In How Lazy Is Your Child’s Teacher? From Engage Their Minds, the author shares comments by a couple of podcasters:
“During the 3/28/2020 episode, the two hosts made a few comments about how teachers would be more willing for schools to open back up if they weren’t getting paid right now. They suggested that teachers are not currently working, and that they are enjoying this paid vacation.”
I think this an easy thing for noneducators to say. For many, they see teachers as babysitters and resent that the children are now at home. Noneducators don’t really understand what it takes to be a teacher.
As in any profession, you will have hard workers and those that are just doing the job to get a paycheck. This is nothing new but to lump all teachers in the category of lazy is offensive and just plain wrong!
Noneducators need to realize that teachers are having to change the framework of their teaching. This does not happen overnight. You can’t translate traditional teaching into online teaching. It is as impossible as trying to translate the Chinese language into English word for word.
When noneducators have this attitude, they actually make teaching harder for the conscientious hard-working teacher. Let’s face it, it is hard to do a good job when you feel unappreciated for all the hard work that you do.
Imagine during this Coronavirus pandemic if people stated the health care workers are just doing their jobs to get paid. That is preposterous and insulting. They are putting their lives on the line just like policemen and firemen!
Sure, you may find some teachers who are overwhelmed and aren’t trying to change their teaching methods. They may feel resentful and discouraged by this whole situation. They may have family members who are negatively impacted by this situation too. By demeaning them and offending the whole profession is not helping.
If you feel that your child’s teacher is not meeting your child’s needs or being challenged, you need to do what you would do if this happened in school. Make a virtual appointment to talk with the teacher. If that doesn’t help, make a virtual appointment with an administrator. Don’t just claim the teacher is lazy and rant and rave to others. This doesn’t help the situation at all and only causes further resentment from everyone.
Over the past few weeks, I have attended many webinars with many other teachers that are geared to help teachers transition into online teaching. I have been in Skype conversations with other teachers in order to learn new strategies for teaching. I have been busier now with professional development than I ever have before. I hope all of this will help improve my online teaching performance.
How would you respond to the podcaster’s comments? Please share.
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