After 21 years in education, I’ve come to believe that the best teachers all share two traits.
I once had a retired principal tell me, “You can either do the job, or you can’t.” He was fond of saying common sense isn’t very common, and there’s a lot of truth in that. But the longer I’ve done this, the more specific I’ve gotten because good teachers are a special breed of people, and I believe that it’s these two things that make them that way.
The first is conscientiousness. The details matter to them. I know an outstanding principal whose entire philosophy is “everything matters.” When everything matters, you pay attention to the details. Nothing slips through the cracks. You think through every contingency, you think about why something might fail before you ever do it, and you fix it in advance. Watch these teachers in action and you’ll see every second of every day planned to perfection. They’re never caught off guard by a student’s behavior or a question; they seem to know the answer before the student knows to ask it. These are the teachers who can sponsor two sports and the math team and run the county tournament, and the administration never has to worry. They have it handled.
The second trait is what makes that level of conscientiousness sustainable: resilience. You’ve got to be tough, mentally and physically, to endure long hours of thinking, because thinking wears most people down. Decision fatigue is real, and it breaks a lot of good people, but not the resilient. The best teachers find coping mechanisms that let them last, and they love the game. These are the ones who don’t complain; they just find a way, a solution, and get the job done.
That’s the promise in Galatians 6:9: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season, we shall reap, if we faint not.” That’s exactly what resilient people do. They don’t grow weary. They last. You are perfectly made for a time such as now. Education is hard, but it’s worth it. So today, know this: you are talented, smart, tough, and you will reap the reward for doing well.
Robin