There is a teacher shortage all over the United States. The question becomes, “What should we do to attract and keep great educators?” As someone who worked as a teacher for decades, hired and mentored teachers, served as Dean of Faculty and interacted with my daughters’ teachers as a parent, I have many ideas. First and foremost we as a nation need to begin to show our teachers the respect that the vast majority of them have earned. It is time that we no longer consider choosing education for a career as a fallback move. We should be proud of individuals in our families and neighborhoods who decide to devote their intellects and talents to building the educational foundation of the nation just as we are of doctors, engineers, business persons, professional athletes and movie stars.
Right now we still joke that teachers are people who can’t do anything else. We pay individuals a pittance for their efforts when they do choose the educational profession. In fact, there are people working on assembly lines who earn more than a teacher ever will. We ask our teachers to work long hours, take work home, and enroll in continuing education classes that take place on weekends and after school all while wondering if the day will come when they will become victims of a mass shooting. When teachers earn graduate degrees they may get an additional five hundred or one hundred dollar boost in their salaries.
Insinuating that teachers need a script to teach is demeaning and yet it is happening right here in Houston. Telling them to use stop watches to time themselves reeks of counting how long it takes for them to make something in a sweatshop. Teachers need time to really know and understand their students and the needs of their students. They should have smaller classes to do this, not bigger groups. We should trust their judgement unless there are indications that they may require some assistance or advice. We would do well to find out what supplies they need so that they don’t have to use their own money or sponsor fundraisers just to create exciting lessons.
More importantly than anything our teachers should be part of the groups that find solutions for problems in our schools. They know better than anyone what is going right and what is going wrong. Our job should be to listen to them and to try some of their ideas rather than bringing in so called experts with canned methodologies that may or may not suit specific situations or students. Teachers should be our primary source of determining what will stop the flow of educators out of the profession. We have to allow them to honestly state the reasons that so many have grown so unhappy.
Our school leaders must work collaboratively with teachers rather than grading them. A good start for teacher/principal conversations should be “How do you feel about the lesson you just gave?” “Is there anything I might have done to help you make it better?” “What do you need?” “What would you change about your classroom/our school?”Once real non-judgemental dialog takes place change and improvement is more likely. Nobody wants to fail. Coaching does not have to be brutal or abusive.
I suspect that there are politicians whose goal is to downgrade public schools as an excuse for creating vouchers that can be used in private schools. What few parents realize is that even with a check from the state, most private schools will still be out of reach for the average family. At twenty thousand dollars plus, the state allotment would not even cover half of the cost. Furthermore students would have to pass entrance requirements and sometimes find their own transportation to school. I tend to believe that pushing privates schools also a way for some, not all, parents to shield their children from students of other races, ethnicities, and income levels. That was certainly the case when the United States enforced integration laws in places like Mississippi. The result was a spate of quickly built private schools that became havens for whites who did not want their children to have to integrate. Overnight the public schools became majority black schools while all white private schools became a popular choice for those who wanted their children to continue living in a bubble.
We should treasure and nurture our public school system and the teachers who staff them. It’s time that the facts about teaching become crystal clear to everyone. Teachers do not work from nine to three. It is more like seven to four with lots of additional homework for the evening and weekends. Teachers do not get three months vacation. Teachers have to pass certification exams that most adults would have great difficulty mastering. Teachers have very little free time during the school day and none inside the classroom. They are on their feet moving from student to student, assuming responsibility for classroom management, instruction, planning, counseling, nursing minor injuries, monitoring, grading and so much more. The average teacher literally works more hours per year than most professionals and yet our society tends to treat them as babysitters instead of honoring them for all that they have done for the children of this nation.
It’s time to start holding discussions with teachers and hearing them out then acting on what they have to say. If we let the brain drain continue we will find ourselves in a last minute crisis. We owe it to our educators to trust that they will advise us wisely. In the beginning there may be some grumbling, but once they believe that we are sincere in wanting to elevate them to the role that they deserve, they will give us their best. Teachers are altruistic by nature, but even saints grumble now and then. We would do well to save our schools by starting with saving our teachers. We don’t want to one day have to ask, “Where have all the teachers gone?”
All It Takes Is A Little Love 