Analysis Of Garret Keizer's Why We Hate Teachers

Garret Keizer, a teacher of fifteen years, realized something about the job of being a teacher: that teachers face a job of opposing interest. With his piece “Why We Hate Teachers,” he argues Teachers are branded with a negative view because American society does not approve of the way they handle the contradictions that they have to deal with every day on the job. Keizer does this with allusions, his style of writing, and multiple points of view. Keizer refers to many other works in his piece and alluding to them to help represent some of the contradictions, making it easier for the reader to understand if they have the previous knowledge of the mentioned pieces. In the early portion of his piece, he talks of hating school and that he would

In the first part of “Why We Hate Teachers”, he talks of his childhood and told stories of how school was for him. By doing this he gives the view of a child on school, and how the contradictions seem from a child’s point of view. He starts with how got sick as a child and was tricked into getting better. This is a representation of a child doesn’t want He speaks of his teacher, to him not being bad, but his parents refer to her as “stern”, for she punished children very hard. This results in another contradiction that teachers face. The perception of the people who learn from them or has a child taught by them. A child might not realize the teacher is a rough person, but a parent might and will have a discussion with that teacher. The teacher has to decide how to act because of the conflicting views between the child and the parent(s). The teacher has to decide on how to act on best to help the child and satisfy the parents at the same time. Keizer then placed a break and switched to the view of an adult and somewhat of a parent. He talks of how by sending the student to school, the parent is now having to contend with a teacher for their child’s affection. This results in a conflict of interest. A parent is a helper to the teacher because they help with their student’s learning. By competing with the teacher for the child’s attention, the parent is doing the opposite thing to which they should be, they are facing off with the teacher, with the end result of confliction. He then has another break in his paper, which is used to switch to the view of a teacher. Keizer immediately goes to another contradiction. As a teacher, according to Keizer, one is an exception to the phrase “education prepares one to be privileged and prosperous”. Keizer uses this in the sense that being a teacher means settling for worse pay then a lot of other jobs.