SCHROCK: A teacher’s creed
John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.
I am a professional.
I do not earn hourly wages or punch a time clock. I am a salaried professional who works as long as needed to get the work done. My salary should reflect the importance of my profession in society.
I alone determine what, how and when to teach the components of my discipline within a range of recognized professional practices. I consult with my professional colleagues, but in the end I determine my teaching practices. I do not yield that curricular duty to textbook publishers or external agencies. While discipline knowledge may be universal, students are not uniform in experience background nor ability.
I teach both my discipline and my students. Students come into my course as unique students. They should graduate from my course as unique students.
I know my discipline thoroughly because a teacher cannot teach what a teacher does not know. And I know my discipline at least one level deeper than what I teach because I must get the lesson correct and be able to carry advanced students further. I have a broad liberal arts education because I am preparing students for a full life, not just for a job.
I have a unique set of communication skills that fit with a particular range of students. Other teaching colleagues have unique sets of skills as well that may often be different. By interacting with a variety of teaching personalities, students learn to interact with the variety of people they will encounter in life.
The duty of school administration and staff is to provide teachers and students with the support and resources we need.
Just as doctors are the core professionals of a hospital, teachers are the core professionals of a school. And just as the best of doctors lose patients, the best of teachers lose students. This does not mean that doctors want patients to die or teachers want students to fail, but that despite our best efforts, there are many factors beyond our control that are involved in the medical and teaching arts.
Teaching is an art. And artists vary in how they practice. A teacher who inspires one student may not inspire another.
As a teacher I am a role model for honesty, work and study ethic, and dignity. Within the SCHROCK: A teacher’s creed:
