Teachers Are Adult Professionals, Not Children
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder argues that school cultures that infantilize teachers — with hall passes, candy rewards, and permission-based systems — undermine the profession.
Key Takeaways
- Treat teachers as adults - Professional respect means not subjecting teachers to childish systems
- Infantilizing practices erode morale - When adults are treated like children, they stop investing in the organization
- Professional culture attracts professionals - Schools that treat teachers as experts attract and retain better talent
Transcript
Teachers are adults and deserve to not be treated like children.
And that sounds obvious, but I see so many examples of situations where teachers are being treated like they're students.
And I think it comes from, maybe I'm wrong, but I think it comes from people who become principals who really liked being teachers and maybe were really good teachers, but never really mentally made the transition to thinking of the people they work with as adults.
You know, when you go from working with kids to working with adults, you have to think, I can't treat these adults the same way I treated my kids.
You know, in a lot of cases, there are things we shouldn't be doing for kids either, like relying heavily on rewards and treats and things like that.
But I just see time after time, Teachers getting treated like their children with, you know, a pizza party, a jeans pass, a cute little note here and there.
And, like, I'm not opposed to some nice stuff, some cute stuff.
I'm not, like, an especially cutesy person, as you may have guessed.
But we've got to see people as adult professionals, though, and not like...
kids?
And I don't know, like maybe I'm a grump about this, but like are you seeing ways that teachers are being treated like children by their principals rather than like the adults and professionals they are?
You know, the pizza party thing, the icebreaker thing, the like games and entertainment in staff meetings when like everybody has serious work to do, they need to get into their classrooms.
It just seems like if we could all take a deep breath and remember that we are professionals doing professional work and to think about other professions, like would you feel think this was weird if it happened at your architect or your accountant or your attorney's office like some of the stuff that I hear going on in schools like it sounds like this person would have been a really really fun teacher if you were like a first grader but as an adult it just seems weird and demeaning so I don't know again I don't want to be too much of a grump about this but maybe I am let me know what you're seeing and let me know what you think