I Wouldn’t be Doing This!

It’s an issue I’ve not weighed in on, except to say that I’m happy with the person who will do the best for our children and our future.  In truth, I have to agree with my wife, that it is plain wrong for a….

Education Building in Raleigh, NC
Click image for a close-up of the art work on the center wall.

Well, here’s the story in brief.  Our elected governor, Beverly Purdue, who ran on an education improvement platform, created a new position at the state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI).  She hired William Harris as the agency’s CEO, giving him powers that effectively supplanted our “elected” state superintendent, June Atkinson — our first “insider” state superintendent in, well, decades.  Atkinson launched a lawsuit, which was recently ruled in her favor.  Harrison retired from the $265,000 salary CEO position day before yesterday.

You can read the story here.

But what irked me most, and here is the point of this entry, is that the newspaper article characterizes DPI as “…the state agency that oversees testing, curriculum and policy for 115 local districts in North Carolina.” 

Maybe I’m being petty.  But — that testing is included in this list of three functions of DPI, much less that it comes first, is a mark of the tragic state education has fallen to at the hands of politicians (education amateurs).  Good educators know that assessment is part of the teaching/learning process, not something different.

I suddenly realized, while thinking about this, that, if I was the age of my children, in this environment, struggling right now with shaping my own personal future..

…TEACHING WOULD BE NOWHERE NEAR MY RADAR!

Just to have some fun with this — what would you be doing today, if you had not entered the field of education.

As for me, some of you might remember the cartoon show, The Adventures of Johnny Quest.  I always wanted to be Johnny Quest’s father, this renaissance scientist with a private jet, body guard, some sad untold story that left his son motherless — coming to the rescue with the right knowledge and latest gadgets to save the day.  I’d be a scientist of some type.

How about you?

Powered by ScribeFire.

28 thoughts on “I Wouldn’t be Doing This!”

  1. It’s funny, because even though our careers don’t change often, what we would do if we were not in our careers do quite often. If you had asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have told you that in my “alter-career” I would be an astronaut. Something about flying in weightless, despite my fear of heights, is absolutely fascinating. Currently, my “if-I-weren’t-in-education-I-would-be-a” career would be photojournalist. I love the stories that photos can tell and I love hearing photographers tell the “story behind the story” of their shots.

  2. The two coolest jobs I know of are “behavioral economist” and “cultural anthropologist”. Urban planner would be neat too. I think teaching beats them all by a mile, though.

  3. Given that I’m in IT in education, I’d probably be in IT somewhere else…but good lord, I wouldn’t trade this industry for any other! I’m pretty sure it’s the only industry where you can migrate (with lots of work, of course) from helpdesk to actually doing the thing that folks you are supporting are doing. And thank goodness for that! Ending up in K-12 education was a complete accident for me, but I’m thankful for that accident everyday. This is the sort of job that idealistic college kids dream of: you can make a difference.

  4. Interesting take David.

    I am actually thinking about this again. Teaching is my third career (which I’ve been doing now for 17 years).

    I love teaching. Actually, my wife says, “You love teaching people who want to learn…who appreciate the give and take of the learning process.”

    I’m sure it’s not much different, but I would probably (and may still) be a missionary and teach in small village schools, where life is much simpler, yet more difficult. Where the test of the day might be to find suitable drinking water and protein.

    Where village adults appreciate the work I do, and the care for the students I have. Where curriculum really was connected with the lives of the community. Where hope might be more than getting a Wii for Christmas.

    Where debates about education seldom mention government interference by the “amateurs” who seek power over something they know little or nothing about.

    Either that, or a annual PowerBall lottery winner.

  5. Probably closer to my retirement dream of running a B&B in Alaska.. where educators from around the world would visit.. where learning is FUNdamental and could be shared as in the days of Plato ….
    39 years in education … still have a love for it.. and sunny Florida.

  6. I’ve thought about this some as I gear up to begin my 34th year in the classroom teaching history. I loved science, and particularly biology, so I might have been a scientist (if math had been easier for me). However, I look back with no regrets. It has been a great ride!

  7. If money were no object – travelling & volunteerting to help others around the world through education. I would take photos of extraordinary places and the people while I travelled. Another love I have is ballroom dancing so teaching dance lessons on a cruise ship might be interesting!

