Teachers as Professionals

This is in response to our discussion on whether or not teaching has a specific base of knowledge, similar to that of doctors and lawyers, and whether or not teaching is considered a profession. Strike states that for teaching to be considered a profession “the knowledge base must be esoteric”. From what I gathered from the reading and our class discussion, teachers are not viewed to have knowledge that is esoteric and the average person is capable of walking into a classroom and teaching the students what they need to know. If I understand this correctly then I could not disagree more. I do understand that the average person knows that 2 x 2 = 4. But, my argument is that the average person probably does not know how to teach this to a 3rd grader and know of alternative ways to teach a particular student that is not able to grasp the concept. The average person probably does not have the classroom management skills to deal with students who are acting out or not following directions. The average person also could not teach a child the seven steps to throwing a ball. All of these examples are what I believe to be esoteric knowledge that teachers posses because of their professional training. If the average person is able to do these things, then why are we all spending thousands of dollars to learn classroom management procedures, how to work with students with special needs, and specific subject matter (in my case, kinesiology, motor skills, exercise science, etc)?

On the first floor of Withers there is a quote that says “Teaching is the profession that teaches all other professions”. I was very surprised that a room full of future teachers did not have a lot to say about the fact that if we consider being a doctor or lawyer a profession, then why are the teachers that prepare them for their profession not considered professionals? I understand that a 2nd grade teacher is not specifically responsible for teaching someone how to become a doctor. But I do believe that teachers in general have the ability to prepare a student for their future profession by teaching them valuable lessons such as respect, responsibility, social skills, etc. I know that there are other people in their life that they can learn this from, but if you think about it, teachers are with their students more than their parents are throughout the week. So who is really doing the teaching?

The bottom line is that teachers go through extensive training (content knowledge and pedagogy) that, in my opinion, set them apart from the average person. Everyone, no matter what type of job they hold, was at some point in their life taught by teachers. So why is our trade not viewed as a respectful profession? Am I completely off base here?