One of the most difficult jobs in the world is to be a teacher. You are not only responsible for conveying information to children that need to learn, but you also have to maintain their focus. You can be presented with many difficult challenges, including kids that are simply not going to behave, yet you still have to do your job. Teaching is not really a job that involves just conveying information. It’s also about managing the behaviors of the students that are simply not going to cooperate. In a teacher chronicle, you would likely read the same story, over and over, about the experiences that they have all had.
Is Teaching Really Worse Today Than It Was Decades Ago?
A consensus with most modern teachers today is that teaching is much more difficult. This has absolutely nothing to do with the material that needs to be presented to the students. It has to do with the liberties that parents and teachers have been given to protect their children while at school. Essentially, teachers have fewer rights than they did decades ago, making it difficult to maintain a proper balance of instruction and proper behavior.
Is This Something That Can Get Better?
There are really only two ways that this can be resolved. The first is to actually implement standards that students must comply with when they are in the classroom, or on campus, that are more copacetic to proper behavioral norms. The second is to take students out of the equation that is causing the problems. Most of the students that are in a classroom are not causing trouble. It is a select group that feels that it is necessary to disrupt the flow of instruction, engage their peers, and create an atmosphere where teaching becomes nearly impossible. Therefore, the students could be provided with instruction over the Internet. By doing so, their parents would be in proximity to them, and there would be no classroom for them to disrupt.
Is It Possible That Either Of These Scenarios Will Occur?
As a result of Covid 19, distance learning has become much more common. It may provide a good segue into distance teaching that would be better for certain students. Those that are not able to participate within a group setting without causing problems could then easily be moved to distance learning. Perhaps this will be a gateway to improving classroom situations which are simply not manageable when teachers have no ability to truly control situations as they did before.
There is some hope that the teaching profession will become much better in years to come. Many of the problems that are experienced have nothing to do with the curriculum. It has to do with a complete balance in the ability of a teacher to maintain control of his or her classroom when in the presence of students that understand how far they can go. This is what you will read in a teacher chronicle if you ever happen to take the time to read one.