Prompted Post #6: Teaching is a B-List Job?

Hello again! In this prompted blog post I am going to respond to an article that makes a profound argument about teaching, and use what I have learned thus far to respond to it. I came upon a very interesting article online that was titled: “Why do people view teaching as a ‘B-List’ job?”. In this article, an English teacher, Ilana Garon, discusses her struggle to become a well respected teacher and how it affects her when people underestimate her job. She explains that in the early 20th century, teaching was a very well respected job for women, but now as fields have become more open to women, teaching has taken a step back.

She explains that usually when people ask her what she does for a living, they respond “but you’re smart, what do you really want to do?” and that hurts her because without ‘smart’ teachers, then there wouldn’t be smart students to later send out into the world. Teaching has a stereotype for being a un-smart job, when it reality it should be the opposite.

Typically, Education graduate schools are the easiest to get into. Garon proposes that if the graduate schools for teaching and education were more exclusive and respected, then it would attract the best teachers. I completely agree with her reasoning because from what I have observed,  many students apply to the easiest graduate schools, tending to be education, in order to get an easy acceptance to only transfer to another graduate school.

In the world's top-performing education systems such as South Korea, Singapore, and Finland, 100% of their teachers come from the top third of college graduates. Compared to in America, 23% of teachers come from the top third of college graduates. The reason behind this is because in the top education countries, their citizens view the profession of teaching as very prestigious and hold it to a high regard. Whereas in America, only 66% of teachers agreed with the statement that “I would be proud to tell people I have this job” according to the 2010 McKinsey study.

As you can see, America is one of the few countries in need of over 1 million teachers before the year 2030. This is because not many people want to step up to the plate and hold a profession looked down upon.

Everything that Garon states in her article I completely agree with. Not only is it terrible that people in America hold teaching so such a low regard, but they also don’t understand the impact the teachers have on society. If teaching is frowned upon but you want your child to have a good education, then something needs to give.  

-Jenna

Garon, Ilana. "Why Do People View Teaching as a 'B-list' Job? | Ilana Garon."The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 05 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.