We are so looked at! All those administrators, instructional coaches, etc. who have nothing better to do than look at us, weigh us, judge us, make us accountable, make us nervous, give us too many tasks, far too many to allow us to do what we went into the profession for, to do the best job we can teaching kids a language, and ultimately to uncover a great joy of life – sharing and tasting and discovering a language and culture with others for the great benefit of all concerned. Do not we have licences? If they permit those who have earned a license to practice medicine or law to operate without constant oversight, then why not show us the same respect? We have really worked hard to come to the understandings that we have in our field. We know so much about teaching, and yet we have to fear some parents’ wrath for not teaching their kids as they think they should be taught? We have to fear being evaluated by, in my case for the past two years, a person who has no idea about best practices and current research in language instruction and who has never even taught a high school class! This outburst was prompted by an email I got today from a colleague whose brand new interest in bringing comprehension based methods into his classroom is already being met with heat from a set of parents. What is the proper response? How can we learn new things about teaching languages when people step in and suggest that we teach like they did fifty years ago? What is prompting these parents to speak in that way to him? Oh well. I’ll get over it.
