Teaching Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

When I was in elementary school, our teachers used dittos and our research was done solely out of an encyclopedia.  We used national geographic if we wanted to see a good picture. Spelling and penmanship were important subjects. (I was not great at either.)  I am older so computers were not even a thought for the classroom or even the office staff. It was big news when our school received a Xerox machine. Teachers hand wrote their assignments, movies were shown on a large projector.  It was amazing to see the teacher use transparencies.  

Now students and teachers can Google something and see it immediately along with multiple sources.  Not only in a 2 dimensional picture but often 3 dimensional. With the use of computer few schools even teach cursive, and spell check makes spelling less important. Teachers can print worksheets in their classroom or better yet allow students to do the work on the computer. I doubt my children even know what a ditto is, or most of my college classmates for that matter. There are interactive large boards and Excel can average your grades for you.

There have been many complaints nowadays with all that teachers are held responsible for.  State standards, evaluations, health concerns to name a few.  As I wrote this I realized how in some ways teachers have more tools to save them time and enable them to be more efficient.  When I went to the fair this summer, there was an old school house that had a display of what was required of teachers early on.  They had to arrive to school early make sure there was wood or coal for heat. They also had to clean the schoolhouse themselves and they were not allowed to date in many cases. Not to mention teach children of varying ages, can you imagine the lesson plans.  So more and more I am coming to realize that a teacher’s job has never been easy.  It has just changed over the years.  Some things are easier and new things have come into play.  It will be interesting to see what is required in the next 40 years.  I decided to teach because I love children and I wanted to give back and invest in their lives.  I imagine that has been the case of most teachers for many years.