If teaching is such a cake job then why is there such a high shortage?

And ally non teacher friends who say what a cake walk job teaching is would not last 1 week in education. This past year my school had 11 teachers leave. Not an inner city school we are in the nice suburbs, middle to upper middle class families and we just barely were able to fill those jobs before the 1st day. We can't get people to apply. There is a very serious problem in the supply of teachers, but seems every profession is finding it hard to fill positions

-Lack of school discipline

-Broken homes

-Disengaged parents

-Karen parents

-Low pay compared to other college degrees

-Right wing disrespect

-State and federal policies that aren’t based in reality

Seems like the shortage has been caused by various societal/political entities. I understand that many have gripes with former teachers. We’ve all had bad ones. However, this is the most important profession in the world. Teachers shape the youth of tomorrow. What can we do to improve and get teachers in the classroom?

Why would anyone want to deal with a room full of little monsters every day?

Little monsters? How about the big ones right here on LRC?

Everyone wants little Johnny to end up in Harvard, yet no one can even accept that teachers are actually capable of doing this. Nor deserving of societal respect or even a fair salary.

Why would people with a decent STEM education want to go into education, even if its their passion? They could make double the pay in industry and suddenly have self respect too.

I think public education in the US is in big trouble.

And for those of you who think teachers suck now, just wait till the new recruits show up.

Hourly pay is great, but they only work 1K hours a year.

My teacher friends have breaks. Big ones, lol. Not trying to be argumentative, just pointing out the facts.

I don't know anything about being a teacher, but I own a company and cannot manage to find ANY good employees over the past year. The only good workers are the ones that have been working for me for years. Nobody new.

Those that apply either have a criminal record or simply cannot handle any hard work. They all quit after about two weeks. I don't think this is just a teacher shortage issue.

Most Western countries have seen a precipitous drop in work ethic the last few generations. And things are only getting worse. Sure, teaching has its perks, but there's a lot of BS to put with as well. Most people don't want that. They want to sit on their butt in a cubicle 9 to 5, or better yet, "work" from home.

For those of you denouncing teachers, is the elephant in the room the fact that you can comprehend what is written, understand the main idea, note the context, draw a conclusion, make an evaluation and make a suitable rebuttal?

i suppose you magically learned to do that yourselves because you are so freaking great.

Just saying.

I'm a teacher. For the majority of young teachers, teaching has become a last resort job for those who failed at plan A. Once those people get their lives together and figure out how to move on to a career they actually want, they quit.

I work in a district that's poor and the parents are barely involved so politics don't come into play for us. But you basically get paid a pittance to put up with disrespectful children all day. For most intelligent people high school is a nightmare, imagine going back to HS as part of your job for years and years?

Everybody is trying to become the next millionaire. Nobody wants to settle for a sub 100k career anymore and actually do something meaningful. Same reason there’s shortages in the trades. Real honest work that builds your community, with modest wages. Nope would rather take my shot trying to stream videos for other home bodies.

that's what women are for, they are more pro-Social than apathetic male. distance runners are often anti-social and self-absorbed, so you might find it especially hard to understand

Does no one here feel a good teacher is worth being paid $100k 10yrs into his/her career?

It's not a man vs woman argument at all.

Teachers are, by nature, mostly collectivists. They believe in building up a child through a successful village.

Individualists care about self -fulfillment. They would much rather but a village and make a 300% ROI on the sale of the village.

Once the individual is "made," the people who helped him or her succeed are replaced by transactions, ledger logs, yachts and chauffeurs of today.

The only time they remember a teacher is if they slip up and end up incarcerated and want guidance.

Teachers regarded their teachers highly. I can exemplify this statement by the fact that I openly credit my ninth grade English teacher, the late Lewis Simmons, for my knowledge of word roots, grasp of word etymology and ability to explicate from interpretive text and convey the message.

Nobody was a made man in the modern era without a teacher.

The arguers-against would have no idea of the realities of teaching.

With the current labor shortage in pretty much all areas, never before have teachers had the ability to demand more pay and better working conditions and I hope they realize and understand this.

Todays WaPo:

The stress of working at a job that’s understaffed is playing a big role in workers’ demands, which often revolve around staffing — or lack of it. Seattle teachers wanted better special education teacher-to-student ratios. Railroad conductors and engineers were asking for sick leave.

“If you look at sectors like nursing homes, local schools, railroads — employment has fallen like a stone,” said Lisa Lynch, an economics professor at Brandeis University and former Labor Department chief economist. “And with that, you see a marked increase in labor action and strike activity. People are tired and overworked.”

Public schools are missing nearly 360,000 workers and health care has yet to recover 37,000 positions. Rail transportation, meanwhile, is down 12,500 jobs.

After months of juggling extra duties, Sabrina Montijo quit her $19-an-hour teacher’s aide job in the Bay Area in August. She now cares for her two young children full-time and says she isn’t sure when she’ll return to the workforce.
“Ever since the pandemic started, we were incredibly short-staffed,” Montijo, 33, said. “I had to work off-the-clock because there was nobody there. We couldn’t find staff and if we did, we were constantly having to train someone, always having to start over.”

“It got to the point where I didn’t feel like I had a choice,” she said. “I was having to set up arts and crafts, do science projects, make phone calls and talk to parents — all at the same time. There’s only so much one person can do.”

For $19 an hour!

I’m not a teacher, but I’d imagine it’s the pay structure. You get paid the same whether you are a great teacher or a terrible teacher. I had some great teachers growing up, and they got paid about the same as the teachers that didn’t care at all.

If I go above and beyond at my job, I get promoted, big bonus, more stock options, etc. The teaching profession lacks incentive. The schedule is great compared to most occupations, but that is the best thing going for it.