Connotations of Teaching

Dear Bloggers,

As any teacher knows there are a lot of feelings associated with the word “teacher”. If you have ever been in a gathering where you are introduced to corporate types, you may catch the tone shift when you are introduced as only a teacher. Or in the summer, when being a teacher brings the phrase “must be nice” because the attitude that you don’t have to wake up for work the next day sums up the entirety of our year. I don’t know if the eye roll was as prevalent when I first entered this career over a decade ago - before we were painted as public enemy number one by politicians and the media. But that’s not what this post is about. It’s about the simple nuances within the daily lives of teachers.

The word “child” holds a different feeling when I am talking about the children in my class versus a “child” in the food store. I don’t think of them in the same way. You’ll often hear a teacher speak of their students as “my kids” because that’s just what they are. They are ours. Each child that passes through our classrooms holds a very special place in our hearts for all of eternity. They are ours. We feel a sense of responsibility that no other profession could understand over the lives or human beings that we encounter on a daily basis.

One of the most important words to me in the English language is “sister”. Wrapped up in that word is a whole other level of love and family and best friend that only someone with a sister can truly understand. It is much the same as the word “student”. And even more meaningful “my student”. I always tell my kids that once I am their teacher, I will always be there teacher. And every so often there is a kid that really gets that. They may reach out after graduation to say hi, shoot me an email, or share an educational victory.

When you are my student I celebrate your accomplishments alongside of you, and I hurt when I see that your are hurting. “My student” is up there with one of the most meaningful phrases in the English language, because as a teacher I feel a crushing responsibility to help you realize that you are young and that you have so much ahead of you. The possibilities are endless if you begin to realize your potential. I know that our time together as teacher and student is limited, and I am in a race against time to help you achieve and hopefully help you to find your niche, or plant a seed that will grow and blossom as you yourself grow and blossom.

Now, although there are perfectly acceptable synonyms to student, such as scholar. (My new "fearless leader" is insisting we call our kids this.) They don't like this and neither do I. It doesn’t have the same connotation of love, respect, and responsibility. Scholar is cold. It feels like a statistic, or a point on a graph. It feels sarcastic and doesn’t do justice to how we work tirelessly together to help you improve. It feels that the “scholar” is taking part in an independent study and does not have a teacher to guide them or care for them.

By calling you a “scholar” it removes that bond we share. It implies that you no longer need your teachers. It doesn’t raise the bar, the expectations I set for my students raise the bar. I could decide to call the school a ship, but that doesn’t make us sailors - It’s just a word.

There are many simple words - meaningful words that shouldn’t be stricken from our vocabulary… like please, and thank you, and you WILL use such words in my classroom. Even if this is the only place you do.


Sincerely,


The Frustrated Teacher