Is teaching a calling?

Is teaching a calling or a profession?

by sherrel Johnson

One of the things parents and teachers try to ascertain from their children early on in life is what they want to be when they grow up. In my view, this is all because we want our youth to avoid the life wrecking pitfall of working long hours at a job that retards their intellectual growth or seeks to diminish their worth as a human being. So, we encourage our youth to pursue the things they are passionate about as a career. This burning passion is the thing or things they believe they have been commissioned by God to do with their professional lives. If this is what we mean, when we say teaching is a calling then, the phrase isn’t altogether offensive. Although I must admit, every time I hear the phrase it’s as if someone has wedged something sharp under my nails.

I was first introduced to the saying, “teaching is calling” sometime during my second year of study at the College of The Bahamas. My lecturers at the time were Mrs. Linda Russell, who is now deceased and Mrs. Antonio. At intervals, we would discuss the somewhat debatable issue of whether teaching was a calling or a profession. As the conversation between myself and other budding educators ensued, I realized that many of my contemporaries felt that a true teacher, teaches not for monetary gain but because there were some spiritual motivation for doing so. If profession is defined as a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and formal qualification, I concluded that teaching was a profession.

I am not aware of any hired teacher in the Government educational system who is not expecting some remuneration at the end of the month. I would bet anything that those teachers that claimed they taught because something inside them called them to do so, would be the first ones down to Rawson Square with their placards, if a whole month went by and they hadn’t obtained a single scent for the time they had invested in their students. Teaching then is no less a profession than medicine, or law or law enforcement. Even if you had a toothache, how many dentists do you know would provide you with dental services free of charge just because you were in excruciating pain? If you were unable to pay for their services, you would be left the whole night or even week to suffer with that tooth-ache. Yet, many teachers provide afternoon classes to students free of charge. In fact, many of them feel guilty asking students to pay for the extra help. How is it our parents can find money for the dentist, but when its time to find money for the afternoon B.J.C Language or math or Science classes, suddenly they don’t have any money? I believe a big part of why teachers are debt ridden and poor is because they have no respect for themselves or their talents. They have bought into the ideology that the mark of a great teacher is one who is willing to meet the needs of their students without remuneration. Teachers, how many lawyers do you know would be willing to prepare your closing cost free of charge?

Does teaching require prolonged training? I distinctly remember sometime in 2004/5, a Bachellor’s degree became the minimum qualification for new teachers entering the profession for the first time. Besides this, student teachers are subjected to a rigorous twelve-week on the ground boot camp teaching experience. Even after a teacher would have satisfied the teaching practice requirements and graduated, twice per year teachers are still expected to prove themselves. I am not aware if doctors or lawyers or if those from the business sector are being placed under this kind of stringent training. I believe the rigors of becoming a teacher and having to maintain the qualified teacher status defines teaching unequivocally as a profession not just a calling.

When the phrase, “teaching is a calling” is used today, the implication is that special skills and training are not required. As my father would say, any “Joe-blow” from off the streets could enter the classroom and teach our children.

In1642 the first set of American laws were passed making parents culpable for their children’s knowledge of the scriptures and Laws of the land. By 1647, every town of 50 or more families paid a person to teach reading and writing. The teaching materials in the early colonial schools included the Bible and, late in the seventeenth century, The New England Primer. By 1635 people were demanding more than just knowledge of the Bible. To meet that need, grammar schools came into existence and then academy schools. Students could now study subjects like engineering, foreign Languages, arithmetic, writing, the sciences, along with the traditional subjects like Latin and Greek.

As we follow the historical record, one thing we do infer from the information is that as time passed the demand for more specialized training for teachers grew. When we compare the school environment of the early seventeen-century, it seems schools were reduced to an all day religious studies class. However, by the late seventeen hundred the school environment had grown highly specialized and academic. Who filled these teaching roles? Do you think it was merely people with knowledge of the bible or persons who were more likely the more experienced and knowledgeable in those specialized fields?

Since the 1700’s there has been a great shift in ideologies, wealth and power. Also, with the onset of historical periods like the industrial revolution, the Civil Rights Movement, and Women’s Liberation, people everywhere are now being forced to tolerate each other regardless of their religious persuasion, gender biases or moral code. From my perspective, the teaching profession has evolved to reflect the changing values and beliefs of the world. Our message now is acceptance regardless of race, color or creed because to not do so is to victimize and discriminate hundreds of people. For this reason, we have long past the amateurish refrain that “Teaching is a Calling.” Teaching is indeed a profession! When we say teaching is a calling, we are saying that feelings govern our behaviors in the classroom and not research. We are saying that what we do is haphazard and not governed by sound reason and judgment. I certainly do not share these sentiments!

In closing, I spent one month in New York, in the month of July doing an intensive digital filmmaking course. During that time, never once did the lecturers refer to filmmaking as a calling. Although, if they wanted to identify a filmmaker who has perhaps been “called” to make films, any number of persons might agree with me that Spike Lee or Steven Speilberg have certainly been called to do so. Filmmakers regard themselves as professional filmmakers.

As educators, let us not cheapen the work we do by referring to teaching as a “calling.” Let’s intellectually adjust our language so that we discourage people from demeaning the work we do in the classroom. What teachers do in the classroom is governed by sound educational practices. A true teaching professional employs specific techniques and methodologies to attain student success in and out of the classroom. The classroom of the 21st century depends on versatile, socially mature, globally aware, talented and highly skilled people. For these reasons teaching could never just be a calling. It is unequivocally a profession.