Teaching children is an interesting occupation.  I've worked for the U.S. Army as a supply clerk.  I've worked for a local camera repair shop.  I've been on the phones as a caller, supervisor, recruiter and trainer.  I've worked in five different call centers.

















 
I sold things not worth buying.  I took care of things I could care less about.  I understood and lived in each one of those systems for a paycheck.  I pretended to care when I didn't.  I feigned ignorance when convenient.  Call centers had so many names flowing through as employees that the call centers quickly became the places with no names.  The call centers I worked in were generally transient like migrant camps.
 
Teaching is a very open-ended occupation.  Essentially, the day to day function of teaching is imagining what a child can do to demonstrate they understand something they've been taught.  Some very intelligent people have suggested good teaching is almost like not teaching at all.  Let the student direct their own learning and only facillitate that learning rather than setting up opportunities for call and response.

That is an open-ended proposition like none other I've experienced any where else.  The call centers either had a script to read or bullet points of information to follow.  Repairing cameras was a pretty straight forward troubleshooting flowchart (not to say it wasn't challenging.)  The teacher, however, assumes the role of being an expert on almost everything.  Even when they don't, the kids will try to put them in that role, because the kids want an expert.  They want someone who knows to teach them.
 
The good teacher maintains an air of confidence, even when they're not correct.  Working on the air in radio was like that as well.  Even when you have nothing to say, you say something and you say it with confidence.  The worst thing to hear in radio is dead air.  You must move thought and conversation in some particular direction.  It is one thing to assume the role of mentor and something entirely different to assume the role of an expert.  If not an expert in subject matter, then at least, an assumed expert on the process to get through the subject matter.
 
This expertise on process over subject is visible in many of the places I've worked over time.  People who lacked subject matter expertise were all too often in charge of my promotions.  These people who were well studied in theory often led unpracticed existences within the confines of a company.  Claiming innate knowledge of how things were supposed to be done trumped actually understanding how things should be done and often times it was very depressing to many employees.
 
Sprint was my longest employer and they have many people filling jobs they know very little about.  Whatever experience passed for acceptable led to many managers being capable of quoting process and procedure while being completely incompetent in managing people (whether employee or customer.)  Helping a screaming customer as manager is much different than helping a screaming customer without the manager's name badge.  Several managers refused to help customers even when specifically requested by the customer.  These managers ran their stores horribly and one could tell the moment they walked through the door.
 
Employees were unmotivated and unhappy.  As no surprise the customers were also generally not happy.  And they let Sprint know it in a big way.  In teaching that leads to one of my areas of concern.  Do teachers really understand their customer?  Is it the kid in our classroom or the parent at home?  Is it the principal, district or the state?  Who is the customer driving what a teacher does?  Demands are coming from everywhere and people can only do so much at any one time to provide satisfaction.
 
Teaching contracts run year to year.  As much as possible I run my classroom day to day.  Everyday is a new day to redeem ourselves before ourselves.
 
And a trick I learned, supervising in a call center, to help my team maintain a healthy and happy environment is starting each day by saying hello and addressing each person under my charge by their name.  That is the biggest problem I continue to see in many different work places.  Rather than talking to people, many managers address their employees.  Rather than talking to people, many employees address customers.  Rather than talking to people, many teachers address students.
 
Each day individuals walk through my door and I address each as an individual as often as I can possibly manage.  
 
This I've learned from private employment!