(This post was originally directed at the Land Surveying community.) 
I’m not a professional teacher, rather a professional who teaches. It is a part-time job and one that I find very rewarding despite the extraordinary low pay and the demanding hours. For those that haven’t taught as an adjunct professor (a fancy way of saying part-time college teacher), the first semester is the hardest. After a few semesters of getting your handouts, outlines, exams, and instruction dialed in, you can almost go on autopilot. Teaching gets a little easier and a lot more fun!
I’m not a professional teacher, rather a professional who teaches. It is a part-time job and one that I find very rewarding despite the extraordinary low pay and the demanding hours. For those that haven’t taught as an adjunct professor (a fancy way of saying part-time college teacher), the first semester is the hardest. After a few semesters of getting your handouts, outlines, exams, and instruction dialed in, you can almost go on autopilot. Teaching gets a little easier and a lot more fun!
That’s all well and good at the college level, but what happens in primary education, locally known as K-12? It seems that each year brings with it a new way to teach those old subjects which had been taught the same for years. Not being a professional teacher and not attending those conferences that your child’s teacher attends during the summer, I cannot comment on the reasoning behind the constant changes in the delivery of instruction. Whatever the reasoning, the results are damaging.
Each semester the number of students who lack math skills seams to increase. I shouldn’t be surprised since I am (was) one of those who skated by, under the radar. My high school had numerous math classes for those who didn’t appear to be academically skilled, such as “business math” (not what it sounds like) or “personal finances”. These classes allowed for us non-intellect-types to still graduate even though we were clearly mathematically disadvantaged. The majority of students entering my classroom are quite capable of learning algebra, trigonometry, and geometry yet few have ever studied math beyond pre-algebra. Why? Is it possible that these highly skilled and educated professional teachers have failed in someway? I am not certain of the cause, but I am certain of the effect.
The first two weeks of our introductory course is spent assessing students math skills or lack thereof. The following weeks are spent trying to get the students up to speed with basic trigonometry. This tends to cause all surveying instruction to be behind schedule for the rest of the semester. It also forces survey instructors to be substitute math and trig teachers which isn’t fair to the students or teachers. That begs the question, what can we do as a profession to help our cause of recruiting quality students to become quality land surveyors? I think we need to dig deeper into the heart of the community.
We, as professionals, not professional land surveyors but simply professionals, need to be involved with our community organizations. We need to be represented and involved in the Lions Club, Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, and other organizations that benefit our communities at large. The other professionals in our community, the bankers, elected officials, retail owners, etc., know as little about us as those high school kids; and yet we wish to be accepted as professionals. Most, if not all, can only identify with the "guy in the orange vest and the tripod" stereotype. Generally, the person they see is the technician who may not be our ideal icon of surveying. Think of the old black and white photographs of surveyors in the field, with their instruments, plane tables, and dressed appropriately. Although I can imagine the surveyors with the whiskey bottle and shirt off were avoided, the old photos represent surveyors that I could relate to as professionals, whether in the field or the office. Personally, I don't know of many engineers involved with other-than-engineering/surveying organizations. A few belong to the local chamber of commerce but they don't represent us, the professional land surveyor. We should endeavor to have the public perceive us as the professional we are.
As individuals it is our responsibility to represent the profession in the best light possible. We cannot rely on our field crews to do this for us, especially considering that few field crews have licensed staff. Our presence in the community is extremely limited. Most land development-related contracts are administered through the civil engineer or architect which means the property owner, our parent client, never sees or hears from us directly except when we need access to the site. Let's face it; we have done a poor job of promoting our profession beyond the classroom. The public, which is made up of property owners, retailers, elected officials, bankers, doctors, etc., need to see the face of the professional land surveyor.
One on one. Often, while my wife and I are at functions for our son's school, parents will ask what I do for a living. I could say I'm a surveyor and leave it at that, but I'm not one to sit quiet- I love to sell the profession! When they ask me this, my eyes light up. I tell them I'm a professional land surveyor. They get a funny look as their brain tries to add "professional" and "land surveyor" together. I take the opportunity to expand their knowledge of surveying, you know…that "guy in the street". I tend to add my own Hollywood touch about how exciting it is to work on some very cool projects or the necessity to have an affinity for history. For me, surveying really is that exciting and cool, so it is easy to express my fervor for the profession. I seize on the opportunity to impress upon them the importance of consulting with a professional land surveyor. Whether they are considering a minor addition to their home or developing that piece of family property they've been holding on to for years, I want them to know that consulting with a professional land surveyor at the beginning of the project can save significant dollars for them by identifying potential issues before they become significant problems. Often, the public thinks that they can do what their neighbor or friend did on a piece of property. After all, can’t I do with my land as I see fit? Only after hiring the architect with the $30,000 plans and the civil engineer with the $15,000 dollar plans and environmental reports do they hire the professional land surveyor who points out that what they thought were the property lines aren’t really the property lines. And then they scoff at the surveyor's invoice for a $2,000 boundary. We need to get the public excited about what we can do for them. We need the public to realize that they need our professional services. We need the public to appreciate our services. To do so, we must become community partners and show the public what we have to offer our communities as individual professionals.
Perhaps, if we invest our time in our communities, we might show up on the radar of primary educators. Perhaps parents will learn just enough from you about what we do that they will tell their children why math is important and all of the great things that they can do with it.
Help your neighbor help us!
