Parenting Advice From Joy Berry: Back to School—Part Three (So You Think That Teachers Have it Easy?)

I was having dinner with two business associates the other day. Each had a daughter who was starting their first year of teaching, and the men thought that it would be fun for all of us to get together to celebrate. Fifteen minutes after meeting Amanda and Gretchen, I knew that the New York Public School System had snagged two additional amazing teachers.

Several glasses of wine later, Gretchen’s father ventured, “How hard could it be?”

“How hard could what be?” I asked.

“How hard could teaching be? You get three months and all of the holidays off every year. Your day ends at 3:00. You never have to work weekends…”

Before either of the young women could spit out the defensive statements that were on the tips of their tongues, I placed my hand on Gretchen’s hand and looked directly into her eyes.

“Gretchen,” I said seriously, “I want you to make me a promise. Later on this year, after everything has settled down, I want you to invite your father to your school, and I want you to allow him to take over your kindergarten class for an entire day.”

Next, I turned to Gretchen’s father. “Would that be something that you would be up for?”

For a split second, the father looked like a deer staring into the headlights. But then he quickly gathered his wits and his look of being caught off guard was replaced with a sheepish grin.

“I didn’t think so,” I said.

The two daughters gave each other a high five.

I continued, “Surely, as a father, you haven’t forgotten how stressful it can be to keep one child out of trouble and out of harm’s way. If you multiply that challenge by 30, you just might get some kind of sense of what teachers go through for six to eight hours every day.”

The father looked at his daughter and stated sincerely, “I stand corrected.”

“Apology accepted,” the daughter said good-naturedly. “But one more crack like that and you’ll find yourself teaching my class for a full day!”

After 44 years of being in education, I’ve grown pretty weary of people thinking that teachers have it easy. While most teachers love their jobs, there’s absolutely nothing easy about what they do. And if you’re not a teacher and you don’t get what I’m saying, you need to spend a day by yourself in a classroom full of kids.