Ieshia Booker

March 23, 2015

ENGL 1001

Research Draft Paper

A Teacher’s Point of View

Most people should appreciate the teachers they have today. Teachers are here to

support, inform students of the subject their teaching by hoping to lead these students to a

path to follow their dreams. In this paper, I want to explain what teachers had to go

through, what teachers have to experience in the 1960s, why was teaching their passionate

or dream. I also would like to explain my grandmother journey as being and her teachings.

Throughout many years teachers went through a lot to get where they are today, why

teachers wanted to become a teacher, stress they developed, how to cope with stress,

fighting through segregation, having psychological issues, political views, voting rights, the

environment they taught in, and limited rights women

had.

My grandmother’s name is Dorothy Gross. Dorothy

Gross was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. Dorothy

Gross graduated from Jackson State University in 1964 of

May, then she became a teacher in 1964. She was a

teacher for nearly 30 years. She taught 1st, 4th and 5th

grade. When she began teaching in 1964, the school

Dorothy Gross is in the Middle after receiving her Golden Diploma. 24 AUG 2014 Photo taken by myself

became an all-black schools called in the Mississippi Delta. In the 1968 black teachers in

Mississippi weren’t allowed to vote, if they voted they would lose their jobs. Teachers faced

so many obstacles during these times. Teachers were being publish-sized on the news

about the segregation. Because the integrated school teachers couldn’t teach students that

were the opposite color. Dorothy Gross became very stressed as being a teacher. The

problems she faced that made her stressful as being a teacher were the increase size in

students in her class, range of materials, knowing how to teach to each individual student

differently, providing examples, and loads of paperwork. Through all the rough times she

had during her teaching years, she really enjoyed everything that she have done for her

students. “If I wasn’t retired, I would still continue to teach.” Dorothy Gross says. Now she

volunteers at Jackson State University and help college students that are having troubles in

English. Recently Dorothy Gross received a Golden Diploma for being an alumni of 50 years

at Jackson State University. She

also volunteers with her alumni

group and host fundraisers to

raise money to students that

are struggling to pay for college.

Even though teachers

went through several obstacles

to teacher the way they would

like to teacher, they also don’t

Paes, David. Teachers Plant Seeds of Knowledge That Grow Forever. Digital image. The Children’s Academic Learning Center Teaching Staff. Mary Procaccino, Web. <http://www.childrensacademiclearningcenter.com/html/teachers.html>.

forget why they became a teacher. Most people such as my grandmother Dorothy Gross and

others wanted to become a teacher because it was a desire and/ or a dream they had since

when they were a child. Teaching can be a challenging and frustrating job at times. If you

want to be a teacher you should have the passion to love to teach other people what you

have been taught. Some teachers love their job because they enjoy making the difference in a

students’ life. Teachers are molding the future by impacting students to learn and understand

and view their live career. Teaching skills involve a variety of things. Teaching is about

creativity and making sure you get whatever your teaching gets through to the students so

they have a clear and great understanding. You have to develop character, inspire and see

the potential and success in the students to know how to continue going forward. Teachers

should continue laughing daily. Teachers enjoy engaging in a student’s life and thoughts, and

knowing that you’re a lifelong learner is your goal. People don’t seem to realize but

someone’s personality and humor can help someone greatly throughout their lives’.

Teachers have many advantages that many other worker do not such as mechanics,

office works etc. Teachers get a little perk by getting the summers and winter, spring breaks

off. Those breaks are a get way to get a little rest and relaxation to gather their thoughts for

the next opportunity to teach. Teachers have very reasonable hours to booked vacation time

ahead. Teachers had great job security. Most students would expect teachers to know

everything but that’s not the case, teachers know their topic but if they’re not sure about

something teaching is a non-judgmental job such as others. Some jobs prefer that every

worker they have to perfect in the field their working in but others may not. Teaching is a

dynamic career. It’s good to adapt and grow over a period of time helps you become well

suited for a non-stop learning and new teaching methods. Another perk of being a teacher is

that you can start fresh every year over. The point to being a teacher is to inspire others and

share your passion.

Teachers may care a lot of weigh on their shoulders. With all the weigh that teachers

hold it can it can lead to stress and/ or a teacher burnout. Stress is a mental and/or an

emotional strain or tension that can be a result in a very demanding circumstance. Stress

sometimes isn’t a bad think at all, you just have to know to balance it. Stress can lead to

emotional exhaustion, behavior change and sometimes a teacher burnout that can lead to

leave the profession. A teacher burnout is a common problem that happen to teacher in the

beginning of their 3 year teaching career.

Majority of all teachers develop

stress but in many articles such as Teachers

Stress and Coping: Does the Process Differ

According to Years of Teaching Experience?

By Jeffry Child Beers says “The most

frequency reported demands were

problems with students (40%), followed by

workload (18%) and parents (15%); (2) the

most frequency reported appraisal was

extreme negative emotion (44%).” p.1 There’s many causes of stress that people don’t

Plante, The ChattanoogaTimes. Sympathy For The Modern School Teacher. Digital image. N.p., 6 Nov. 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2001.

notice. Many people can become stressed from personal issues or work related issues.

