More Than Just The Ag Teacher

Recently a poem came across my Facebook feed being shared by many of my fellow agriculture teacher friends called “Please Pardon the Ag Teacher“, so naturally I had to read it. Even though I whole hardily agree and embrace most of it, there were two little phrases that rubbed me the wrong way as they seemed to encompass most of the things that had recently really been bothering me within my career choice.

Those lines were “The job they choose is not just a job, it’s a lifestyle” and “It’s a profession where you clock in when you sign your first teaching contract and never truly ever clock out.”.

We are currently struggling to get people to want to join our profession and struggling to get people to stay in it, even though we have a desperate need. In my opinion, we need to stop waving the flag of honor, only carried in our minds, from overworking and start sharing the other side of the coin. We are still people and we still deserve to live life outside of our profession. We’ve long been fighting to get our voice heard for all the extra work we do for students, which was and still is much needed! But we need more than just recognition, we need a change! We need some things to start coming off our plate. So, I think it’s time we start to share a new story along with it, one that fights against the amount of extra work we are not asked, but simply expected to do. Without this fight we may never be able to begin to tackle the mountain of filling all our empty positions.

With all these things in mind and a little fire in my soul, I formed a response to “Please Pardon the Ag Teacher” (I am not sure of the author). A poem that follows the same pattern and even some of the same lines of the original:

Please remember I am more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember I am more than just the Ag Teacher the louder & louder I cry as community members are caught off guard by this outburst unheard before. 
Ag Teachers really are people too. 
They may be in it for the outcomes, but still need to make an income. 
The job they chose may be a lifestyle, but they still deserve to live a life outside it. 
So please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher when we decline your 6pm meeting invite. 
Our schedules are truly different from all the others. Coming in early, staying late, and dedicating time on the weekends too,
Overnight trips, long drives to contests, and even a meeting or two
Some may choose to take on more than others; however we all dedicate the extra time we think is needed for our “Kids” to be filled with pride. 
There is a good chance we already had to miss at least one family dinner and had three other commitments banging at our door so please understand and respect when we have to tell you no.
You can rest assured we already weighed all the pro’s & con’s to determine what needed our attention the most. 
So please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher when it takes us over a day, a week, or even sometimes a month to return that phone call, text, or email. 
I know it’s not convenient for you,
And definitely not the most professional. 
You see before we can get to you we have at least 10 other replies we have to send to put out larger “fires”, finding new ideas to make even the most boring content fun, and trying to update grades so no one with work turned in comes up ineligible. 
We do all this while having to make sure we leave enough time and energy to pay our own bills, clean our own house, and cook our own dinner. 
So please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher when your child doesn’t think we update grades often enough. 
We promise they will get entered as there is time. 
However, there are many other contenders for that space – contests and field trips and fundraisers and paperwork. OH MY!
We must be given the opportunity to prioritize so most of the tasks on the to-do list can get marked complete. 
We are only allotted so many minutes with so much to do. 
And now we need to leave to make it to our next commitment on time. 
So please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher when we come in already tired and seem annoyed when you want to talk about how we are not giving the students enough of our time, 
As we reach for our second donut or is that the third? 
You see we already started our day doing laundry, putting the dishes away, and trying to pay some bills so we could stay after school to coach the floriculture team, and still make it to church by 6 and bed by 9. 
Or maybe we got back from a sleepless weekend and 8 hours of driving with students from a leadership conference, so now we are trying to calculate how to get dinner with a friend we haven’t seen in 6 months and try to catch up on grading the work from our sub plans. 
Or could it be that 7pm meeting that caused us to miss out on eating a nutritious dinner for the third time this week that makes us crave even more donuts. 
This seems to have become a profession where once you clock in, everyone seems to think you should never be allowed to clock out. 
So please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher when we say we need time for our family. 
Our program shouldn’t have to take priority over our children. 
We want to grow and nurture families or other passions of our own. 
Just like the family you currently get to shape & mold. 
So we may need some time for those dreams. 
Possibly more than you may agree. 
We may want to cancel livestock practice at the last minute to make it to a family member’s game that got moved on time. 
Or possibly attend a church camp instead of the regional leadership conference. 
Please help remind us of and support us in these aspiration and 
Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher when we need a night to ourselves. 
In fact, we may really need more than just one. 
We rely on this time to make sure we can wake up the next day with something more to give. 
From the 1,000 questions, to the emails, to the grades, to the cooking to the cleaning, to the decision fatigue 
We would not be able to do what we do without a little self reflection time in the quiet.
Time to sooth our souls, quiet our minds, & refresh our hearts.
So please remember, we are more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember we are more than just the Ag Teacher even when we still make the time to be loudly cheering on “our kids” from the stands, 
Or when we are covered in grease from trying to help teach how to take an engine apart,
Or smelling like death because in class we decided to bring in and cut open the stomach of a cow 
However it was we spent our day and evening 
Teaching a new generation skills they hopefully can use for a lifetime,
And coaching some kids into feeling proud of themselves.
And providing love to our own families.
So please remember, I am more than just the Ag Teacher. 

Please remember I am more than just the Ag Teacher.

I am part: 

• Teacher
• Mentor
• Advisor 
• Coach
• Vet 
• Agronomist
• Mechanic
• Event Planner 
• Fundraising Specialist
• Honorary Parent 

But most importantly 

I am a Daughter.
I am a Sister.
I am a Niece.
I am a Friend.
I am a Lover of Jesus.
I am a Hopeful Wife.
I am a Hopeful Mother.

I am human.

And fully in love with ALL the roles I get to play, 

So please remember, I am MORE than just the Ag Teacher.