The New York Times, carrying the article In Honor of Teachers by Charles M. Blow, made me remember my favorite teacher at the German Gymnasium – Frau Feinbier, our native French teacher. She was married to a German, hence the very German name.

It was her teaching in my very first year of French, which helped me develop a life-long passion for the language. She made the language and the subject come alive and even today in business, I still benefit from it.

On the other hand,  Mr. Blow writes about the drawbacks of being a teacher. Among those is the fairly low pay for this  academic position. About 20 years ago, I saw an  unforgettable advertisement at a local department store in  the U.S.A., which read:      Help wanted! Ideal for students, housewives and teachers.

In contrast to teachers in the German system, taking on any paid employment outside their teaching job is strictly forbidden ( allowances are made in special cases). Many  public school teachers are government employees and fairly well reimbursed for their work.

In addition, add on a general public resentment of teachers based on a preconception of short working hours, good pay, long breaks, etc. Just the other day, I was at a German get-together, where one of the women complained about the laziness of her daughter’s German teachers. All eyes were on my when one of the friends pointed out I was a teacher. I was excused from this tribunal when I said I was a private teacher.

I don’t know when this all started. In the 60s, attending Volksschule (elementary school), teachers still carried a high status and earned a lot of respect. In the early 70s,  starting Gymnasium (prep college school), I heard the first complaints about German teachers.

German teachers generally do not have a work desk at school. They do their outside-of- the- classroom work at home. So walking your dog in broad daylight lets Germans assume you are done working for the day, when the teacher might just be taking a break.

It might be a good idea to give teachers in the German system a regular desk at school to work after-hours. It would also be good to make teachers more accessible to parents, when contact between parents and teachers is strictly limited to parent-teacher conferences (in general).

I would not want to be a teacher in the German school system – there is very little appreciation, the teachers can or have to be as rigid as the system, and both sides – parents and teachers alike – are often on the defensive side.

There is no ode for German teachers.