Teachers: Because Parents Can't Do It All

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A few days ago, it was National Teachers Day, and all the schmaltzy "I Love Teachers" stuff got trotted out.  I'm all for adulation of teachers, but we've got to keep the sentimentality out of it.  You know?  It's great to know and admire teachers, but sentimentality really doesn't get you very far.

Why we need teachers
You can do your own research, but deep in the dawn of history, or actually, a few thousand years ago--I suspect it was around the dawn of agriculture--when it was realized that kids could learn more while they were still young, and the amount of non-food-related information began to burst into bloom, the idea was born that you could assign an adult to teach the little blighters a little something extra, and pay him / her with food, and Bingo!  You had a few young people who could take up some of the more complicated professions with a lot less trouble.  And you also had them out from underfoot when the adults were busy.

Lots of higher mammals are like that: even elephants have a prolonged youth, during which they grow intellectually a great deal, whereas something like a rabbit is probably ready to breed within seconds after it is born.  I don't know all there is to know about animals; dammit, Jim, I'm a professor, not a ... well, anyway.

Adulation
In lots of primitive societies, ignorant adults tend to assess the worth of each other based on their own --presumably primitive-- values, such as how much wealth they had, or how good a fighter someone is, or how many women they had raped, or other good stuff like that.  (I'm not trying to save your feelings; this is the real primitive world.  If the potty fits, poop in it.)  It became quickly clear that, A. Teachers did not fit into this value structure.  Also, B. kids who had been to school were generally more successful in life.  Putting two and two together, haha, Gloopy arrived at the conclusion: we should respect Teachy despite the fact that he/she doesn't own a lot of goats, and isn't much good in a fight.

In the US, too, until recently, an education did give one an edge in personal success, and teachers were --generally-- regarded with a degree of respect.  But somehow, primitive values crept in.

Primitive Values
Business began to gain the upper hand in US culture in the sixties, and was helped along in the eighties by affluent politicians, who saw that their own personal financial success depended on the success of the Stock Market.  It is always a mistake to give undeserved respect to something like the Stock Market, because it is subject to interference by unpredictable things.

Many things conspired to make teachers unpopular among people of limited mental acuity.
First of all, the value placed on grades.  Living in the insanely competitive society that we do, it was natural that parents began to feel that the grades Junior got was a reflection on them.  Of course, this is partly true: more successful kids get more educational support from their parents.  Some parents know algebra, others do not.  So the parents of poorly-performing kids began to dislike their teacher, especially if the teacher were so politically inept as to point the finger of blame on the parents concerned.
Secondly, the employment situation got intermittently tight, so that business could get sniffy about whom they hired.  Colleges and universities, too, knew that --while it was always a good policy to admit rich kids, regardless of what their scores were-- kids with high scores were always more likely to do them proud.  This made teachers decidedly unpopular with at least half the parent population.
Thirdly, teachers generally oppose militarism, because they developed an attachment to the kids they had been teaching, and the last thing you want is to see one of your students go off to Vietnam and get killed.  It is difficult to trace this particular source of teacher unpopularity, but I have a hunch that it exists.
Fourthly, the rich idiots who control Congress (and more importantly, the various State houses of representatives) resent the taxes that keep the schools running, and want teachers accountable for even the few miserable tax dollars that they do spend.  This epidemic spreads quickly throughout politics: teachers must be held accountable.

Many other factors make teachers unpopular.  Kids do not like school; unlike in the days of Socrates, it is no longer a privilege to go to school; the law requires it.  This means that young people completely unsuited to the demands of school are forced to submit to education.

I'm not sure when this sentimental approach towards appreciating teachers began, but, embarrassing though it is, I suspect it originated with teachers themselves.  In the vacuum left by absentee parents, teachers had to take on aspects of the education of a child that is more appropriately handled by parents.  "Respect your teachers" is most definitely one of them.  In any case, some of the memes we're getting are just pathetically irrelevant.  The one at right is a case in point.  (Perhaps it was dreamed up by folk from the Far East, who are horrified at the lack of respect for teachers they find here.)  Like many things, the attitude towards teachers must be culturally appropriate for the society: reverence for teachers quickly deteriorates into sentimentality.  Do we really want to describe teachers as consuming themselves for their students?

A teacher must love his or her subject.
A teacher must like young people.
A teacher must have a lot of energy and patience.
A teacher must be able to deal with adults.

Apart from these things, a teacher must be a moderately intelligent human being.  Consuming themselves should not enter into the equation.

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