It is Time (Or: Teaching is hard, but why?)

    It is hard to be a teacher. And it is not because I might catch a disease that could kill me (this is the least of my concerns, as a healthy younger teacher). It is because my pupils lack interest in what I am teaching, and their gaps are larger than ever. “Stop complaining and start being more interesting!” some thinkers might say. Listen. It is not enough to be entertaining, genuine, loving and kind. The challenges are so much more deeply rooted than in archaic teaching methods or boring content. The fact is, in any given year, of the six years I have been teaching 5th grade, the students’ abilities in reading, writing, and math vary immensely. I have taught non-readers to those far above grade level, children who know all their math facts and those who know none.

    This has been true from my first year, in 2016-2017, until today. I work in an urban district full of immigrant and low socio-economic families, but the last two years in particular have been noticeably worse. My students have less intrinsic motivation than ever. They rarely self-select activities, at home or in school, that are not attached to a screen. My efforts to motivate them and impress upon them just how integral knowing math facts and being able to read are often dismissed openly. 

    An anecdote: Noticing how distracted and unmotivated my class is, I remonstrate with my students about how the effects of too much screen time are well documented. They immediately contradict my statement. I rejoin, “Wouldn’t you want someone to tell you if, every day, you were unknowingly eating something poisonous?” “No!” They chorus. My shoulders sag in defeat. “Alright,” I say. “Clearly you know more than I do.” 

Photo by Tony Tran on Unsplash

    It is incredibly difficult not to retreat into cynicism and sarcasm in the face of such blatant lack of interest or respect for the ideas I am trying to communicate to students, even as the behaviors they’re exhibiting are understandable. What can adequately compete with the bright lights and dopamine hits all of my 10 and 11 year old students are experiencing each evening when they go home to their video games and cell phones?

    We are in the middle of the confluence of good intentions and bad ideas, to draw from Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff. Before the pandemic dawned, parents were already becoming increasingly restrictive of their children’s outdoor activity. During it, everything became hyper-restricted. With no good options for outdoor movement, most children turned to something their parents have thoughtfully provided for them: screens and media. Unfortunately, a neutral (potentially positive or negative) medium can easily become a destructive one, and it’s my belief that for a majority of young people that I come into contact with, the negative has become the normal.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

    For years I’ve noticed the difficulty I have getting into books, something I found effortless as a child. Only a few things have changed since then, my age and the plethora of digital entertainment opportunities available now. Since age is not generally an indicator when it comes to distraction, the clear impacting factor is my screen time. I have taken steps to be more intentional, but imagine the generation raised with constant technology! They often have no concept of the idea of technology-free situations.

It is time for the adults in the room to make decisions that will benefit our best hope for the future.

It is time for us to say no to constantly being plugged in, both for ourselves and for our children.

It is time to practice stillness and quiet, to model what we enforce.

It is time to prepare for the discomfort of our children being unhappy for what they cannot do, or do not need to do.

It is time to think more deeply, to strive more heartily, to embrace more fully the responsibility we have to our young people. They do not know what’s best for them naturally. It is up to us to inform them, teach them, and lead them into responsible and healthy living. It will be uncomfortable, but it will be worth it.

    Though it is hard to be a teacher, I love being a teacher. I will not give up, though there are moments when it seems I must. I will share my experiences, and I will listen to ideas that might make a difference. This is, after all, why I am in this job.