  8. When I was in 8th grade back when technology meant a film strip projector and a clicker, I didn’t have many options as a female. We were going to be nurses, teachers, or ballerinas. Like that last one was ever gonna happen! I could not choose a single occupation for my career report so I did a combination of fashion illustrator, costume designer, or interior decorator. I ended up in Art Education but have never had a job teaching art since I finished my certification. I love being a technology integration specialist but if I had to choose now, I would love to make a living as a standup comic, which is not very likely as I am only mildly amusing. I might get serious about getting my children’s book ‘Pillowface’ published. Right now it only exists in my skybox above AZTEA on ISTE island2. I should do that!

  9. I would probably be in sales of some sort. Isn’t that what teachers have to do? Sell the value and fun of learning to unmotivated students?

    I do not think that I would enjoy sales, but I would probably be better off financially.

    When I was in college 40 years ago, my dream job was to be Head Librarian at the United Nations building in New York Ciy.

    I think it would be fun to be a tour guide.

  10. I would love to be a performer on broadway! I guess there are days teaching when you are performing in front of the class.

  11. If I were not a teacher, I can imagine being an independent video game developer, working on the next Halo. If that fell through, I would move on to become the “Master of All Things Lego”. Finally, I would move on to write fiction that would wake Stephen King up in the middle of the night in fear. Lofty goals, yes; but a man can dream.

  12. I’d still be in the pits at the CBOT trading option arbitrage strategies and obsessing about my account balance on a daily basis. Not to say that the exciting world of school administration will be my home forever. Lately i’ve been dreaming of being an organic farmer like Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms. Maybe if I had some real crops my broker would give me hedging margins for the handful of accounts I still trade for on the side.

    In the past I’ve enjoyed driving a cab, picking up dog waste through a venture aptly named “Peoria Pile Patrol”, and bagging the hell out of groceries.

  13. Like Noreen, my options were teacher, nurse or nun (no ballerina option for me). I love being a technology integrator and finding ways to help teachers bring the excitement of technology into their lessons. But back in college I wanted to switch my major to anthropology. Of course my mother was aghast, “How will you ever support yourself?” and I chickened out. Today I am in love with the idea of creating, whether it be a website, a video, or a concoction of prims in Second Life. So I guess I still would have found my way into technology somehow. (and I still secretly long to be a performer. If you are next to me at a red light, I will have an imaginary microphone in my hand.)

  14. Really been thinking about teaching. If I did not teach in public school, I think I would still teach privately. How else would I be priviledged to be an influence in the life of these two fine youngmen that are already developing technology in high school.

    Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/7mmk8p

    This is the reward of teaching…not money nor recognition but the experience of teaching skills and concepts to people that go on to make bigger and better things of those skills and concepts.

  15. I wanted to go to Medical School and almost went to Duke University as a music major who would then take bio classes and get into their medical school upon graduation. But my Mother had other plans. She told me that I’d be uncomfortable their with all those ‘rich kids’ and so talked me into not going there. I ended up at University of Cincinnati’s Conservator of Music and got a BA in violin performance. I didn’t get into the education field until later when a friend suffered from cancer and asked me to take over her class as permanant substitute in the Orchestra Program in York County, Virginia.

    Now, almost 28 years later, I am still teaching orchestra and finding that although I didn’t plan to do what I do…I simply love it and am in exactly the right place. So, despite all the cuts in Arts Programs and frustration of being an orchestra teacher/director in a primarily blue-collar area (where band is the ‘big’ thing) and the general lack of respect that teachers get (you English and Math teachers…if you get no respect imagine how little an orchestra teacher in a blue-collar area gets!)…I’ll hopefully stay in my position until I retire about 10 years from now.

  16. I’m only just starting my third year of teaching, so I guess there’s something like a %50 chance that within the next two years I actually will be doing this: I want to be a pilot!

  17. When I was in high school I interned at an archaeology lab, so I may have pursued Archaeology or Anthropology. During this internship, I learned that it wasn’t a stable career, as most work was grant funded or salvage projects, so it would have been a last choice. Law and politics has always interested me, so I probably would have gone that route.

  18. I would be a sports reporter. More exactly an ESPN (or here in Canada TSN) announcer. Growing up we did not have 1 hour looping sports news casts. I would have loved that.

  19. My mother was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher….if there was ONE thing I did NOT want to be…you guessed it, a teacher! I fell into teaching completely by surprise and accident, and have been so very grateful for that serendipity. I was in engineering before that, and I enjoyed what I did. I love computers and technology, but…there is nothing like the ‘ah-hah!’ that you get from a student when he / she has finally understood something long struggled with. Yes, I actually quit teaching at one point, out of frustration for ‘administrators’ who seem to hate kids, but, then, once again, seredipity stepped in and ‘rescued’ me with a position in a unique school where I relearned the delights of teaching. Sorry, but…there is no other alternative for me.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *