How are the professional situations of teachers and engineers similar?

Much of what I know about adults working together in industry/private sector is applicable in education, but the vocabulary and prior experience is different. For more details on my private sector experience, please read My preparation for teaching, in this blog.

Like many engineers, teachers question their own abilities to work with other adults.Teachers and engineers are similarly sensitive to criticism (on the one hand) and ill-informed wholesale adoption (on the other) of their half-formed ideas. In software development, the culprits are managers and salespeople; in teaching, they are administrators and board members.

Like engineers, teachers face a workload that is infinite – there is ALWAYS something that can be done to make the program/lesson better, that will better meet the client;student needs. In both professions, the best performers constantly re-prioritize what they must do.

Teachers and engineers are fiercely protective of their time; they defend againse make-work and going through the motions, because they have real work and real progress they could be achieving

Both professions would like to post this sign: “A failure on your part to plan does not constitute an emergency on my part.” But they don't, because it wouldn't be professional.

Schedules are changed/announced by administrators in schools, and by senior officers in the military, with no or very short reaction times given to teachers/developers, and without apology.

Teachers and engineers often feel unappreciated. While teachers, needing to vent, may say, “Administrators treat us like mushrooms, they keep us in the dark, covered in compost,” engineers will express themselves a little more colorfully.

Teaching: Through Private Sector Eyes is an attempt to reassure teachers that other professionals face similar challenges in the area of continuous improvement and on-going professional development. I hope my efforts to share these similarities and to share what seems to work in the private sector to relieve some of the stress. I invite your comments, counter-examples, and critiques.

I very much appreciate the hundreds of teachers I have learned from in the private sector world over the past 30 years, and I am grateful for the assistance I have received and will continue to need in the public school world.