Every spring for the past four years I’ve contemplated applying to teacher’s college and becoming a teacher. After all, it would provide me with a more secure income than sitting in a room all day typing words into a computer.
But each spring I speak to a few teacher friends and my college application conveniently gets lost in the recycling bin. This spring is no different (except that I didn’t even bother to get the forms this year.)
Teachers are the most undervalued workers that we have (nurses are up there too, but I know more teachers than nurses, so I’m biased.) Sure they get two months off each summer, but beyond that they’re underpaid, overworked and not appreciated by 96.67% of the students and their parents.
“96.67%, Liam? How do you know that?”
Here’s how I know that:
This week I was meant to meet up with a friend of mine who is a high school teacher. But she had to cancel because she had parent-teacher meetings this week and wanted to prepare for them. I just got an email from her telling me that out of the 90 students she teaches, only 3 parents have made appointments to see her. 3 out of 90!!
Only 3 parents cared enough about their child’s education to get out of the house and talk to the person who is filling their brain with knowledge. Now I could understand (a bit) if this was grade 3 and the biggest worry was if young Tyler was still pulling on young Paige’s pigtails. But this is high school. Grade 12. Next stop college or a job at Canadian Tire. Wouldn’t you want to know how your kid is doing? And what is so important that the parents can’t go to the place where their child spends 80% of their day?
A hockey game.
I dislike hockey as much as the next guy, but from all the blue flags I see on cars, and on people’s backs (they wear them as capes as they walk downtown – and I thought LARPers were weird) , I guess that the Toronto Maple Leafs are doing well this year. The teachers made the mistake of scheduling their meetings on the same night the Leafs are playing in an important playoff game. But is watching a hockey game worth not knowing whether you’ll be watching your kid graduate? For 87 out of 90 parents (96.67%) the answer is yes.
If that’s how little they care about their kid’s education, then you can’t expect the kid to care much more. And it’s a wonder that the teachers care at all. I’m sure the hockey players don’t.
