Rant incoming...

This "hero" thing our culture has been doing for a while now is really getting tiresome to me. When we pretend that having a profession makes one a hero we devalue the acts of true heroism. Gonna pick on the "teachers are heroes" thing.

My wife was telling me a story she heard from a woman that takes in many foster kids. Kids that have been abused and abandoned. These kids come from very tragic situations and often struggle in school and life in general.

Well, one of these teachers, I mean heroes told this woman that her child had to pass these quizzes for the teacher to get paid. She is aware that this child was living in hiding for the last couple years and didn't even attend school. This teacher is apparently showing no patience, compassion, or understanding to this child. It makes the blood boil. The child is doing very well considering. She is scoring A's on everything except tests. She is excited about learning! However, this teacher has been running down her student and putting pressure on her, making it about her own salary...

There are many fine teachers. I know some that are amazing people and have love and passion for the work they do but when we just use blanket statements about any group it does those that are truly extraordinary a disservice. In my experience there are many teachers that are more like villains that heroes. In this case this is a government school. They have a union and from my time working in the public education system and my father's time working in it I can tell you people like this woman are not rare. What is rare are the amazing teachers that make a massive impact on student's lives. When I worked with teachers most were new and full of passion for their work but the system grinds it out of them. Many leave the field for work that they can have more control over. If you care about your work, being a teacher is hard work. If you just want a paycheck and enjoy being a drone its not hard work. Its easy. I believe this is the main reason why we see so many terrible people in the profession.

Calling every medical person, police, firefighter, or soldier a hero is as dumb as calling every person of any group dumb or evil. It devalues those that are truly heroes.

End rant.