10,000 Hours

Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers discusses the 10,000 hour rule. In a nutshell, those individuals that succeed (Bill Gates, The Beatles, et. al) do so because they have invested the magic number of 10,000 hours to hone their abilities. As we look at this hypothesis, the question is, "does this apply to teachers and educators?" I believe the answer is YES!

By my calculations, on a 187-day contract, working from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the minimum that a teacher would work during the year would be about 1500 hours. If we divide 10,000 by 1500, it works out to somewhere around 6 years, give or take a year depending on weekends and summers. In a profession where close to 50% of teachers are no longer teaching after 5 years, we are losing highly trained and skilled workers right about the time they become 'professionals'.

It takes at least a year to understand the in's and out's of teaching, and learn the ropes. Knowing that it takes 10,000 hours to stand out in one's profession will give us staying power and the determination needed to persevere.