Teaching - is it a profession

I find this an interesting question - solely for the reason that I never in my life considered teaching to not be a profession. 

As I mentioned in our VC on Sunday, both of my parents were teachers.  My mother taught middle school before becoming an administrator and my father taught high school English.  Our entire circle of family friends was comprised of my parents' teaching coworkers.  Additionally, I come from a Midwest suburban town where the majority of the adults in my community that were known to me were all educators.  It was the most dominate profession I was aware of growing up. 

To an extent I can see the points that Alan Newland provides in his article “Is Teaching a Profession? Discuss” for why some people might not consider teaching to be a true profession and even go as far as to group it with the local car mechanic and salon hair dresser.  However, I don’t think those reasons have merit or true backing for precisely the reasons that Newland goes on to later state. 

Teaching is a true profession for (1) the training that is required of them and (2) the importance of their job in the shaping and development of our children. 

Teachers are not only expected but required to go through a rigorous and thorough training process. They must meet and pass various tests that affirm they are well trained and versed in a wide range of teaching techniques, methods, skills, tools and assessments. They have to receive a formal qualification that stipulates they have achieved passing marks and are now deemed proficient to lead their own classrooms. Furthermore, in America teachers are required to seek out additional training throughout the extension of their teaching careers.  It is a lifelong profession that constantly needs and seeks improvement and development.  

Teaching is also a profession due to the role and significance it has in the shaping of our children.  Teachers are role models, they are protectors (as we have seen too often in acts of school violence), they are mentors, and tutors, coaches, and advisors.  They are trusted and honored individuals who not only teach our children the basic skills to advance in life but also as humans.  

This doesn't mean I believe that all teachers are upstanding and worthy of the praise I am writing here.  There are some bad teachers out there, but more often than not, I believe you will find true professionals who are passionate about teaching and care about their students.

I also can understand the hierarchy that is placed on teachers as they go up in level. However, I think this belief that higher education professionals are more important than primary instructors isn't as true as some would think.  Like Salman Kahn pointed out in his TED Talk "Let's use video to reinvent education", first a child must become a master at a skill before they can move on to the next level.  Children will never be the master of the basic skills without their elementary education, so therefore one could argue that the teacher who taught them to do simple addition and hold their pencil correctly is just as important as the professor that will one day teach them how cells divide and multiple.

(I want to teach elementary so I might be a bit defensive there.)

Teaching is a profession.  It is a career, a calling, a trade, a job, a walk of life.  It is a profession that is essential to our society.