I’ve had a post in mind for a while now, about how I accidentally mis-branded myself as an educator, why that was a problem, and how I managed to turn it into a selling point.
And then I watched the video embedded below. And it made me re-evaluate the value that I place on being an educator, and question why I don’t want to inspire the way that guy clearly does. Is it because of the lack of value society places upon educators? We pay them badly, and disparage with the expression “those that can’t, teach”. However, teachers unionize and resist attempts at making them improve and be accountable – enforcing every bad opinion (I read a great article I think in the NYT about this recently, but I can’t find it).
If you check out Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk, perhaps the biggest reason not to be an educator is that you’re entering a fundamentally broken system. I remember school. I was good at it, but I didn’t enjoy it.
But this guy… is passionate, inspirational, making a difference. So perhaps the next time you encounter an educator, instead of wondering what they couldn’t do, you might be meeting one of the – in my experience very few – who really, genuinely, believe they can.