May 13, 2013 Awake in Real Time: Coffee-induced Meditations and Journal Entries, Teaching and Learning

Being Professional
©By Vijaya Sundaram
May 13th, 2013

Teaching young people can sometimes be rewarding.

Seriously.

The only downside is:  We have to always present our best selves to our students. 

Moodiness is a no-no.  Not good. 

In no profession is the need to present “the face” more present than in the teaching profession.  It’s called “being professional.” 

It’s important.  Leave your own, personal feelings and sensitivities at the door.  Don’t indulge in sarcasm (it’s hard to resist at times, though, especially when one knows one is being manipulated).  Take everything, but everything, at face value, EVEN if it’s a question or a response that is absolutely, blindingly, clearly the result of a calculated attempt by a student to derail and sabotage a class.

Treat that student’s random question as if it’s a matter of absolute interest.  And it is, if you look at it closely, and examine its true motive.  Carefully answer the question posed as if in earnest, but answer the question behind the question.  That is, if you have the time.

Alas, one doesn’t always have the time to do all that.  One succeeds being a perfect person only for the first few months.  After that, one becomes short and curt in one’s responses.  Then, after hearing the curt response, one becomes overcome with remorse within, and swears to not be laconic or ironic.  One has to remind oneself that these are, after all, tender souls, innocent (!) young humans who need nurturing.  One resets oneself to be tender-hearted all over again, only to have some hoodlum in disguise try to tear down one’s lesson, or demolish a feeling of community in the classroom.  That’s okay.  Perhaps, it’s the student’s cry for attention of some sort.  All one needs to do is have a swift, uncompromising consequence — which, doesn’t always happen, because the flow of students is seemingly endless during the day.  Then, later on, one follows up.  Sometimes, that works.

If only that cry for attention by a student were directed in a positive way — as in, responding to a book or a topic being discussed, or general observations about a teaching unit, or about the human condition in general!  Then, one could engage, discuss, have a true dialogue. 

Alas, sometimes, that doesn’t happen.  But then again, it does, at other times.  One mustn’t give up hope.

For sometimes, a student just might remember that she or he was truly difficult, or unresponsive in class, or obnoxious, and apologize years later.  (That has been known to happen, and it’s lovely to have this reminder that one must have faith in the good sense of one’s students.)

Through all this, the teacher does not ever give up, even if, at times, said teacher might get overwhelmed and upset, s/he being human, after all.

For this is what a teacher has to do:  The teacher gets up every morning, girds up his or her loins, and goes into the forefront of something that could either be a joint endeavor, (like people in a submarine that is plumbing the depths in search of who-kn0ws-what), or a battle of wits.  Of course, it should never be a battle, but some like it so.  And some students want it to be so. 

And then, the teacher teaches several hours a day, and grades papers for an equal or greater number of hours.  The teacher is expected to be totally in control of the flow of schedules and information regarding extraneous matters not really related to teaching.  The teacher attends meetings, and shows up to everything dutifully.  The teacher volunteers to take on things unrelated to the actual job, because, well, it’s fun!  The teacher has to always say, “Things are great!” when asked how things are going, because … well, at some level, things are great (even if one might feel cynical on the day-to-day level, the level of bone-deep exhaustion).

All this aside, the teacher must go in every day to work, and love, love, love the subject, and by extension those whom she or he teaches. 

Sleeping three or four hours every night (whether she or he does it willfully, because of some sort of self-destructive urge, or because of school-work, is irrelevant), waking up at an ungodly hour every morning, cudgeling her brain into wakefulness by the repeated application of trimethylxanthine in its liquid, lactic-tinged form, and smiling a warm welcome to all the equally weary children who pour like sluggish streams of molasses, the teacher stands, prepared, poised and punctual.

That is called “being professional.”

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Tags: #Teaching, Being Professional, school-teacher's musings, Students, teachers, vocation and avocation, What it takes to be a teacher