The Magician, the Cheerleader, the Martyr and 7 others: Which one are you?

‘The man is in the coffin,’ she muttered, staring into space. 

‘How do you feel today, Ms. Brown?’ the man asked.

‘The man is in the coffin,’ she replied.

‘What is your name?’ he asked.

‘The man is in the coffin,’ she repeated.

‘Ok. Can you write your name?’ he pressed her.

‘The man is in the coffin,’ she reiterated.

Six words. She was left with only six words: ‘The man is in the coffin.’

When commentators are not satisfied with the quality of the work that teachers do in the classroom and the output of the education system generally, they tend to make the mistake of presenting teachers as a homogeneous mass. 

'Teachers are not doing a good job,' they say. Or, 'teachers need to take the job of teaching more seriously than they do'. Or, 'teachers are the reason why students perform poorly in school'. The list of criticisms thrown at the teacher is long.

What these commentators fail to highlight is the fact that teachers differ in many respects. Some teachers produce either an excellent, good, satisfactory or poor performance in the classroom, as measured by some criteria. 

Some teachers cite the flawed nature of measurements, ignore them and continue to do what they consider to be the best job that they can do for their students. Others just 'go with the flow'.

After teaching for over twenty years and after observing teachers on the job I have come up with a non-scientific typology of sorts of teachers:

The Profiler

The Profiler is the teacher who is usually well-dressed and has an engaging personality. He or she may be seen flitting here and there, chatting with everyone but specifically targeting their interest at the ‘important’ people in the school. 

The Profiler always seems busy but rarely gets around to doing, well, what he or she is being paid to do - teach. However, this person has many friends in low and high places, so infractions are overlooked.

The Mercenary

This is the teacher who is in the job for the money – nothing else.
This teacher is in the job ‘to drink milk, not to count cows’.

This teacher needs a job to pay the bills. This teachers gets the job. This teacher is happy. The end of the month is the happiest time in this teacher’s life. After the end of the month, this teacher goes back to the grind with the thought of the next end of month not too far at the back of his/her mind. The only concern of this teacher is what the job can do for him/her.

The Complainer

This teacher complains about the job, the students, the colleagues, the administration – all the time, it seems. It seems that this teacher is at his/her happiest when he/she finds something to complain about. 

This teacher is a good teacher. He/she gets good results, but has an ambivalent relationship with the job, students, colleagues and administration.

The Cheerleader

This teacher is willing. He/She is involved in all aspects of the life of the school and is happy to be involved. He/She speaks highly of the school and does his/her best to infect others with their unconstrained enthusiasm.

The slacker

This teacher violates all of the rules of the school – well, almost all. This teacher is habitually late to school and is regularly absent from school. 

This teacher is late to class or absent from classes even when he/she is at school. This teacher always has excuses.

The Traitor

This is the teacher who always runs to administration to badmouth his/her colleagues. This teacher has hopes to occupy one of the senior positions in the school one day, the sooner the better. He/She realises that the competition is stiff so this teacher makes it his/her business to malign the integrity of other teachers to administration. He/She is often successful.

The Magician

This is the teacher who knows that the demands of administration are unreasonable since his/her students can’t read or are reading below their grade level. Yet, administration expects him/her to teach them the syllabus and get them to pass examinations. 

And this teacher does! 

He/She teaches to the test by drilling students with past papers. Even students who can barely read pass the requisite tests.

The Stoic

This teacher works well with his/her students and gets the best from them no matter their ability. 

He/She constantly gets almost 100% of his/her students to pass exams but administration never recognises this effort. He/She soldiers on anyway. 
He/She is focused on the job, no matter the distractions.

The Learner

This is the teacher who does not sit on his/her laurels after completing studies to become a teacher. 

This teacher doesn't complain when administration suggests that teachers upgrade their skills. He/She doesn't say that they have already gone to college. 

In fact, this teacher is constantly upgrading his/her skills. This teacher knows that knowledge is always being added to the existing body of knowledge in his/her field and therefore engages in Continuous Professional Development.

The Martyr

It is not uncommon for teachers to deal with stress on the job. Some teachers cope better than others.

In recent times in Jamaica, a number of teachers have collapsed and died in the classroom. One teacher told another that he was not feeling well. His colleague encouraged him to seek medical attention. 

He promised to do that as soon as he finished his classes. He did not finish his classes. He collapsed and died in front of his students.

Then there is the school administrator. She gave all of her working life to her school. She was at work every single day of the week. Yes, she worked Saturdays and Sundays! She may have even checked in on public holidays – working, working, working! 

She collapsed at school one day and was rushed to the hospital. She survived. While she is struggling to regain her health, someone, as equally capable as she was, has been installed in the position she once occupied.

In the meantime, she holds on to only six words, the only words she can utter to prove that she still exists: ‘The man is in the coffin’. Only she knows what she means.

These two teachers and many others sacrificed and are sacrificing themselves for the profession that they love, for the obligation that they feel towards their students, for duty’s sake.

So, what type of teacher are you? Are you the Profiler, the Mercenary, the Complainer, the Cheerleader, the Slacker, the Traitor, the Magician, the Stoic, the Learner or the Martyr? Or, did I miss a type?

Leave a comment below.

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