What If We Treated Teachers Like Wrestlers?
March 13, 2013
Originally posted on Bedford Bits Website
I confess that I’m a fan of professional wrestling. I watch Raw and SmackDown. I have WWE Magazines on my desk. There’s a WWE Calendar on the wall, this month featuring Alberto Del Rio. I even own a couple of John Cena t-shirts.
I realize this admission may seriously taint my ethos as an academic, but I prefer to think of my interest as an exploration of narrative structure and archetypes in pop culture texts. There are good characters (faces) and bad characters (jerks). There is an exposition, climax, and denouement. There are stereotypes that make me cringe most weeks, but there are uplifting moments too. I take each show as a text. It’s not real, you know.
What if it were real though? For months now, I’ve been thinking about the entrances that the wrestlers make each week. They emerge from back stage with a blasting theme song, pyrotechnics, flashing lights, and choreographed dances and salutes to the fans. Iconic video clips and keywords play on gigantic video displays on stage (here are some examples). The crowd screams, wildly waving posters in support of their favorites.
Every week when I watch these entrances and the celebrations that take place in the ring, I wonder what the wrestlers feel. What would it be like to have thousands of screaming fans validating your work? These are the thoughts that have brought me to my topic this week: What if we treated teachers like wrestlers? What if at conventions like CCCC, CWPA, and Computers and Writing, we honored keynote speakers and leaders in the field with the electrifying welcome wrestlers receive?
Imagine Chris Anson taking the stage at CCCC in Las Vegas this week (and if there’s anywhere this could actually happen, it would be Las Vegas). He bursts through the curtains on cue, his theme song blaring. He dances across the stage, his CCCC Chair belt tossed over his shoulder. As video clips and keywords from his best work play on screen, he runs down the ramp and leaps into the ring. The crowd goes wild, clapping and screaming. Fans hold up signs that proclaim their support. Chris climbs the ropes in the corner and holds his belt aloft for the crowd to see. He waves and points to fans in the crowd, reveling in the moment, before bouncing down, handing the belt to the referee, and getting down to business.
I know none of that is ever going to happen, but wouldn’t it be nice if we taught in a world where teachers were so revered that it could? Most of the convention sessions I have attended included polite clapping and a standing ovation or two, but they all fell short of the jubilance that a wrestler experiences. I want to encourage a little grassroots celebration. If you will be at CCCC this week, celebrate those teachers and colleagues who take the stage.
I want to see teachers honoring teachers in Las Vegas. It might feel strange to shout from the audience, but you can pat speakers on the back. You can shake their hands. You can praise their work and let them know how it influences you. Take some photos with them and post them online. If you’re brave enough to hold up posters, share those too. My hunch is that you’ll feel as energized as the teachers you are encouraging.
Share a link to a photo or tell me how you feel about cheering on colleagues. And more importantly, let me know what you think Chris’s theme song should be :) Just leave a comment below, or drop by my page on Facebook or Google+.