Passion is Dying ...

Interesting title today, huh?  I was thinking about way back when ... when I first started working with kids, and that led to going back to school to become a teacher.  I had SUCH passion for teaching.  I felt like I had a true connection with kids and that I was unstoppable. 

Anyone ever feel like that?  Maybe when you first started your career?  So what happened?  For me, it wasn't anything I did that made the passion fade.  And truth be told, I still find that passion when I'm alone with my class and can talk about anything and really teach what I need to express.  

In fact since moving to my "specialist" position 9 years ago, I feel that my passion has reignited in some ways.  I don't have to follow the same rules and protocol as classroom teachers and there is a lot more freedom for what I do in the classroom and the curriculum I teach.  It has been a blessing over the past few years.

As I see my fellow educators struggling to follow the district and state protocols, I have seen passion fading.  We used to be able to follow a curriculum plan for the material we need to teach in a certain grade level, but now the protocol is so much more strictly governed - not only what to teach, but how to teach it, and when.  The creativity of teachers is being squashed, and their passion for teaching along with it!

What happened to the days where a teacher could actually make decisions based on the needs of his/her students and instruct in a way that best reflected their teaching strengths?  Teachers used to have more autonomy in the classroom to help their students in the way they knew best.  Now somebody else "knows best," without really stepping into the classroom.  No longer can we spend time for trivial activities, even though those are the ones students remember best and through which we develop meaningful relationships with our students.  Along with the passion, "fun" is dying in today's schools. Today we have too many administrators making double or triple the amount of money that their subordinates earn, making crucial instructional decisions without ever having met the students or the teacher.  

Somehow, I feel we were stronger teachers when we were left to design our lessons according to the way we taught best -- with our specific students in mind.  I must say, I am SO glad that I was able to transfer from classroom teaching to becoming a specialist.  In my particular job, I get to make the decisions about what to teach and how to teach it.  My students love coming to class and I am excited each and every day to see them learn and love learning.

If I were in the regular classroom still - with all of the regulations and stifling constraints - well, I wouldn't be teaching still.  It is too much like work, and whatever passion I had to nurture young minds would have been squashed long ago.  And if teachers don't have passion, how can they instill passion in their students?  We will all become a society of dispassionate automatons, lacking not only passion, but empathy and originality.

Why does this happen?  Why do we allow so much control from the administrators who were never in the classroom -- or if they were, saw it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.  They're making the big bucks, so guess they feel a need to "earn" it in some way, but instead of making such confining decisions about what can be taught and how, maybe they should look for other ways to help teachers do what they do best.

I will admit, some teachers need more guidance.  They may have gotten into teaching for the wrong reason (summers off, isolated workspace, or (ha) they thought it would be easy.)  Some of these teachers probably need the district or state mandated protocols to help them get the job done.  But real teachers - natural teachers - just KNOW how to work with kids, and given a short list of the curriculum guidelines, are quite adept at writing their own lesson plans, pre and post assessments, and any activities to improve learning along the way.  With so much administrative "guidelines" (think procedures - or even worse, laws!) there is little left in the way of creativity or originality in teacher lessons, and this is slowly squeezing the passion out of our profession.

So, what's to be done?  Well, teachers can't do much about it because those that are making the rules have the power, and we don't want to rock the boat or lose our jobs.  So who?  Parents have a strong voice in the community.  They may not know it, but no one wants to see parents unhappy.  Some administrators will bend over backwards to make sure parents are happy - even to the detriment of the students involved.  So, if you are a parent and you are unhappy with the way your school is being run, YOU have the power to instigate change.  

I long for a time when teachers can make their own decisions about the curriculum they teach.  They can spend more time getting to know each child and their specific strengths or weaknesses, and develop strategies and tasks designed to improve learning.  Nowadays it is hard to catch a teacher truly happy in their classroom all the time.  Oh, we have our moments of glory, but they are spread out and too few to mention.  We cling to these, however, because it reminds us why we became teachers in the first place.  For the sheer joy of seeing a child "get it" for the first time - or observing creativity and love of learning as a student achieves success.  

I hope our schools smarten up a bit and get back to letting our trained teachers do what they do best.  If teachers are teaching without passion, what motivation do our students have for learning?  The rules and regulations have left us barren and lacking joy.  Enthusiasm is painted on, not experienced from within.  Let teachers find their passion by allowing them to be more autonomous in everyday teaching decisions, and watch the students grow and learn more, developing their own passions as well.  

Postscript:  I didn't intend to make this all about teaching.  I think that many professions today have become over regulated and have killed the passion of the people.  We do our jobs more like robots than people because we need the job and we do what is necessary to keep working.  Administrators in all fields need to do everything they can to keep the passion alive.  (And not all administrators kill the passion -- but it seems the higher up on the food chain, the more power they have, and the more power they wield - for the very purpose of flaunting their position.)  So, if you find passion is slipping away... it's time to rejuvenate and renew! Or find a new profession.