Not What I Signed up for: The Changing Meaning of Being a Teacher

Abstract

On the back of the toilet tank in Franco’s bathroom was a piece of concrete block with a small string attached to a jagged corner. A tag he had attached on a string read: “Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.” Franco had sent me in to take a look after I asked him about what it means to be a teacher in LA. The home décor item had come through his front window the day after his “least effective” teacher rating by the Los Angeles Times was published in its annual rating of teachers. An anonymous note in his mailbox had read, “Our kids deserve better than a piece of shit like you.” Franco is a fifth grade teacher in South LA. At the time, he was known as the teacher who was happy to take transient students, English-language learners (ELLs), and other kids whose abilities might have a hard time showing up on a state test. Franco was “the go to guy for these students.” He loved teaching them (unlike some of his colleagues) and he had preservice and professional training to support ELLs—he understood the job and did it well and with joy. Now he struggled to spread those kids around, telling his principal, “IL’ll take my fair share, but not more than anybody else—I’m done being that guy.” Franco has moved away from doing what he does best, from serving students who most need it, and from teaching with students in mind at every turn.