When I was 15, I wrote a blog titled “I Want to be a Teacher.” Nearly three years later, my family and I traveled to Harding University (go Bisons!!) to take the next step towards becoming the teacher I’ve dreamed of being since I was 7. When you go to orientation, there are two questions you are guaranteed to be asked over 100 times. 1) Where are you from? 2) What’s your major? Every time I was asked the second question, I’d smile and say “Elementary Education!” The reaction I received blew my mind, and was honestly the inspiration for this whole post. Even before I’d finish saying “education”, people would tilt their heads, smile, and give a little “Oh.” It was the reaction I’d give someone if they told me “I’m going to spend my summer building sand castles in the Sahara desert!!” Nothing against the Sahara, but who wants to spend their summer sweating, suffering, and getting massive sunburns while attempting to build sand castles in a land with very little water? The chances of it working are very slim, and to be honest, we’d all look at that person like they’re a little stupid. Or a lot stupid.
Growing up, I’ve been told I’m “too smart” to teach; that I should go into law, or theatre, or STEM (which is totally not my thing). The difference between being told I’m “too smart” and the look I was given at orientation is at orientation I felt stupid for choosing the career path I have. I think that growing up, people didn’t want me to limit myself to education. I get that. I have enough confidence to know that with God on my side, I could become anything - an attorney, a Broadway actress, a 21st century Grace Kelly. But the truth is - I’m not limiting myself by choosing a career in education. I’m opening the door to a world of possibilities. Every day will bring new lessons, new challenges, new ideas. Those in education never stop learning; they go to workshops to learn how to educate better, they go to training to learn how to teach new material, they collaborate to learn how to improve their classrooms. Educators are NOT stupid. I’ve had some brilliant teachers who’ve inspired me to follow in their footsteps. Without smart teachers, we wouldn’t have doctors or chefs, lawyers or ministers, scientists or actors. Virtually every profession you could name would be impossible without a teacher.
Chances are, I’m not the only Elementary Education major who’s been discouraged by the stigma our world has placed on education, and I won’t be the last. And even though I’m not there yet; I doubt the stigma will stop when I reach my classroom. Our teachers are viewed as people who have chosen a worthless, insignificant, easy career. This narrow view of education is far from the truth.
Take a second and think about the educators in your life. A past teacher, a mother, a child, a cousin, a friend. Their job is not worthless, insignificant, or easy. Hopefully, they know that. But if they don’t, YOU can be the one to change it. Don’t react like they want to go to the Sahara. Hug them. Love them. Smile - smile genuinely. Tell them you’re proud of them and what they’re doing. Tell them they’re making a difference. This stigma against the educational profession has got to stop. It won’t stop by staying silent; we have to speak up. We have to talk about smart teachers, their impact on us, and their impact on the world. The stigma ends with me. It ends with you. It ends with us.