{"id":1105,"date":"2023-08-20T20:15:44","date_gmt":"2023-08-21T00:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/?p=1105"},"modified":"2023-08-20T20:15:46","modified_gmt":"2023-08-21T00:15:46","slug":"a-teacher-monologue-a-tribute-to-barbie-with-apologies-to-greta-gerwig-and-noah-baumbach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/a-teacher-monologue-a-tribute-to-barbie-with-apologies-to-greta-gerwig-and-noah-baumbach\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teacher Monologue (A Tribute to Barbie – with apologies to Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I admit it. Over the course of two days I saw both Barbie and Oppenheimer. Actually, I wound up seeing Barbie twice in one day, but that’s another story. Both movies left me with a lot to think about. As <\/em>I thought about Barbie, it occurred to me that teaching is a heavily female profession. According to Google, it is nearly 75% female. It made me wonder, as others have, if this is one of the reasons the teaching profession is not held in higher respect: basic sexism. I am a male in a female-dominated profession As the character Aaron, a Mattel employee says, \u201cI\u2019m a man with no power. Does that make me a woman?”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking about the movie again recently, it suddenly struck me that the now-famous and oft quoted monologue performed by America Ferrera’s character, Gloria, could be adapted to be about teaching and teachers. So I did. It is actually longer than the movie monologue, but has some similar rhythms. I think it says some things that needed saying. Enjoy. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is literally impossible to be a teacher. We are so talented, and so smart, but it kills me that we\u2019re made to think we aren\u2019t good enough. We have to always go above and beyond, even as the system underpays and underappreciates us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to teach kids to think, but you\u2019re not supposed to think too much. You\u2019re supposed to promote American freedom, but you are discouraged from having any freedom or autonomy as a teacher, which means you also aren\u2019t supposed to give any freedom or autonomy to your students. You\u2019re told to innovative and be creative, but then you\u2019re told to follow the curriculum map with fidelity and teach like everybody else. You\u2019re told to make it all about the students, but then told to focus on data and test scores. You\u2019re supposed to encourage your students\u2019 interests and individualism, but you are supposed to dole out standardized assignments and assessments to each of them the exact same way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re told to be outstanding, but then told to be just like everybody else yourself. You\u2019re being held responsible for student learning, but not given power over the process, so really, it\u2019s the people who tell you what to do who are responsible for student learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re also responsible for your students\u2019 behavior even when you didn\u2019t raise them and can\u2019t really control them. You are supposed to uphold all the rules and be tough on misbehavior, but also be understanding and help students grow into better behavior. You\u2019re supposed to be positive and affirming but swoop down on misbehavior and write students up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to be engaging and fun as a teacher, but also strict and mean. And you can\u2019t be so popular that you threaten other teachers. You are supposed to motivating and engaging, but not gimmicky, but also rigorous and involved in high level thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are a hero one week and the horrible, greedy corruptors of the nation\u2019s young people the next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to love being a teacher, and not complain about your pay or teaching conditions. You\u2019re supposed to be in it for the outcome, not the income, but if you mention that it\u2019s hard to make ends meet and you need to work a second job, you\u2019re told you must not be dedicated enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to promote literacy and reading, but also self-censor any book in your classroom that might offend anyone. You\u2019re supposed to use lots of technology, but keep them off their phones, even though their phones and apps are designed to target the addiction centers of students\u2019 brains and are constantly being updated by tech wizards from around the world. Also, you can\u2019t call their parents about their phone use, because they are texting their kids all day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to emphasize learning over grades, but always keep your gradebook up to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re supposed to develop warm relationships with students, but not too warm or too close. You\u2019re not their friend, you\u2019re their teacher. You\u2019re supposed to get them ready for college and careers, but also make them emotionally intelligent, informed voters, critical thinkers, good citizens, and healthy, balanced people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have been educated in our fields, but our education can be trumped by the ideology of politicians, who tell us we\u2019re the ideologs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just so tired of watching myself and all the other teachers tie themselves in knots to try to please students, parents, school administrators, district leadership, the state, and the general public in the hope that everyone will stop badmouthing us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And if we claim to love education but are chasing teachers out of the profession in droves and our young people are avoiding the profession in droves\u2026 then I don\u2019t even know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It suddenly struck me that the now-famous and oft quoted monologue performed by America Ferrera’s character, Gloria, could be adapted to be about teaching and teachers. So I did. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[182,206],"tags":[374,375,69],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1106,"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions\/1106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrfitz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}