Making a ‘Thousand Decisions a Day’

Whenever I see a movie about teachers, I get a little nervous. I wonder how my profession will be represented. I’m always curious, but usually disappointed. I have found that on-screen teachers tend to perpetuate two frustrating stereotypes about the profession. The first is that anyone can teach—or worse—“those who can’t, teach.” There’s a misconception that teaching requires no special skills or talents beyond a basic knowledge of the content area. The other stereotype is teacher as martyr-saint. This portrayal assumes that the one qualification for being a good teacher is a heart of gold, a willingness to sacrifice everything out of love for children.

Most films ignore the complexity of the craft of teaching. This makes me cringe. 

So when I went to a screening of American Teacher [2] at a local high school recently, part of me was prepared to cringe. The film, a product of the Teacher Salary Project, is undeniably supportive of public school teachers. It works hard to emphasize the intellectual rigor and difficult, in-the-moment decision-making required of teachers every day. The film criticizes American society for not valuing our teachers enough and asks how we might elevate the profession to a higher level of prestige. 

The film profiles four teachers, all of whom are self-sacrificing heroes in their schools. They arrive early, stay late and reserve little time for themselves or their own families. They pay for supplies out of their own pockets and barely survive on measly salaries. I know these stories are true and that the filmmakers include them with the best of intentions, but the portrayal made me uneasy. 

If I were making a documentary about great teachers, I would focus less on their innate goodness and more on their willingness to engage in a constant process of learning and growing. One expert featured in American Teacher described educators’ work in a way that really resonated with me: “Teachers make thousands of decisions a day, and they don’t do it about an abstract idea. They do it about the life of a child. You can’t imagine anything harder.” 

For me, this encapsulates the challenge of being a teacher. It is ongoing, in-the-moment work that has real repercussions in both the short term and the long term. It’s intellectual, social and emotional all at once. It’s why I love teaching. But these challenges also make me wonder how long I can last in this profession.

In the end, American Teacher gets it right. The film explores the impact of a lack of resources and high rates of teacher turnover, especially in urban schools, and argues that we should recruit talented college graduates by offering competitive salaries and more professional working conditions.

I hope our country will begin to take steps in this direction. As an American teacher, I would rather be esteemed as a professional than lionized as a martyr-saint.  

Every night, I think about the decisions I’ve made that day. I evaluate and question, imagine how I will do things differently, tomorrow or next year. There is no way to be static. In their brilliance, their frustration, their apathy and their curiosity, my students demand that I become better every day. I must become better at thinking, relating, performing, deciding, planning and responding. And so every day, I try to listen and learn, experiment and explore. I engage, regularly, in an intense and exhausting process of getting better.  

This is what I want to show the world about what it means to be a good teacher. I hope our country will begin to acknowledge the complexity of this job and respond with better recruitment, education and professional support for teachers.

Melville is an English, Spanish and drama teacher in Pennsylvania.