I get asked quite often why I decided to make a move from college-level work to teaching in a k-12 environment. There was the obvious fact that I could not find a college-level teaching job. I had nibbles, interviews here and there. I even had one job pan out, but I turned it down because of distance and work load. There are plenty of practical things about the hours, the pay, and the type of work that made me choose to leave college work. But I think much of my decision was based on intangible things that had to do with the way I interacted with the institution.
It can be summed up with a phrase that I uttered to a colleague the other day, “We are the school.” At every place I’ve ever worked, I’ve always taken that attitude. I am part of the institution. I represent it out in the world. I contribute to it. I help keep it going, improve it, etc. and I feel that my colleagues do the same. I expect in return remuneration, of course, but also a general appreciation of my contributions to the institution. That appreciation does not have to come from the top, i.e., the administration. But I do need it to come from my colleagues first and foremost, but also students and, in the case of a k-12 school, parents (all of whom are also the school). I need to feel a sense that what I do matters, even if it’s just to a handful of people, and I need to have some semi-tangible evidence of that–appreciative emails, a thank you in the hallway, a student who lingers in the class to chat or who says hi every day in the hall. And I try to pay these things forward as well.
I guess I would classify this as a sense of community, and I suppose a collaborative work environment, a sense that we are all in this together. I get that from where I am now, even as I am aware that not everyone may feel the way I do about it. I feel it’s my job to help them feel that way about it (or alternatively, just to recognize that some people aren’t happy and there’s nothing I can do about it, so I will ignore them).
Almost every institution of higher education I’ve worked at, save one, has been the opposite of this, to the point where I just decided that the one, my graduate school, was the exception, not the rule. What I’ve found at many colleges is an air of competition, of differentiation into us and them, of a lack of empathy or even a lack of desire to understand what people across the campus do. There’s a rigidity to most places that is stifling and unproductive. Faculty get appreciated and recognized by their field and not their colleagues within their institution. Faculty may build relationships with students during a class but almost never outside of class. Staff are invisible to both faculty and students and their work goes unappreciated, and unnoticed except when it goes badly wrong and then it’s suddenly “all their fault”.
It’s a toxic environment that’s hard to fix, especially in a place with lifetime employment on one side and comings and goings among both staff and students on the other. And I am vaguely aware that such issues exist on a smaller scale at my current institution. But they are not what defines it, which has been the case at too many places I’ve been involved with.
I guess I feel that institutions of education should encourage a feeling of working toward the greater good, a common cause of educating citizens of the world. Even at research-heavy places, there should be a feeling that your work could lead to the betterment of society, whether that’s through finding cures for diseases, building the next great app, or helping people understand how literature creates a view of the world around us. Instead, many places seem to foster a dog eat dog world of fighting over scarce resources, of claiming some kinds of work is more important than other kinds (based on funding models), of a focus on looking out for oneself rather than for the institution or its members.
I could say a lot more, but I’ll just end with saying that I’m grateful for my job, for my colleagues, for my students, and their parents, all of whom make me feel like what I’m doing is worth it, even when they’re challenging me. And that’s a really nice feeling.
Related posts:
- What is a College?
- Teaching, Scholarship, Service on the Staff Side
- Teaching and Learning and Education
- College Rankings
- Fishing vs. Teaching to Fish
I have now taught as long in a high school as I did in the college environment. I could not get a full time job, either, and needed one. Overall, I think high school wins. I love that I am part of who they become, that I am watching the future take shape. It is not about me–and unfortunately, it felt that way for a couple of years at my college before I made the switch. It became harder and harder to make a true connection, and it seemed as if the environment was not supporting the community I wanted with my students. Sometimes teaching high school is way more work than it has to be, but my kids are worth it.
My hunch is that the specific institution itself makes a big difference. Over the last three years, as I’ve met more and more HS teachers from different schools and regions, I’ve lost a little of my rosy glow about how HS is always fabulous! There are certainly high schools out there with dysfunctional or even toxic environments.
But even in those negative circumstances, high schools still seem to have more joy in the classroom and in the work itself, which then counterbalances to some extent any problems with administrations, school boards, etc. Maybe that’s because at the HS level, teaching is clearly “the job,” whereas in higher ed., teaching is sometimes this thing you have to do but isn’t “the job” itself. I know a lot of college professors who will openly admit that they don’t love to teach, and this is okay in that world because teaching is only part of the job, but I don’t know any HS teachers who will admit that (and maybe it’s true for some of them but it’s clearly not cool for them to admit it). So I think that has to make a difference. I know that, for me, even if I’m frustrated at something going on in the school, when I close my classroom door and have an hour with students, all of those problems fade away and it’s just me and the kids. And certainly that sometimes happened when I taught at St. Martyr’s as well, but those hours felt like momentary relief from the unhappiness, whereas at FGS it feels like getting back to the basics of what the job is really all about.
Leslie, I agree that the being a part of who they become is part of the appeal. It’s not that you can’t be that in college, but it’s just so much more formative in HS–or earlier.
WN, I know there are places that aren’t so rosy. And certainly my colleagues in the city schools down the street have a rough go of it. But they are dedicated to their work, and when I see them, it’s clear they find joy in much of what they do. My graduate institution seemed to have a clearer mission than other higher Ed places I’ve been, which I think helped it feel more like a community. There was no pretending to be an R1 or fancy LAC. It was primarily there to educate the citizens of its state and thereby improve the lives of everyone in the state. And I could feel that in most of what I did there. I’ve always loved teaching, and I think you’re right that man colleges view teaching as ancillary to the job whereas in HS it is the job.
I have only this to say:
You are so lucky and blessed in your work and workplace, in so many ways. Please do enjoy, revel, and do good (of course!) within.
I taught college math as an adjunct for ten years. I cannot say I hated the job but it was just boring. As an adjunct I was sort of out of the mainstream of the university politics so I could just watch. It is truely amazing to watch highly educated people got in their little BS turf wars. Departments fighting departments, sub groups with in departments fight each other. High school kids are much more trust worthy and a lot more fun.