I've always had a relatively good sense of self-worth. My self-esteem is pretty good and I feel like I'm at a point in my life where I'm comfortable with who I am. Then I read this week's readings. I thought Chris Christie had done a good job of bad mouthing teachers, turns out he doesn't have anything on what we can say about each other.
Maybe it's how I read the chapters, but it came off really snooty (I don't think I've ever written that word before). It's like when you watch With Honors or Good Will Hunting and the professors are so high on themselves and their brains, there can be no equal. The word hierarchy was used often in the reading and that idea overshadows what I always thought we were in school for- knowledge.
I admire anyone who has knowledge of something I don't. I have no problem asking for an explanation from someone, anyone, who might know what I need to know. That's why I think the classroom should be respected, not looked down on by scholars. Without lowly teachers, where would we get the eventual scholars? Are they all self-made? And what would be the point of a university then?
Ferry states that practitioner knowledge is referred to as "lore". Why not "data"? Why not "evidence"? Lore makes it sound like mythology. Maybe we should stop using the term "theory" and start calling it "suspicion" or "guess"?
Of course, I write all of this with a bit of anger at being looked down upon, but I'm guilty of the same thing. I look at my school and I have a hierarchy formed in my mind. At the top are the brass, obviously. Even though many of them aren't leadership material, their positions require that. A colleague was sitting for the Praxis for administration and supervision this past week and he was quite nervous. The only advice I had for him was to look at some of the people in our administration and know peace.
A group of workers that I place high on the hierarchy is the maintenance staff, security, and technical support. I had an undergraduate professor who told us to keep them in mind because they "do all the dirty work". I always do my best to make their job easier- push in all the chairs, throw out all the garbage, keep classroom management tight so that security doesn't get tired of coming to my room for every little thing. Some teachers will call security over the smallest thing. A student keeps putting his head down? Call security. It's laughable and those teachers are not respected by their support staff.
I would then put all the teachers at the lowest level. Maybe that makes me as bad as what I was railing against before. I don't think of the profession as lowly as the chapters did, but someone has to be on the bottom, it doesn't mean we're garbage.
The bottom belongs to the gym teachers. Out of sheer jealousy, all other teachers despise them. I've thought about the amount of grading and work I'll do by the time I retire, and compare it to the grading and work a gym teacher will do over the same time span. It's enough to make you cry.
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