Sunday, January 2, 2011

Breaks.

Teaching is a tough job...and to those that chide me for the short hours and for all the time off I get, I can usually simply ask if they would like to do my job. This usually settles the point. That, or, I mention my paycheck.

That said, I love my job and am not convinced that I am capable of doing much else besides running barcodes over a scanner. But, man, do I love these breaks. And I am firmly convinced that teachers, students, politicians, doctors, and others with high-stress jobs need these breaks badly.

Otherwise, we would just burn out and fade away.

2 comments:

  1. An interesting new take on MacArthur.

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  2. I usually mumble something about lesson planning over the summer - I've never tried the "would you like my job?" tactic. Middle school special education . . . I doubt I would even have to mention the paycheck.

    I read the one on busy work too. Thank you for that. We all need regular pushing to be our best, especially halfway through the year (as opposed to September with all those "new years" resolutions still burning). What frustrates me is how much many of my students - and this is probably worse among students with learning disabilities & so forth - prefer busy work to more interesting and open-ended assignments. Choice paralyzes them, and in the end busy work means "not thinking" not only for the teacher but for the students as well. That's what makes it so alluring.

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