3. Evolution
However, not feeling guilty is more than just about a timeless characteristic of educations and modeling academic and career success for students. The third reason teacherpreneurs need to approach their on edventure boldly is too evolve not only themselves and their students, but also to advance the learning within the bigger picture. A teacher plays a key role in making the world a better place, and often the results aren’t seen until years later.
Did Aristotle realize that his works would have deep and lasting influences in fields, such as rhetoric, science, politics, art, cartography, etc.? As he researched and cataloged a continuous flow of organic and inorganic artifacts sent from Alexander the Great’s campaigns in the east over an eleven year period, did he know about the lasting effects of his research? Probably not.
Similarly, as educators who have evolved as edupreneurs, we won’t necessarily know how our contributions to our students’ success and our respective fields will play out in the long term. Most of us who have been in the profession for a while have watched some students go on to start their own businesses or non-profits. We have seen others who win awards for their work in a field we helped inspire them to pursue. I’ve even had a few apply for teaching jobs in my department. I would also like to think that some of my writing and work in the area of human rights and ethnic preservation have had a lasting influence.
Teacherpreneurs must not feel guilty because the very example they set can change the world.
4. Survival
The fourth reason that edupreneurs must not give in to feelings of culpability is also inherent in our very being. We, too, must survive. Salaries in education are lower than in other professions with similar training, professional development, and training requirements. Budget cuts often include people, and the days of working an entire career at one school are over. For example, the inner city high school I spent nearly a decade devoting my life to chose to end all foreign language instruction in spite of the awards my students and I had won that year. The district did offer to retain me, but teaching in a role that would have been a step backward not forward. I chose to move on. Not everyone had this chance. Similar scenarios where award-winning, innovative programs and their edupreneurs are cut play out all too often.
At the postsecondary level and with the advance of online education, an increasing number of adjuncts are hired to teacher courses at multiple institutions with seat maximums steadily rising. When the e-learning revolution began around the new millennium, seat counts for online courses were typically limited to 18 students. It quickly jumped to almost twice that number, and now open courses with unlimited enrollment are all the rage. MOOCs often offer little or no faculty involvement, which leaves adjuncts in a worse position than ever before (c.f. the New Faculty Majority’s “Adjuncts as Donors” series). Having pointed out some of these issues, it’s not realistic to expect educators to maintain a normal standard of living for themselves and their families within this sinking big picture.
Teachers must become teacherpreneurs to survive, and if they must also sell lesson plans, move from one good opportunity to a better one, or otherwise climb that very same career ladder we encourage students to advance upon, there is no reason to feel guilty.
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