He was kicking me in the stomach!
I held two students with my two arms stretched out preventing one from kicking the other. A few others were at each other with kids running everywhere, chairs being flipped and chaos everywhere. At this moment, the principle appears with mouth gaped.
For those that don’t know the pleasures of working in an environment such as this, you may be a bit shocked. But I assure you, this is a softer tone of the entire year. Many teachers would have fled from this school after some of the things I witnessed, and many others would have left the profession immediately; many in that school, in fact, did leave the profession after that year!
Schools are a full-contact profession. Not all schools are the same, but all schools have their version of incidents. To clarify “full-contact,” includes fist-bumps and high-fives that are way too hard, hugs that break your back due to joy, and the occasional scuffle. Teaching is hard physically, and if you didn’t know, it’s harder mentally. So why do we do it? Why do we endure the demands? Why do we continue?
At the current pace of decline of future teachers entering teacher prep programs, we are going to run out of teachers.
It is no secret that teachers do not make their worth, and those beginning teachers only start off getting paid bread crumbs. Our salaries are falling fast behind the rate of inflation, our health-care is being diminished or thrown into unrealistically high-deductibles’ in which you are constantly in debt. Our supply lists have been squandered away to fund repairs and new software (Got to get the next big thing!), and we’re forked with charities, GoFundMe, or worse, asking parents. On a side note; you know how degrading it is as an adult asking another adult for supplies for children?! Yet we continue on the journey of teaching. But there is some bad news that it appears not many people want to really talk about until the crisis is in full force. At the current pace of decline of future teachers entering teacher prep programs, we are going to run out of teachers.
According to the Washington Post, from 2009 to 2014 there has been a 35% decline in enrollment to become a teacher.
According to U.S. News, “The shortages are particularly severe in special education, math, science, and bilingual or English-learner education, as well as in locations with lower wages and poorer working conditions. And while geography plays a role – poor urban and rural school districts shoulder the most shortages – by and large, they disproportionately impact low-income students and students of color.”
According to every major news outlet, university, private and public institution, there is a problem coming, yet in some cases the problem is already here.
There are so many variables with this, so many unknowns, so many third-degree influences to where we are at, it is hard to start. Short answer?
- Increase pay 20% across the board; bonuses based on student growth (not standardized)
- Insurance to match other government officials (I mean, it is a government job right?!)
- Tuition reimbursement, and continue reimbursement throughout continued re-certification and furthering degrees
- A cap on the number of students per classroom at anywhere between 20-25.
- All supplies are either fully funded by the State or give 110% reimbursement for taxes.
But, the long answer is much sadder. For starters, none of this will pass, which would quickly provide some new recruiting into future teachers. I am not normally a pessimist, but this has not been a secret, people just didn’t want to pay attention to it. They didn’t want to pay attention to it because they were busy paying attention to the stock market and news of the economy here and around the world. They didn’t pay enough attention to it because they wanted to go on one more Netflix binge or go work their second job. They can’t pay attention to it because people told them that there is no money in fixing the schools.
For literally decades there have been several stigmas towards teachers; “Those that can, do, those that can’t, teach.” Or,” teachers only work for the summers off.” Or teachers don’t teach “common sense.” For decades teachers have been belittled, cast aside and joked about by society. Yet we endured it.
Who would want to be a teacher now? For those teachers in the classroom, our best bet in fixing this crisis is not with the adults in the room. For too long the adults were in charge, and look at the mess we’re in now. No; our best bet is investing our knowledge, our passion and our love in our students. We need to inspire our students to want not to become a President, but rather something more meaningful. We need to inspire our students to want not to become an just an engineer, but something something that requires for greater sophistication in design. We need to inspire our students to want to teach. To share the tradition as old as hominids in the oral practice of passing knowledge down in order to build on the wealth of wisdom. To enrich our students in the capabilities to their fullest content, than to have the desire to share the feeling of accomplishment by passing that newly found information on. Our students are our last and best hope for a better and brighter future for all.
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