Wow, I really didn’t expect to make it to 50 blog entries when I first started this project but here we are. Appreciate you having come along for the ride!

Today’s blog I want to address a comment that I unfortunately hear from too many educators these days, and it sounds something like:

I wouldn’t advise my children to go into education.

To me, this is heartbreaking to hear, because I am willing to bet that very few would have listened to that advice themselves first starting out. Somewhere along the way, the demands of the profession outstripped their passion for doing it. To be clear, I get it, teaching is an extremely demanding profession quite unlike any other. The hours are long, success is unclear, you have autonomy but sometimes you don’t, it is messy and it can be taxing. Teachers make more minute-by-minute decisions than nearly anyone else, and at the end of the day you are likely to come home exhausted.

But I love it.

I genuinely love the profession, I love working with our young people and I love helping them to grow. I love supporting and guiding teachers to do the same. Education is where my passion is, and even though another profession might be easier, I doubt they would be as fulfilling.

Are there hard days? You’d better believe it! But are there moments that make it worth it? Absolutely yes.

Very few went into the education profession for wealth, fame or accolades. They probably did it because they wanted to make a difference in the world. When we envision teaching we envision being in a class, helping a student, just like you see in the movies or on tv. We don’t tend to be shown the other side of the profession which includes hours of grading, the next initiative that comes down the pipes, the constant criticism of both the system and of you as a professional. 

But, like anything, you have to accept all of it. You get the highs of watching the light of understanding flicker in a young person's eyes, or the pride of watching a student you worked with succeed, but you get the lows as well. You can’t just pick the parts of the profession that you like and ignore the other parts, no more than we can just teach the students we want to teach and ignore the others. This is especially true when it comes to educational leadership. You cannot want to be a leader, but not accept criticism or avoid your responsibilities to those you serve. You cannot want the perks of the role and not accept the responsibilities. It really is a package deal.

For some, the lows have overtaken the highs. They are typically the ones who say they would not encourage others to go into the profession. But, maybe it would be better to shift their thinking from deterring people into choosing it, into helping to shape it into something better. There are many things that are outside our sphere of control in teaching, but, there are many that we can change as well. We are in charge of whether or not the environment is supportive and positive, or negative and unwelcoming. Yes, the education system is a system, but it is also made up of people who have autonomy and decision-making ability. Systems like this do not exist naturally in nature, so they can be changed. They can grow and evolve if there is a Will to change them.

I don’t believe that it is as simple as having people rediscover their ‘why,’ or making a single change in their practice. I believe that teachers and leaders have both a professional and moral obligation to create better learning and working conditions for all of those in their charge. Teaching is an amazing profession that has the ability to change the world through the students that we help send out into the world. If we can do that, we can defintely change things for ourselves as well.

My daughter who is 11 currently wants to be a kindergarten French immersion teacher. There is no way I would talk her out of doing that if that’s where her passion was. I would encourage her, but I would also let her know about the other side of it as well to ensure she has a complete picture of what she is headed into. In the meantime, I will be working hard to improve it however I can for her, or anyone else, who decides their passion lies in teaching. 

If educators advise others not to go into teaching, then they themselves are also no longer choosing it each day. A former teacher of mine told me once, “people say life is too short not to be doing what you want, but I say that life is far too long to be doing something you don’t want to.” I think about this often and I can honestly say that I still choose this profession every day. If you aren’t making the same choice, then maybe it is time for a change. That change can be a change of profession, or a change within the profession. That part is up to you.