I'm the Professional - Take My Word On It!

Today I found myself senselessly arguing with someone on the impact the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) has made on schools, teachers, kids, parents etc...

WHY DID I ENGAGE IN THIS CONVERSATION????

Here is the problem:
The person I was speaking to is not an educator. He is a business man. I will call him Mr X. He has no clue about the "real world" of education. He just knows what he has heard on the radio and TV, or what others have told him. To be fair, he is a well educated and well read person. He actually is a pretty nice guy too.

Well This is Actually How it Happened:
I was talking to a parent of a child in school. Mr. X overheard our conversation and invited himself in on our conversation and started trying to explaing NCLB to me. TO ME!!! PLEASE!!!

My Issues With Mr. X:
1) First of all - don't just jump into my conversations!
2) Don't try and tell me, someone in the field, what is going on in my field.
3) I am a professional - I am an educator - I know what I am doing and saying. If I say something is happening a certain way take my word on it.

Issue #3 really burns me up. I think that a lot of my frustration with Mr. X was because he didn't really take what I said at face value. This happens a lot with teachers I think. So many people pass judgments on us because from where they are standing there are always easy solutions to the problems in education. I have to also admit that I get most irritated at business men and women (actually no business women have ever pissed me off but I am trying to be gender neutral here!) who think that they can solve the problems in education like they do in business. It is not the same!

We teachers (most of us at least) work very hard each and every day. In addition to our class time duties, we take work home, go to a lot of professional development on a regular basis, read many professional journals and theory manuals to keep current and strive to be the best we can be. I would bet that we put in just as many or even more hours than other professionals do. I know that from the outside it looks like we have the cushiest job ever. However, we really do work just as hard as other professionals.

Maybe I have turned this post into a somewhat incoherent rant. What is my bottom line?
Respect me and other teachers as the professionals that we are.

We really do know what we are talking about.

Take our word on it!