How Teachers are Wired

            As we consider the education system and all its shortcomings, we need to understand how teachers are wired. As we understand these personality traits, we will understand why so many are frustrated with the system.

WE DESIRE INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION

            Teachers are learners. They like to explore the world. They like ideas. They crave deep thought. What happens in the system? As one progresses up the educational caste system, one becomes a specialist—with an increasingly narrow focus. This is how the system is designed—as a funnel that constricts one’s focus into a pinpoint.

            What I’ve found is I’ve become board. I’m been teaching the same basic classes for over a decade. Sure, the students change. I’ve taught at different schools. Sometimes even the textbook or the name of the class will change, but it’s the same basic class at every college and with every group of students.

            There was a point where focusing on one topic was good. It allowed me to gain a mastery of the topic and of teaching that topic. But, after that peak, it became a downward slide. I’ve been type casted and I want to spread my wings, but the system doesn’t allow it.

WE LOVE FLEXING OUR CREATIVE MUSCLES

            One of the great joys of teaching is creating content—organizing materials, creating handouts, figuring out discussions, planning learning objectives and everything else involved in curriculum development. For a teacher, curriculum is our art form. We love our art and creating our art brings us joy.

            Does the system give us the freedom to create our art? No! We must meet department standards, school standards and accrediting standards. Someone else, who has little knowledge of our art and often cannot do it, tells us what to do and how to do it. As things become more standardized, and it has happened in the college system as well as K-12, instructors feel more like glorified secretaries as opposed to teachers. Someone else—someone far less skilled than we—is creating the content. And, what they are creating for us is exactly that. It’s content as opposed to being art.

WE GIVE OUR STRENGTH TO OTHERS

            When a teacher enters the classroom, the atmosphere changes. There is an excitement in the air. True teachers bring their spirits to others and freely gives their spirits. They inspire and impart, and that comes from their own spiritual energy (for lack of any better term).

            Not every person filling the role of teacher has this, but the true teacher does. There is a constant energy drain on the true teacher. They can’t stop that flow of energy. I know, because at times I wish I could. I wish I could give less to my students, because it is draining me.

            This is the double-edged sword of teaching. Yes, we want teachers with that personality. But, do we want to support those teachers? We give them students with behavioral problems and learning disabilities, but do we give them the training to deal with those difficult students? Do we give them the professional recognition and development they need? Do we help give them the means to recharge their batteries? In many cases, we don’t. The great teachers are often in a situation where they are constantly on drain and they are not given recharge. Ever wonder why the best teachers often leave and the worst teachers often stay? The ones that care become burnt out. The ones that don’t aren’t giving energy to their students. They don’t need a recharge, because they aren’t giving of themselves.

            In our system, great teachers are becoming burnt out. They aren’t given an environment where they can learn and spread their wings. They aren’t given the freedom to create their art. They are constantly drained without proper recharge. This is because of the way teachers are wired and because the system isn’t designed to work with this wiring.