Why teaching is so hard

Recently, Adam Grant wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times, "Those Who Can Do, Can't Teach."  It's a thoughtful piece, skewering the old nostrum about teachers not having skills to be successful in "the real world."  Grant suggests that you should seek teachers who are not naturally talented, have practiced their craft recently, and who are great communicators. 

That seems like smart advice to me.  Yet it seems to create a picture of a teacher as someone whose main function is to impart riveting, engaging lectures which keeps the audience in mind.  Grant's article is really interesting, but it recreates the idea that a teacher is an explainer of stuff.

Teachers are also expected to have mastered a huge variety of skills in a variety of domains, even if they're going to be judged basically competent.  Expert teachers are Swiss Army Knives.  They're a kind of special forces opp.  There's a great graphic titled "A Good Teacher" on page 12 of this document by Research for Better Teaching that supports my observation.

On the left hand side, there's a small chart that's titled "What people think it takes" and lists four elements: "Smart, Literate, Content Knowledge, Other Things." 

Hilariously, "Other Things" is a call-out section on the right hand side of the page which includes a few of the things that are also essential:

• family/community relations
• cultural proficiency
• data analysis
• team collaboration skills
• planning
• motivation
• instruction
• management
• technology
• concept specific pedagogy
• content analysis skills

The sheer complexity of the job is important to keep in mind.