Teachers: World Record Performers

The news that Phantom of the Opera reached a milestone in the number of Broadway performances got me thinking about all the teachers, who say, “I’m on all day!” It’s true; teachers make two-a-day theater performances seem weak in comparison. I don’t think you can find more iron-horse performers than teachers.

Seriously, when you think about it, teaching requires more than one script each day, and possibly as many as 5-7—and most likely there are normally more performances than that. It’s like learning the lines and blocking for Phantom, Spider-man, Anything Goes, and flying like Mary Poppins at the same time—and in most cases, doing Tony Award presentations to an audience that may not want to be in the seats. Now, on a good day, that’s exhausting, but on a day when your throat is a bit sore, or your body is a bit beat, the task can be like doing the rain dance from Singin’ In The Rain.

Just for kicks, if you break down teaching performances over a 35-year education career, where a teacher has just 5 classes a day for an 180-day school year, it would amount to about 31,500 teaching performances. I know it’s more. There are all those encore performances for parents as well. Open house is always an evening gig that requires athletic stamina—especially after teaching all day.  Can you image all the different scenes in each lesson, which require ad-libbing! I think those may be called teachable moments. They usually get rave reviews over home conversations.

I don’t know any stage actors, who would allow others to just walk in, and park themselves on stage, but I know that there’s usually a constant walk through of adults, breaking into the classroom scenes daily—observing, aiding students, and announcing things that could wait, but always need announcing, because they seem too important to forget. And if you think cell phones during performances are a disturbance, let’s try dismissing members of the audience for bathroom breaks, controlling Sally’s temper when Johnny takes her paper or pencil—or remembering lines when an outburst of “This is boring, why do we have to learn it!” is blurted out, at a most inconvenient time. Just imagine how Katherine Hepburn would have handled any of that!

Here’s what I’m thinking. Shouldn’t teachers be enjoying a talk with Charlie Rose, and a George Clooney-style interview at a riverfront home? How about an Oprah sit down with some great teaching performers, or a reality show that portrays great teaching performances. I’d rather hear more from the multitude of great teaching performers than about a few bad apples—who draw attention away from the world record holding stars of the profession. It’s time to recognize what a monumental task teaching is, and reward teachers with the respect they deserve. Heck, I’m thinking stage and screen star status for teachers is quite fitting.