Work-related stress that are more common in being a teacher. Work-related stress for

teachers are poor planning, workload, increasing class size and pressure on professional

skills. Other common work related stress for teachers are having difficulty with parent and

student relationships, inadequate salary, working alone then transitioning to team work,

having new teaching methods, changing in courses and curriculums. Extreme workload is a

type of a stress that fall underneath many categories such as a workload of work hours,

excessive paperwork, environmental noise, lack of time for themselves and lack of control

in their teaching/ personal life.

Teaching can be a stressful job. Nearly 55% of teachers (K-12) stress from teaching

each year. With all the stress that teachers can

hold a lot of weigh on their shoulders, there

are many ways to cope with the stress. You can

cope with stress by stop smoking and reducing

caffeine. Caffeine has the effect of making

yourself tired and you start to lose your focus.

Most people consider to cut back on worrying

about things that aren’t as important, practice

anger management, aromatherapy, diet,

exercise regularly, and managing your

impulses. Coping with stress makes your work

Silves, Jennifer. National Education Statistics. Digital image. Teachers Battle Stress While Upholding New Standards. Jennifer Ryan, 16 Apr. 2014. Web. <http://jenniferryancreative.com/540/>.

lifestyles very easier. Stress can come upon many teachers. To make teaching easier and

less stressful, you can have organizational tools, managing change, and sort of your

priorities and put aside work every week for yourself at least a few hours. Coping with

stress can be very easy.

During the 1800 and 1900s, segregation started to take a toll on many people

especially teachers. In the late 1880s Nebraska, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Indiana,

and Michigan adopted a law that had band racial discrimination in public places such as

schools, restaurants, restrooms and etc. Also in the 1880s, over 1,000 American teachers

from K-12 public schools across the county were becoming to be largely segregated.

Because segregation was so curial, different races had different teachers. African American

teachers were in schools that had 3/5 of students with low income, and it was common that

out of all of black students only 5-6

mothers were educated. While

white teachers had 7/20 also had

low income but had more white

children that were frequent in

speaking English. After American

Americans were still separated from

whites, the case Plessy v. Ferguson

was ruled by the Supreme Court in

1896. Because Plessy v. Ferguson

Iwasaki, Carl. Nostalgia For What's Been Lost Since "Brown V. Board" Digital image. Nostalgia For What's Been Lost Since "Brown V. Board" Karen Gribsby Bates, 17 May 2014. Web. Mar. 1953. <http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/05/14/312555307/nostalgia-for-whats-been-lost-since-brown-v-board>.

became a case it meant that it was equal but separated, but it made sure that blacks and

white did not violate the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th amendment. Later then years

after segregation Adam Fairclough created a book called “A Class of Their Own: Black

teachers in the segregated South”. This book was created to explain that African American

teachers tried, achieved the education in the South black population over the century. This

book is a bold version of black teachers that were men and women and what they faced as

being a teacher. Fairclough explains how teachers were inspired and motivates generations

of children, young adults, and knowledge that helped racial pride and equality.

Teachers went through several things, mainly the teachers that lived or

worked in Mississippi in the 1960’s suffered many terrible things. Voting rights became a

concerns to many black men and women. Blacks in Mississippi started to be allowed to vote

the passage of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution in 1868, but southern states still

made it hard for blacks to have access to the voting booths. In 1964 southern states, fewer

than 40 percent blacks have been registered to vote, while blacks in Mississippi dropped to

a 6.4 percent. So many people have fought against it, SNCC (Student Nonviolent

Coordinating Committee) was created in 1964 but the police later arrested them. Because

of this problem, it increased the tension between the blacks and whites.

Many African Americans in Mississippi and many other southern states tried hard

as much as they could to be separate but equal to whites. In May 17, 1954 Brown vs. Board

of Education of Topeka, Kansas ruled that “Separate but equal” for public schools, it turned

over the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decisions. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting

Rights Act of 1965. Even though there was the 15th and 19th amendment to the U.S

Constitution meant for black men and women, they were allowed to use register boards,

poll taxes, literacy taxes but they also have the right to deny any African American their

legal rights. By 1968, 60 percent of African American became eligible to vote in Mississippi

and many other southern states for improvement. Teachers had legal rights to do and/or

say anything they did not like as long as it doesn’t ham others. Public school teacher had

free speech rights. They had free speech rights that could be posted outside of the school,

inside the classroom, they clothing that the teachers wore, bulletin boards and the office

decorations or classroom decorations. Teachers could not lose their jobs or disciplined

under these circumstances for free speech. Free speech for however the teacher decides to

express themselves in or out the classroom, their comment is considered as public

importance.

African Americans had many problems. Teaching became very hard for students

and teachers. Classes begin to become overcrowded. The classes where extremely crowded

because there weren’t many African American teachers. The teachers had to teach in

unsafe environments. The school had gotten so bad that the building would start crumbing

down and the ceilings would leak every time they had bad weather. But nevertheless the

African American teachers still taught in those environments. The white schools received

more money than the African American schools. A lot of times African American students

would get pulled out of their classrooms to help their parents with the farm because many

of their parents where sharecroppers. After all the events that African American students

and teachers suffered, there was finally a solution that would help hopefully change. In

1954 of May, the Supreme Court ruled that Equal Protection of the 14th amendment clauses

but during the following year the court was told to order a desegregation of the schools.

