Above and Beyond

The changing duties of the modern educator

First Love

I am not a teacher but if I were to guess, I’d say folks choose this profession because they literally love of something associated within the discipline.  And when I say love, I mean passionate love.  Not just a passing fancy but a real connection to something so deep and innate that it often cannot be verbalized to someone who is not an educator.  I say this because I believe that even to be a mediocre teacher an extraordinary level of dedication and drive is required.  Teachers pack more time, energy and effort into nine months than most people can generate in twelve.  There has to be a reason for this seemingly counterintuitive behavior and the only thing I can figure is that it is based on love.  What else drives people to such extremes other than survival itself? 

The Path

http://www.mlive.com

For many, the call to become a teacher leads one to college to be trained on the basics of a subject and teaching methodology.  This is a noble pursuit and colleges are quite capable of delivering entry level teachers to the workforce.  These neophytes are equipped to manage classrooms, deliver curriculum, educate and inspire which is what you would expect of a teacher.  What teacher colleges probably don’t teach very thoroughly is how to handle the wide variety of issues that walk through the doors of the school each and every day by the students themselves. It would be impossible to do so but there is no doubt that teaching is only one part of the job and unfortunately, that is the only part for which you earn a degree.  

Higher Calling

Ideally, a majority of a teacher's time should be spent on delivering services to students.  Whether it be content or skills, the time needed to effectively transfer concepts and ideas cannot be compromised or the teaching and learning will be compromised.  Schools, with their varied delivery models, logistics, diverse student needs and everything else that goes along with it are complicated machines.  Coordinating all these variables to ensure a viable education is nothing less than a high wire act.  Now, add to that the school’s duty to protect the students and educators.  Given the environment for many districts, the time and effort dedicated to this chore has consumed resources to the point of tipping the emphasis away from education itself. 

What to do?

When CSI set about devising a comprehensive approach to school safety and security, the authors took great care to consider the role of teachers, administrators and other school staff in the solution.  Knowing teachers are life long learners, (by law and by passion) the program leveraged this attribute by incorporating a significant educational component to those charged with care and protection of our nation’s children.  Sensible Solutions, the name of the program, delivers significant classroom and on-line training for educators which is designed to enable them to make meaningful contributions to the safety and security of their schools.  This is an often overlooked component of a security program and goes well beyond physical security and reactive measures yet it necessarily merges with and strengthens all components.    

What we found out

In implementing this program, we learned that the educators who go through the training come away with a tangible sense of empowerment.  They receive relevant information that gives them a new perspective on the science of violence, prevention, investigations, law enforcement, use of force, threat assessment and action planning.   They learn skills and gain an understanding of things they could never learn during their teacher training yet these tools are invaluable to ensuring an emphasis toward delivering services and not toward reacting to violence and other disruptions.  

Hungry to learn

As times change, and increasingly complex and potentially volatile issues enter schools, ensuring that learning remains the focus is critical.  A proper reaction to the paradigm shift is necessary to ensure that students get educated.  We observed that teachers are very eager to learn these skills and have the knowledge and programs in place to help students overcome violent propensities as well protect those around them.  Not surprisingly, they are passionate about protecting as well as educating their students.