Are You a Professional Educator?

      There is an old saying, “those who can’t, teach.” It’s interesting how the saying seems to be used only in the area of professional education. For example, in regards to the National Basketball Association, National Football League, Major League Baseball or NCAA Coaches, we don’t hear, “those who can’t play, coach.” Professional coaches are well compensated for teaching and leading. Their jobs are to impart knowledge to already talented people or people with potential to be talented. In this paper I will compare professional teachers and professional coaches. I hope to convince educators that being a professional educator is more than merely acquiring a teaching certificate. I hope to convince educators to understand, there are standards and tools one must learn (sometimes from outside the education field) and employ, to be considered a professional educator.

      What’s the difference between professional coaches and professional educators? To answer this question the term “professional” must be defined at its most elementary level. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines professional as, “specific occupation for pay”. In this paper, professional is defined as an individual who is being paid to work fulltime as a teacher or a coach.   

      The major reason for this line on thinking is classrooms of America are no longer becoming, but already are, multicultural. Yet, those teaching in these increasingly multicultural classrooms are overwhelmingly European American or White. Many public educational studies indicate that students of color make up over 40% of America’s public school population. Studies also indicate that over 85% of their teachers are White (Albert & Yasin 1999, Anderson 2006). What effects does a predominately White teacher educational system have on the educational process and success on students of color?

Professional Teacher

      As teachers’ progress throughout their careers, they must grow and transform to remain effective (Steffy & Wolfe, 2001, p. 1). The teaching profession is or at least it should be viewed as more than a noble, sacrificing endeavor. The teaching professional should be viewed as a very important professional person whose skills are used to propel students regardless of ethnicity, gender or culture, down the road of life, to knowledge and to the pursuit of happiness. A great number of this country’s businesses, professions and vocations rely on the teaching profession to produce quality, educated and adaptable people to fill its needs. The importance for the need of committed education professionals in today’s multicultural society has become more and more evident. However, study after study has shown every student isn’t receiving the same quality of education? Why? For a number of years researchers have felt, students’ entire futures depend on the quality of their education. Student success depends greatly on the quality of the teacher (Sanders and Rivers 1996; Hanushek, Kain and Rivkin 1998). This fact is especially true when it comes to the quality of education students of color and students from diverse cultural backgrounds are receiving.