The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Grades mixed on how profession has changed
By Terry Jacoby, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: May 10, 2007
Phil Jones began teaching in the fall of 1971 for a salary of $6,700 a year. Thirty six years later he is making 10 times that amount - right around $67,000.
Advertisement
Money isn't the only thing that has changed for teachers over the last 36 years. In fact, teaching is constantly changing - and not always for the better.
"One of the biggest changes to the profession has been the attitudes from parents," Jones said. "Parents seem to be second-guessing teachers constantly on everything from materials taught to discipline issues. Teachers are expected to be sensitive to every student's needs while trying to teach a class full of media-crazed adolescents."
Jones says that an endless cycle of "better ideas" has left schools with different philosophies of what works best "that it seems we are going in circles trying to meet the special needs student's accommodations while challenging the average or gifted student."
Deborah Marsh, a teacher at Dexter High School, has seen some disturbing changes in the students during her career.
"Kids aren't as polite and/or respectful of their teachers and other adults in the building," says Marsh. "I think we've lost a lot of our basic manners in this new high tech world."
Increasing class sizes is another concern for many teachers.
"My classes are huge," Marsh said. "The best class size is around 20-24, any bigger and the kids get antsy and the teachers get overworked. Most of my classes are in the 30s and that's a lot of kids every day."
Marsh said she is at school from 7:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. everyday.
Marsh's first teaching experience was when she was a junior in college, tutoring a Spanish speaking fourth-grader.
"Before my experiences working with him I thought I was going to be a translator, work in the business world and use my love of foreign languages, or be a lawyer," she said. "Instead I realized that no matter what else I did, I would always be a teacher."
And despite her concerns, Marsh still enjoys taking her place in front of the class.
"Every once in a while I lose hope for the future when a kid does something that is totally in appropriate or rude or mean, but luckily that doesn't happen too often," she says. "I wonder what I'll do in my next profession, but I don't see that starting anytime soon. I used to think I wanted to be a principal, but they don't get to interact with the kids and that's my favorite part of teaching."
Marianne Zubryckyj, a German teacher and chair of world languages at Dexter High School, had an interesting beginning to her teaching career.
"I went to an all girls' Catholic high school, and when one of the nuns was absent, there was no substitute teacher," she said. "I was asked a couple of times in my junior and senior years to teach some math and science classes, serving, in essence, as a substitute teacher for younger students and for my own classmates. I felt great when the students in the biology class where I taught a lesson on DNA said, 'We understand it!' I think that experience planted the seed that led to my teaching career."
It's a career that is drastically different because of technology and how that technology is used in the classroom.
"The biggest change has to be the technological tools that are available to us," she said. "Students and parents get ongoing feedback on performance through our web-based grading program. We have more and better communication with colleagues, parents and students.
"Also, we have a wealth of information and activities from the internet to supplement textbooks. We can provide varied instruction by using all the multi-media tools at our disposal."
Sandy Inman began teaching science at Chelsea High School in 1977. She has seen both positive and negative changes in the students but says her job as gotten easier because of both technology and cooperation.
"We all have our own teaching styles and can still use that but there is a lot more coordination of efforts among teachers," she said.
Inman says today's classroom is much more interactive.
"Teachers are more guides now," she said. "Students have taken on more responsibility for their own learning. We used to just lecture and kids would take notes. Now there is more emphasis on getting the students involved and it creates a more effective way of learning. And the resources students have today compared to 30 years ago is amazing."
Zubryckyj, who says many of her colleagues classes are "overloaded," agrees that teaching has become more difficult today than when she first started.
"I wouldn't say that the profession has changed for the worse, but I would say the job has become much more difficult," she said. "Ironically, the technology that makes the teaching more exciting and varied also creates more work. Teachers must now research topics online, read and write dozens of e-mails every day, etc.
"My only complaint is that the teaching profession has become much more complex over the 30 years I've been here in Dexter. Much more is expected of us teachers, and the extra pressure and extra time necessary take away from one's personal life."
But once a teacher, always a teacher.
"I still enjoy my relationships with students most of all," Zubryckyj said. "I am fortunate in that I sometimes have the same students for two, three or even four years. So I get to know many of them quite well. It is interesting to watch them grow emotionally and intellectually."
Cheryl Wells, a teacher at Dexter High School, remembers going to school with her grandmother and mixing paints and working on her paramecium science fair project with her grandfather.
"I would also play school in my basement with the neighbor kids and keep attendance," she said. "I detoured for a few years after college and worked for the Wayne State Medical school in laboratory animal research. After a while I realized that I loved the biology and chem in research, but wanted to be with students and not mice."
Wells has seen improvements over the years in both equipment and facilities.
"My longevity as a science teacher was extended when we moved into this new building," she said. "Better lab facilities and having all the science rooms in one wing has offered a greater collegial atmosphere."
An advisor for the National Honor Society for 26 years, Wells has kept busy with plenty of after-school activities and says she still enjoys teaching.
"I like being with the students," she said. "I enjoy teaching science and advising the science clubs. I will continue to keep teaching as long as it is fun and at the same time productive learning time for the students."
Joe Romeo began his career as a substitute teacher when "computers needed a big room with air conditioning to hold them."
Romeo would like to see teachers given more freedom to do what they do best, teach.
"The state keeps telling us what to teach, then takes away the funding to do it," he said. "They have set standards that kids have to meet to get a diploma, which they could not meet themselves. And we have had less money most years."
Romeo, who says he works about 60 hours a week and has seen class sizes increase over the past three years, still feels comfortable in front of a group of students.
"Kids are funny still," he said. "And some of my students are children of former students of mine, so that connection to parents makes it more interesting."
Most teachers would agree that some change is good and some not so good. But teaching is still the greatest job in the world.
"We get to teach a lot more interesting and authentic stuff now," Marsh said. "Making assignments link to the kids is what is fun. When I was in school and when I first started teaching there was still a lot of diagramming sentences and formulaic writing. Kids get to do some really interesting assignments these days."
Said Jones: "For me, the thing that keeps me pumped up to remain teaching is the friendship relationships that kids seem to be more open to these days. Not that they want to 'hang out' with teachers, but are looking for a smile and a hello as they come into the classroom. Most kids are seeking to have a personal interaction with teachers, not content to merely be another in the sea of faces in a classroom."
E-Mail Us
Who was your favorite teacher and how did they influence you? Put "Teachers" in the subject area and write to: tjacoby@heritage.com
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
