more difficult to describe and to measure. But these equally pressing problems take a tremendous toll on the entire education system. Until we remedy our pervasive denigration of teachers, reforms promising to deliver effective public education will continue to miss the mark.

Finding the Right Career for ‘Helpful’ Work

When I was a young adult, it seemed logical to pursue medicine as a means of helping others. The more I practiced, however, the more I came to understand that the hospital’s narrow jurisdiction is limiting. Doctors heal illnesses and relieve symptoms, yet often leave patients despairing because they remain socially disconnected, emotionally isolated, educationally displaced, or struggling to overcome poverty. Studying and addressing medical pathology, though impactful, began to seem less magical than fostering resilience.

I realized was trying to address critical issues in the wrong context. I was trying to do the work of a teacher.

It is a particularly bitter irony that teachers have so little power, since they pay the time and energy costs of schools' missteps and bear the full burden of accountability for student outcomes."

I came to education in pursuit of that broader mandate, without illusions. I understood that leaving the medical profession to join the teaching ranks would be perceived by some as a downgrade. The feedback I received during my career transition, however, revealed the true extent to which we disparage our teachers and the work of teaching. One horrified friend protested my plan, exclaiming, “But what you do now has such social value!”

I was even called in for an extra interview with admissions officers at one of the graduate teaching programs to which I applied. They explained that my application “raised obvious questions” and went on to suggest that I would have trouble adjusting to working with colleagues who were “not my intellectual peers.”

Disrespect Is a Pressing Problem

Inevitably, these deprecating messages about teaching seep into our schools. In K-12 education, cynical views of teacher integrity and work ethic are woven into internal policies. Teachers are salaried employees, yet we are often required to sign in or do after-hours work from campus, so that administrators can monitor our whereabouts and use of time.

Even more consequential, however, are the system failures that arise because of this distrust. Though we work directly with students and best understand their needs as well as obstacles to implementation, teacher perspectives often are treated as extraneous to school planning processes. Our instruction shifts at the behest of consultants while teacher insights remain untapped. Short-sighted decisionmaking that bypasses teachers not only impugns our judgment, it also results in wasteful spending, ineffective programs, and time inefficiencies.

The constant churn of such initiatives breeds disengagement. Absent are mechanisms by which teachers can evaluate schools’ decisions and decisionmakers. It is a particularly bitter irony that teachers have so little power, since they pay the time and energy costs of schools’ missteps and bear the full burden of accountability for student outcomes.

Teachers’ Work Is ‘Hard and Messy’

As a pediatrician, it is hard for me to understand this widespread devaluation of those caring for and educating our nation’s children. Both teachers and doctors work tirelessly to decrease suffering and enhance well-being through essential and complementary methods.

Perhaps our mismeasurement of teachers comes from a historical derogation of tasks often considered “women’s work” or from a societal undervaluing of children. Maybe it is simply the result of adults’ negative memories of school. But I believe this widespread derision also arises because so many outside of the field misunderstand the complexity of the job.

Teachers’ work is hard and messy. Meeting the educational and developmental needs of children in schools is every bit as difficult as meeting their medical needs in hospitals and clinics. Yet, instead of honoring the intensity and multidimensionality of the job, we trivialize the intricacies and minimize the challenges. For those who move out of the classroom, it can be easy to forget the struggle.

That so many inspired teachers persevere in our classrooms despite the hostile climate is a testament to their resilience and commitment to children. Yet to assume that capable teachers will stay or thrive despite poor treatment is a misguided strategy.

There are no quick fixes to the problems that we have created by undervaluing the work and contribution of teachers. Certainly, in addition to implementing effective staffing ratios, developing fair evaluation systems, and providing teachers with adequate classroom resources, we must finally pay teachers commensurate to the value of their work.

But these steps alone are not enough. If we are to strengthen our society and economy through education, we must name and realign our negative cultural disposition toward teachers and the education field. By remedying teacher pay and respect, we will boost education—and also improve the health of our nation.

Related Tags:

Events

School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
Teaching Students to Use Artificial Intelligence Ethically
Ready to embrace AI in your classroom? Join our master class to learn how to use AI as a tool for learning, not a replacement.
Content provided by Solution Tree
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Teaching Webinar
Empowering Students Using Computational Thinking Skills
Empower your students with computational thinking. Learn how to integrate these skills into your teaching and boost student engagement.
Content provided by Project Lead The Way

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession Law Restricting Teachers' Unions Falls After More Than a Decade
The Wisconsin law, a poster child for efforts to curb collective bargaining over the past decade, was deemed unconstitutional.
4 min read
Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) vice president Betsy Kippers leads a chant during a rally to protest Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill, at the Brown County Courthouse in downtown Green Bay on February 16, 2011.
Wisconsin Education Association Council Vice President Betsy Kippers leads a chant during a rally to protest then-Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill in downtown Green Bay on Feb. 16, 2011. The law severely restricted the scope of collective bargaining for teachers, but was thrown out by a judge more than a decade later.
H. Marc Larson/The Green Bay Press-Gazette via AP
Teaching Profession The Top 10 Things That Keep Teachers Up at Night
Teachers share their biggest work-related stressors.
5 min read
Teaching Profession 'An Overwhelming Feeling of Guilt': Why Teachers Don't Take Sick Leave
A list of reasons why teachers say working while sick is easier than staying home.
2 min read
Closeup shot of an unrecognisable woman blowing her nose while working from home
Charday Penn/E+
Teaching Profession Data What Teacher Pay and Benefits Look Like, in Charts
A third of teachers report inadequate pay, and Black teachers are the likeliest to do extra unpaid work.
4 min read
Vector illustration of a woman turning a piggy bank upside down with nothing but a few coins and flies falling out of it.
iStock/Getty