Teaching is a labor of love

Teaching is a labor of love. I know, the cliché police are now mobilizing with warrants, but bear with me; I don’t use this phrase to cheapen a noble calling.

I say “labor of love” because effective teaching hinges on hard work, relationship building, compassion and a willingness to surrender to something larger than yourself. Yet, as with many long-term relationships, life with all its complexities can intervene and strain the bonds that hold a system or a partnership together.

Teachers today have a tall order to deliver, taller than ever — larger classes, shrinking resources and greater accountability for what and how lessons are taught and what is learned. Fortunately, lithe and adaptable creatures called teachers are skilled at making the most of challenging situations. Survivors in this profession are adept at improvisation, collaboration and communication. Seasoned teachers can create engaging lessons from scraps and recycled parts. They share and mold what cannot be purchased new. They reach out and connect with kids in ways that spark questions, ideas and further questions.

But herein lies a broader, more convoluted challenge, one that fans out like twisted channels of the Yukon Delta on the threshold of the sea. Teachers are manifestly directed to “leave no child behind,” an admirable and honorable directive. Yet, if a student is admitted to your school or classroom coming from a home dissolved, three years below grade level and burdened with serious emotional scars, it becomes hard to ignore the fact that this child will likely “hurt” a teacher’s or a school’s statistical measures of academic progress.

Such a situation creates a disincentive for schools and individuals to willingly take on the tough cases, kids who sleep on borrowed couches or in their cars, and have returned to school to pursue a diploma at the age of 18, five credits short. How can we balance what arguably should be a societal responsibility — to do everything we can to educate all of our young people — with the economic consequences that pile up when some of our kids don’t graduate “on-time?”

To those who may say, “We can’t save ‘em all,” I say, OK, that’s true, but kids we turn our backs on and allow to give up in class or drop out of school are much more likely to end up on public assistance, or even in prison. The costs of education are far less taxing to our society in the long term.

Schools and teachers are taking needed steps to reach more of our diverse students. Examples include increasing the consistency of skills taught in different classrooms across the district and teachers seeing that daily lessons start with clear learning objectives. More and more, coursework is structured to help students become career-ready. Bridges are connected between subject areas.

But these and other systemic improvements are only part of the solution. We have to be more willing to work with a kid where he is when he walks in the room, not where he “should be for his age.” Teachers need to model the ideals expected of students — being kind, equitable and even humble enough to say “I’m sorry” once in a while. We need to be true to our creed, that we teach not just the students who make us look good, but all who aspire to become part of a learning culture.

If we are willing and supported in this endeavor, then we will realize something truly meaningful for ourselves and our students. We will have demonstrated how love enriches labor, and as any committed couple will attest, labor enriches love.

Paul Morely is a language arts teacher at Burchell High School.