Debut Interview: With a High School Classmate

 

    

    One of the reasons why I started this blog was to expose the teaching profession from behind the scenes. Not to bash it, but just to shed light on a profession, LITERALLY every single person comes in contact with. Whether you are a parent or not, you have gone through the educational system in some way. 

    Something super crazy happened when I shared my first post--an old high school classmate reached out expressing interest in helping me and reading it. His name is Jamie and we had ZERO interaction in high school. We didn't run in the same circles. We didn't have mutual friends. Nothing. 

    I was completely blown away when I reached out to him asking if he wanted to be interviewed and he said YES! 

    My goal for the interviews is to get other teachers' perspectives. Obviously, we all experienced some of the same things between the different levels of education. 

    It's time for all teachers, no matter the grade, to come together and demand more respect and better pay.

    Here is my interview with Jamie:

Steph

Thank you so much for doing this. This is super, super cool. All right, so we're gonna start off with the easy questions. How long have you been teaching and what grades are you teaching in?

Jamie   

Let's round it off to about 15 years give or take. I teach high school. I've taught in just about every kind of high school that is out there. But you know, nine through 12.

Steph

Science, right?

Jamie

Yeah, yeah, science.

Steph

Awesome. And so you said you've taught in? Everywhere. So have you done urban, suburban, and rural?

Jamie

Actually a little bit of that in substitute teaching. I've taught some in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, but a lot of that was on a long-term sub-basis because that was back when there were no real teaching jobs out there. So I think quite a few of those. I did some day-to-day and some long-term stuff at some suburban schools, even went out to some of the rural schools, a little bit for, you know, more substitute teaching things. I'm a real teacher who has actually been in Catholic schools, which is ironic because I'm not catholic, but I just kind of happened to land that way.

Steph

Awesome. Good for you. How would you say that teaching itself has changed from when you started to now?

Jamie

When I started, it was back in the Pittsburgh Public Schools. And my first teaching gig, this random person just suggested like, "Hey my school's desperate for a science teacher." They'd had like five science teachers quit in the span of like a month. Yeah. And I didn't have a teaching degree.

Steph

You had a science degree.

Jamie

Yeah, I am fresh out of undergrad, I literally got my bachelor's two months ago.

    What's interesting here at this point of the conversation is that it isn't uncommon for a person with a non-teaching degree can get a job as a teacher because of how desperate schools are. Society fails education in this sentiment. Would you want a doctor treating you when they went to school for math, not medicine? No. But, math is an important part of medicine/ prescribing.

    Why should we accept that in education?

Jamie

But I think that we're just getting further and further away from [kids' internal motivation to learn]. There's this sense of entitlement that if the kid gets bad grades, the teachers allow that, even if [the student] made no effort. Either we're glorified babysitters or were a ticket into a good college or something like that.

Steph

True. If you could change one thing about teaching, now, what would it be?

Jamie

Oh boy, that's a really tough question.

Steph

Or the most important or the easiest thing. For me, in elementary it would be, I'd get rid of homework. There does not need to be any homework. It doesn't prove anything.

Jamie

I don't think it's, um, an easy answer as to how you fix it. But I do think we need to address the whole system of grading and the way that we view tests because it's such a contributor to my students' mental health issues. We know that this generation struggles so much. There is really good data on this out there with mental health. And some days I almost feel guilty about giving them a test. I have to.

Maybe just this culture that like, if you're not getting straight A's, you're a failure. The whole system of assigning grades and our students really attach much of their self-worth to that. How do you fix it? I don't know.

Steph

How have you found the motivation to stay?

Jamie

I was leaving school and a former student came in. She was coming to pick up a yearbook. We got catching and she told me, "I know I complained that you're anatomy and physiology class was hard in high school, but I'm taking anatomy and physiology in college now, wow, [your class] actually helps. Prepared me for it. And oh my gosh, the college version is so much harder." I needed to hear that.

            Teachers LOVE this! We love hearing from former students. 

Steph

That's awesome. If you had enough money, would you quit?

Jamie

I've actually thought about this question. I would approach my principal and suggest that I do something that other teachers at my school have done, which is stay on part-time.

Steph

Oh, okay.

Jamie

I do enjoy what I do when it's not overwhelming. It's just so often your juggling. More than as reasonable to expect one person to do frankly.

Steph

That's a great answer. Can you share a funny story? About either one of your children, your students, something that sticks in your mind.

Jamie

I got one. Keep in mind, I really did like this kid. He's kind of your stereotypical meathead jock. I was teaching basically the equivalent of AP bio but it was not AP bio. I knew this kid was cheating on every test I gave because he sat next to this smart kid and always got the same questions wrong.

Steph

Oh. No.

Jamie

I have printed up two different versions. [After grading the test,] he said that he cheated off the smart kid when I told him about the two versions.

Steph

He said it out loud?

Jamie

Yeah, I kid you not. He said, "Mr. W, you played me like a fiddle."

    Again, I say thanks to Jamie for joining me in this interview! This was a great experience with someone I barely knew or spoke to all those years ago. But, here we are now, adults, feeling and experiencing the same thing. 

    One thing continues to be evident with teachers - we love to see our students have that "lightbulb" moment, but we also demand more respect. 

    Teaching is a tightrope that not many people can balance anymore and it's going to be detrimental to the success of our society.

Until the next interview...