Circular Cruises/Teaching
From Eccentric Flower
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Teaching 29 October 1997 This particular rant is because I have been reading a book called Technobabble, which among other things decries the lousy state of user education in the personal computer arena. In other words, there are a lot of people who are using personal computers on a regular basis who have no idea what they're doing and would like to understand but have no way of getting the explanations they need. I knew this already. I've made my living from computers since before I started making a living. And when I went to college, horrified by what I had already seen, I resolved that I was going to become a teacher. I was going to teach people how to use computers. I am still making my living from computers, but I don't have a degree, and am unlikely to get one, and I am not teaching people. I am writing software. And the reasons for this are attitude (other people's, not mine) and money. - - - People who are constantly moaning about the state of education in this country - which I agree is despicable - should stop and consider how they think of teachers. Teachers have become lousy because attitudes about teachers became lousy. The chicken came before the egg in this case - the teachers began to decline only after it became clear to them that no one respected their profession. No one likes working in a place where they are not appreciated. Teachers are routinely discouraged from conducting honest evaluations of students because the P.R. has become more important than the learning. Teachers are routinely treated by parents as babysitters of convenience - merely a place for the kid to go during the day so he won't destroy the house while they're at work. Teachers are routinely treated as tools, as services, rather than as humans. Which may explain why teachers are also routinely underpaid. - - - This is not just a public-education thing. I long ago stopped selling my services as a computer tutor in the evenings and on weekends - because although it meant sacrificing my personal time, usually some travel, was often intensely frustrating work, and demanded a level of one-on-one involvement that many educators are too overtaxed to provide, I could never obtain an hourly rate that was anywhere close to what I would make if I spent the same time writing software for someone. Moreover, if I asked for such a rate, the client would self-destruct. Everyone expects teachers to come cheap - and that's a fallacy I will not cooperate with. But I still want to teach. I look at people struggling with something that I know I could explain to them and I have to fight the urge to go over and help them. Sometimes I do - when I'm feeling charitable - but most of the time these days, thinking about education, thinking about the fact that apparently teachers in this country are expected to want to do their job out of sheer love for it, with no other tangible benefits offered, just makes me cranky. I have soured permanently on the subject of education. And, given how strongly I advocate knowledge, and how little remains of one of my first and best goals in life, to say this is a crying shame seems like something of an understatement to me. Copyright © October 1997. All rights reserved. |
