Geeti Amiri was close to breaking down in front of the class. She had decided to set higher expectations for a handful of the class’s most challenging students, and then hell broke loose. One of the boys, in particular, rallied the others, and together they drove their Danish teacher to the brink by defying all rules. They refused to do what she asked, laughed defiantly and exchanged knowing glances.
Geeti Amiri remembers that, in desperation, she finally said, »Listen up: Teachers are human beings too«.
»When I got home, I was completely exhausted and on the verge of tears because I genuinely want these students to have positive experiences«, she explains about the incident at a previous workplace.
»But then, unbelievably, I received a message on Aula from some parents asking me what I was thinking saying that teachers were human beings, and what kind of way was that to act as a teacher? They really let me have it«, Amiri recalls, sitting totally stunned.
»It was a very telling moment for me. Many parents give their children the impression that we teachers are people you can just yell at, as if we were made of Teflon. But everything that happens in my teaching life, of course, affects other aspects of my life«, she says.
»I’ve been hurt so badly by it«.
Fed up with ’negotiator kids’
Today, Geeti Amiri works as a public school teacher at Guldberg School in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, where she teaches 8th-grade students in English and Christianity and serves as a support teacher for 1st-graders. Many know her as a debater focused on the rights of immigrant women, but in 2018 she decided to study to become a teacher. Today, she is happy to be part of a well-functioning teaching team that works together effectively. But the path there has been quite frustrating.
As a newly hired teacher, she experienced a massive gap between theory and practice, which she believes is the major flaw in the teacher education today.
»Many teachers are hit hard by reality because we are told a lot of nice and inclusive things in our education, but the reality is: There are parents who write to you saying you’re terrible. Out of their frustration over not being able to help their child, they turn everything against you. And there are students who, in their failures and diagnoses, test you every single day«, Amiri says.
What has especially surprised her is how much both students and parents feel that teaching is negotiable. That she cannot just assert herself and achieve her teaching goals by virtue of being a teacher and that everything is up for discussion.
»I’ve experienced this so many times: You come into a class and set clear expectations, such as bathroom breaks or rules about chewing gum, and then I’ve had a class in revolt«.
»Professionals often explain it by saying that the students ’don’t have a relationship with you yet’. But if we have to wait for the relationship to be built before they understand that I am the adult who should be teaching them, then we will spend many school days on relationship-building instead of what it’s about, namely learning«.
‘Me-me-me’-parents
Geeti Amiri has a one-year-old son at home herself and fully understands that as a parent, you want the best for your child. However, she has been surprised by how intense and demanding many parents are today. Among colleagues, they call them ’assertive’.
»It is particularly in the lower grades that many parents are constantly focused on ’me, me, me’. This is especially true for the resourceful parent group that both engages in the school board, is active on Aula, and ensures they become contact parents. I have often wanted to say: Are you aware of how much time and energy your child takes from the child whose parents can’t navigate Aula or never attend voluntary parent meetings?«.
And that encapsulates public school’s major challenge at the moment, she believes: It does not accommodate those who really need it.
»When the upper middle class thinks the teacher is not professionally competent, or that there are too many disturbances and replacements in teachers, they can simply choose a private school or a boarding school. While the child whose parents are typically unskilled or perhaps not even employed, gets left behind in every way«.
Geeti Amiri has chosen to enroll her son in a private school to have a ’plan B’ for public school.
»I did not do this out of the belief that my child is particularly intellectual, but because there is a different respect for the teacher’s role, which is recognized. There is less noise, fewer replacements in teachers, and more tools in the toolbox«.
Can you understand that some people think: You are a public school teacher yourself, you should be the one enrolling your son in a public school?
»It is fair to criticize me for that, but my son is not a rabbit used for experiments. I do my very best every day so that students get something out of the lessons. But the struggle that I and my colleagues fight daily also requires that I can come home and not be completely shattered and worried about my son«.
More community, less individual
Geeti Amiri believes one of the main problems is the contemporary view of children, which is very inclusive and sometimes goes too far.
»There is too much emphasis on everything being fun, exciting, and engaging with participation. But life cannot always be a party. Children are so used to constant entertainment that they have a hard time sitting still for half an hour and receiving instruction«.
Another problem is the political focus on the individual, Geeti Amiri believes.
»It is much about embracing the individual child, which is fine, but then you also need to equip that child to engage in communities. It is useless to have children in the class wearing ear protection because the class is noisy and the community cannot consider that particular student«, she says.
»Inclusion is here to stay, but in the attempt to embrace everyone, public school has almost become a place that cannot embrace anyone. Therefore, it is important that we teachers speak openly about the fact that public school is insanely pressured and needs help«.
What is the solution, do you think?
»We need a solid teacher education, more peace, less parental interference, fewer political demands, and more respect and trust«.
Why do you stay in the profession despite the challenges?
»My old public school teachers explained it like this: »We knew we couldn’t save everyone, but we knew we could save a few«. It is the same thought that got me through my first year as a teacher, because wow, I was tested. I sat with my director once a week and cried because it was so tough. But you endure because you believe you are making a difference. The day you stop believing that, you should hang up your boots as a public school teacher«.
