Why Would You Ever Want to Teach English?

Essays on the Teaching of English
Raymond Stopper
Based on the Book, Teaching English, How To….

Why Would You Ever Want to Teach English?

You’ve graduated from college. Now you approach your first job as an English teacher in a middle school or high school. Let me tell you about my experience in my first job as an English teacher in a high school.

In 1956, I was hired to teach English in a rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, high school.

By paying me $3200 a year, the board of education assumed that I would motivate my students to want to learn English and would teach them how to learn independently and to think critically.

The board also expected me to teach my students how to read and discuss literature, to cover the chronology of American literature, and to teach them to write clearly, concisely and correctly (at the expense of 15 minutes per paper) x 125 students [5 classes] or 31 hours per week.

Marking 8 compositions a year with 5 classes of 25 students or more added 241 hours to my work schedule in addition to lesson planning (several hours a night) and teaching (about 7 hours a day) and overseeing an extracurricular activity (2 to 3 hours per night in the spring). I was also required to assign at least one research paper.

Of course, the board expected me to teach grammar, spelling, vocabulary and public speaking and assumed that I would prepare exemplary lesson plans and would mark and return tests and compositions promptly so that students would know their grades and understand their mistakes.
To accomplish these tasks, I was given one American literature anthology and one grammar text.

Why on earth would I ever teach English, given these circumstances and requirements?

The challenge!

And in the process I grew to appreciate the personalities, skills, and creativity of my students, who taught me at least as much as I taught them.