So, You Want to Be a Teacher When You Grow Up?

This teacher seems to have good classroom management skills.

I was perusing a first-graders' yearbook the other day.   There were a lot of happy pictures of smiling friends, sharing good times.  It made me forget about the Common Core for a second and the rigorous schedule which teachers informed me cuts out much of the learning through play and socialization activities of the past.  

I took the greatest interest in the pages that listed the children's future career choices.  In a class of about two-hundred children, there were over sixty occupations picked.

Some of the choices seemed timeless.  There were the future ballerinas, astronauts, firemen, basketball, baseball, hockey and soccer players.  One girl chose "princess" and one boy chose "king," or, perhaps I should say, "The King."  Most timeless of all, one child wants to be a time traveler.  

There were some unusual choices.  One child chose iron worker.  Another child chose "pizza girl." One aspires to be a spy, but I'm sworn not to reveal the identity.  I will also refrain from revealing the identity of one future Superhero.

Some children picked careers that showed a more complex understanding of the possibilities.  One child chose a marine biologist.  Another picked an "aironotic" engineer.  Whereas there were thirteen future doctors, one specified a pediatrician and another a brain surgeon.  I was disappointed no one specified "rocket scientist."

There were some surprises.  Children chose careers that were, for the most part, unheard of when I was their age.  Computer programmer proved relatively popular.  Five children picked it, doing Bill Gates proud.  Even though some seemed most interested in writing games, it is a sign of how far we have come technologically.  Most surprising of all, and I still can hardly believe it, not a single child chose the career of lawyer.  I am sure, if possible, parents might pick this career for many.  

I didn't see many Wall-Street related careers either.  There was one banker, but he was outnumbered by three bakers.  As I looked at the careers, I noted that most of the professions are pretty directly about helping people, running the gamut from superhero to hospital worker.  

I wondered how many of these careers would fit the title of common-core aligned, college and career ready.  There was such a wide range of professions represented.  The list includes scientist (chosen by girls as well as boys), soldier, zookeeper, pilot, "pleseman" (police), race car driver, garbageman, artist, waitress, archaeologist, toy maker, author, Mommy, Daddy, photographer, baby nurse and piano composer.  

This brings me to the bottom line.  So, which professions do you think are currently in the highest demand on this first-grade circuit?  Well, here are the top five choices from my small sample:

5.  Singer (10 picks)
4.  Artist  (12 picks)
3.  Doctor (13 picks)
2.  Policeman (19 picks)

and drum roll please, the top choice was...

1.  Teacher (27 picks, including one music teacher, one reading teacher, one soccer teacher and one Mom/Reader/Teacher).

I should point out a few things.  First, if I were to combine doctor, vet, dentist and hospital worker, we would have 25 votes in the medical field.  The world of statistics is a wonderful place by which we can warp complex issues, making them seem far simpler to suit our purposes!  Teacher would have still weighed in at #1 though; only "pleseman" would have been pushed back one.   

I was surprised to see "artist" weighing in at #4.  I am happy to say art is still taught at that school and it is so important in their young lives.  I just renovated my kitchen by putting up selections from the end-of-year art folders sent home this week.  Art will never be measurable by those high-stakes assessments and so it is denigrated in many academic budgets, but art is ultimately one of the most powerful forces in human development.  

 

Lastly, I must say I was gratified to see so many kids in different classes, and with different teachers, viewing the teaching profession with high regard despite all the media and now legal attacks that would make us believe otherwise and seek to destroy the profession.  I guess this is why I started playing around with the simple stats in the first place.  When I saw a few kids choose "teacher" in one class, more in another class and then still others in other classes, it did a world of good for my outlook.

We do not live in a world of grossly ineffective teachers.  We live in a world of grossly ineffective "ed. reformers" who would like to use a few bad teachers as justification for destroying our unions and our profession, stripping us of our due-process rights as well as of our dignity.

Fourteen percent of children in my little sample rallied behind the profession.  If nothing else, it reconfirms for me why I must continue in the defense of public education and the profession I love so much.  It also confirmed, in my mind, that in this struggle to save community-based public education, students and their parents are the natural allies of teachers.  If we do not mobilize all our forces before public education is irreparably crippled, not only will society suffer untold harm, but more doors to children's dreams will close before their eyes.