In a society where everyone is told to try their hardest, teachers are doing exactly that. They wake up to come to work and hopefully teach future generations and lead them on the path to success. Because of their teachings, students have grown up to become doctors finding cures for diseases and engineers creating innovative technology.

Even when students are very young, teachers become role models. Think back to kindergarten. Normally, nobody remembers the everyday lesson besides the alphabet or numbers. What most people remember, though, is how their teacher made them feel and if they enjoyed the time while in that class.

Tests start to become harder for some students as they grow because they have begun to stop caring about their education. Instead of focusing on academics, students start to participate in a variety of different events. In turn, they spend less time on their school work. When students fail a test, sometimes they blame the teacher for not explaining the material properly, even when the students themselves were the ones ignoring the lesson being presented.

Students come from various backgrounds and home lives, and it is often that teachers find themselves switching out of the “teacher hat” and into other roles. They become a second parent and even a friend. Sometimes students are just having a hard time and need a person to guide them.

Teaching is rarely a job that can be left at work, and teachers often take their work home with them. They use their time to create lesson plans and grade assignments. A common assumption made by society is that teachers have such an easy job and that they must really enjoy their summers. Everyone has had a teacher at some point in their life, so it is hard to understand how this has continued to be how so many people view their occupation. More often than not, a teacher will spend their summer looking for new curriculum and developing better teaching methods to relate to the students. They get paid the same whether they leave the school at 3:30  in the afternoon or 10:00 at night, and normally do not receive any overtime.

During a study on robots and their likelihood of taking over certain occupations, grade-school teachers ranked among the lowest on the list. Human interaction in the education and upbringing of young people is needed for students to truly be able to learn and grow during their studies in school.

Instead of teachers being blamed for a student’s failure of tests or homework assignments, teachers should and need to be recognized for their contributions to society. They chose this career to help their students, not for their own self-praise. Society needs to see the difference that a teacher can make in the lives of their children and help them instead of misunderstanding them.