Professionalism: A Lost Art?

Today was our first day back. No kids yet. Just teacher in-service. A few days ago, I found out that a colleague and myself were leading one of the meetings. So we got together, got ready, and had everything ready to go.

We got sort of interrupted a couple of times and it made me forget one of the things I had to tell the senior advisors. So I asked our principal to ask the group (about 9 teachers) to stay for 30 seconds after our large group meeting so I could tell them something. It wasn't a big deal, but something they needed to know so they'd be in the loop for later. Two of the teachers got up and left when we were dismissed. Myself and one of the teachers who DID stay kinda yelled, "Hey guys..." They turned around, looked at us, and the teacher said, "We gotta stay for just a second." And the two men walked away!

Are ya kiddin' me? These are professionals? And they teach our children? And we expect teenagers to act a certain way, yet we won't act that way ourselves? I was L I V I D.

Other than my daughter and my husband, teaching is my heart. I love what I do. I love young adults and the way their minds work. I even love how they think they know everything (I chuckle quite often in my job). So when I see that we have teachers in our schools who refuse to act with just plain decency, I get very angry.

It may have been different if I had done something in the past to offend these two men. But I have not. Or maybe it would be different if I was asking something above and beyond. I was not. All I asked for was 30 seconds. And the teenager with a small town Iowa attitude beats inside me when this happens. I wanna erupt. I don't. But boy do I want to.

I know professionalism is dying. I've seen it a lot of places. But we cannot allow it or accept it in our schools. It's the one place that professionalism should be at its best.