The 14th amendment started to take action for public education.

Teachers went through a series of obstacles. Even though the obstacles were

hard, women that were teachers had it harder than normal. Women faced several new

challenges. Women already had

few rights as it is but being a

teacher limited their rights.

Women could not do many things

such as vote, marry, become a

Supreme Court justice, become

pregnant, and have a credit card

in their own name. Men didn’t

think that women teachers were

capable of teaching. Having women and me have different gender role became a large gap

our society. But because of that, it never stopped our women. Many people treated the

opposite sex different than the other for many varies reasons.

Women struggled and fought to become a teacher for many years, made it

possible in the 1920s. Because women were not able to be married while teaching, they

decided to do it secretly. Women lived separately from their husbands. After many years

Gail Baines, Clarke. Digital image. Madame Noire. N.p., 1 Mar. 2013. Web. <http://madamenoire.com/264838/good-idea-or-too-soon-chicago-public-schools-want-to-start-teaching-a-form-of-sex-education-to-kids-in-kindergarten/>.

the marriage bar was lifted for teachers in 1944. In New Zealand of 1893, women started to

achieve suffrage on the national level same as the men. But in 1902 everyone but American,

Canadian and British did not get the same rights until the end of WWI. Susan B. Anthony,

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and many others fought for women’s limited rights. After that

Stanton and Anthony decided to create an organization that would work on women’s

suffrage is the National Women Suffrage Association. This organization helped lift the

marriage bar for women. The fought every day and until they were satisfied by the

decisions of what they could or could not do.

Throughout many years teachers went through a lot to get where they are today,

why teachers wanted to become a teacher, stress they developed, how to cope with stress,

fighting through segregation, having psychological issues, political views, voting rights, the

environment they taught in, and limited rights women had. Teaching can be overwhelming at

times, but if you love to help others further their career teaching is a job for you. Teachers

are very strong and highly mentality to express their profession. Teachers should also love to

help students come out of their shells and push them to be everything that they said they

wanted to be. Teachers enjoy telling their education experience to others, hoping and trying

to inspire them to do so. Teachers should also be able to handle great feedback from

everyone mainly your supervisor and/or anyone above or on the same level as the teacher.

Teaching for many years has developed extremely and they have strived for everything they

have today. Teachers are greatly appreciated.

Work Citied

Fairclough, Adam. Black Teachers and the Struggle for Racial Equality. Digital image. Humanities and Social Sciences. Davison M Douglas, Apr. 2002. Web. <http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6156>.

Orfield, Gary. The Segregation of American Teachers. Digital image. The Civil Rights Project. Erica Frankenberg, 01 Dec. 2006. Web. <http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/the-segregation-of-american-teachers>.

Segregation. Digital image. Teacher Serve. Steven F. Lawson, 08 Apr. 2015. Web. <http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1865-1917/essays/segregation.htm>.

Abernathy, Sandra. What Stresses Student Teachers Most? Digital image. What Stresses Student Teachers Most? Taylor & Francis, Ltd., Apr. 1985. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/30186427>. Pdf.

Nagel, Liza, and Sheri Brown. The ABCs of Managing Teacher Stress. Digital image. The ABCs of Managing Teacher Stress. Taylor & Francis, Ltd., May-June 2003. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/30189843>. Pdf.

Hunt, Chris. The Work-life Balance Basics: 10 Stress- Busting Tips for Teachers. Digital image. The Guardian. Chris Hunt, 25 June 2013. Web. <http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/jun/25/teacher-work-life-balance-stress-tips>.

Hawkins Eskridge, Denise, and Donald R. Coker. Teacher Stress: Symptoms, Causes, and Management Techniques. Digital image. Teacher Stress: Symptoms, Causes, and Management Techniques. Taylor & Francis, Ltd., May 1985. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/30186436?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents>. Pdf

Childs Beers, Jeffry. Teacher Stress and Coping: Does the Process Differ According to Years of Teaching Experience. Digital image. Jeffry Childs Beers, 2012. Web. <http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1808&context=open_access_etds>.

Voting Rights Act of 1965. Digital image. CORE. N.p., 08 Apr. 2015. Web. <http://www.core-online.org/History/voting_rights.htm>. 

Olson, Tod. History: The Right to Vote. Digital image. Teachers Where Teachers Come First. N.p., 2015. Web. <http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/history-right-vote>.

Why Consider Becoming a Teacher? Digital image. UNC- Best. University of North Carolina, 2008. Web. <http://www.unc.edu/uncbest/teacher.html>.

10 Reasons to Become a Teacher. Digital image. Teaching Community Where Teachers Meet and Learn. N.p., 2015. Web. <http://teaching.monster.com/education/articles/1989-10-reasons-to-become-a-teacher>.

"Women's History in America." WIC - Women's History in America. Women's International Center, 1994. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. <http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm>.