CLASSROOM REALITIES LEFT BEHIND: IT

IT

Many people simply don't get "it" about teaching. Many people who teach, in fact, don't get "it' about teaching either.

What is IT that I am talking about? The non-glamorous, unappreciated, Betty Friedanesque experience that has... no... name: an "IT" factor, for lack of a better term. The feeling that a teacher who teaches knows all too well. The feeling of being overwhelmed, the feeling of never being fully appreciated, the feeling of being underpaid, the feeling that there are simply not enough hours in the day to do your job right, the feeling that you are: a data-entry clerk, a surrogate parent, a jury, a judge, a mind-reader, a cheerleader for everybody and their grandmother, an entertainer, a web master, a psychologist, a mediator, a friend, a "differentiated" instructor, a miracle worker, oh, didn't I mention also...a teacher? Call it a psychotic collage, a hyperbole, a catharsis of a frustrated blogger struggling to be 1% more conscious--call "it" what you will. I call "it" a teacher who teaches--in many instances a shadow in the American work force who has been left behind.

Teachers who teach know this, we live this, we think this, we endure this, and sometimes we don't know what to do with all of this-this "it" factor. In the spirit of Betty Friedan, this teacher who teaches can't help but wonder about the mystique surrounding all the teachers who teach: Is all this...worth IT?