Comments on the self-perceptions of professionals

The last two weeks, because my sore back prevented me from doing most of my normal  must confess I like the experienced old man role who is on occasion allowed to.pontifciate on the history of his world.. ......talked about history of cnr and the destruction of a nationalized railroad system. Just in time delivery system.things, were boring. I had neither the capacity nor the energy to do very much. My mind, once I stopped taking the drugs, was reasonably alert but 10 minutes of walking around the house exhausted me. So I sat and watched TV and I read the news on my tablet far more than I would have normally done.  Every once in awhile almost without any conscious thought on my part,  different stories became connected.

For example Michael Enright from the CBC's radio program Sunday Morning was talking to a guest about the state of the media in Canada. As part of that discussion Enright presented a number of statistics that suggested that members of the media were demoralized, that they feel over worked, that they felt forced to do jobs that were not part of their job description, that they were under appreciated and that there is less a sense of job security than ever before. While I can't remember the actual percentages, (as I am writing this on the train I can't do what I would normally do - go on line and look up the report and give the actual numbers) in every category over half of the individuals felt that their profession was at risk and that the public did not understand their value to the community.

A few days later I was watching some program on TV - perhaps the Agenda on TVO and there was a discussion on the state of education and of teachers in particular. It struck me that in all of the categories  mentioned above for the media, teachers, in about the same percentages felt about the same way. That is over half of them felt devalued, that they had to do jobs that were not part of the job description etc. I suspect that if I looked for a survey of social workers, civil servants or a whole range of professionals who work indirectly either for the government and/or work for the public good, I would find similar statistics.

It seems to me that this trend (if it is a new trend) is something that needs to be considered not on a case (profession) by case basis but rather as a phenomena across a large spectrum of society. Why are professionals who serve the public good feeling devalued? Do we value them less, are our expectations changing, are we jealous of these groups at least in part because they are the last of the white collar workers who are unionized. Or is it because in our great rush to make all peoples equal, we have forgotten that in some situations, some people, for at least brief periods of time are more important than others.
For example while I can write all of the blogs I want, and in some case 50-60 people may read one of them, that does not make me a reporter. While I can (and will) make a few comments on passengers on this train and perhaps the state of rail service in Canada, no one should ever assume that it is a in depth detailed examination of the state of all rail traffic in Canada. My comments may be interesting to a few, but they are not an unbiased and through examination of the issues. A professional reporter who knows how to write, has to demonstrate that his facts could be validated and who is supported by a professional editing team is for at least a brief moment in time, more important than me in this particular issue. My comments may be  valid, they are not news.

Similarly while a teacher should never assume that they have the right to control information (including being the final determinators of right and wrong morally or academically) there are clearly large tracts of time when they know more ( or at least one hopes they do) than do their students. There are times when their education and experience makes them more important (not better) than me.  Why do we seem to resent that?

There is a price that we, as society, need to pay to have experts. Part of that price is money. If we expect people to stand up and to provide opinions and knowledge that they have earned (please note I am not talking about people who just parrot back what their masters tell them to say) then we need to reward those people. But I don't think it is all about money - I think it is about valuing people for what they give society as a whole; I think it is about recognizing that civil leadership is a valued occupation and that both the practitioners and the recipients of those occupations need to recognize what is added to society when it is done well.

If teachers and reporters and social workers and civil servants want to feel better about their professions, than they will need to find ways about talking about what they do, and why it is important without whining about how unfair the system is (I have never heard a teacher discuss their profession without complaining about their bosses or the hours of work etc. etc.) And we the citizens who use those professions will need to accept that sometimes, just sometimes we are not all equal in skills or contributions.

And at least in a social democracy - that is ok. In a social democracy we give what we can and we take what we need.