There is a teacher shortage in many districts that are not as desirable to live/teach in. So although there may be an approximate equal number of supply of teachers with the demand overall in the country, as the study showed, the reality is people don't just move willy-nilly to fill open positions (especially if pay, support and resources are low).
I worked in a lucrative business, yet we had to pay a premium to get people to move to expensive crap hole places.
Several entries mentioned that the environment in which teachers work is the culprit for the present teacher shortage. I must concur. It is not simply the pay that causes nearly one-third of teachers to leave the profession in five years. For those working outside the classroom it is inconceivable that a student could hit their teacher, knock him over a table in the middle of class, and return to that same classroom after a mere three day suspension. That teacher left the profession at the end of the year. a lack of administrative support/backbone is commonplace and causes teachers to question their career.
It is not just discipline. District policies concerning grading and graduation rates have spawned nightmarish policies. For example, several years ago a high school principal was informed by the district superintendent that all seniors will graduate (100% graduation rate!) The principal develops a plan and asks for all 12th grade teachers to compile a list of students with failing grades. Students on the list are subsequently removed from those classes and placed in alternative courses where they EASILY earn the required credits for graduation. The next year senior students who were actually passing all their classes ask senior teachers to add them to the principal's failing list. The classroom nightmare is no reality as students purposefully sabotage their grades to "take the easy way out of high school." Very few of those senior teachers returned to that school the next year.
Correct. I had a rather vial parent who routinely blamed me in front of other parents for things that didn't exist. She did this to other teachers. I usually did my best to keep it "PC," but in front of the principal this parent claimed I was being rude, calling her names and being disrespectful when I was in fact being calm and being very respectful intentionally. I finally had enough of her lies and called her out in front of the entire school. Later I was called into the director's office. I thought I was done for, but the principal admitted the same parent had been speaking to her the exact same way for several months. I then asked why the kid was still enrolled at the school and she said it was because the kid was innocent and she didn't want him to suffer for what his mother had been doing to us. So, to save a kid she made several teachers suffer instead. One of those teachers did in fact quit and she stated that the reason she left was because she came to school everyday dreading having to interact with that parent and knowing nothing would be done about it.
Several entries mentioned that the environment in which teachers work is the culprit for the present teacher shortage. I must concur. It is not simply the pay that causes nearly one-third of teachers to leave the profession in five years. For those working outside the classroom it is inconceivable that a student could hit their teacher, knock him over a table in the middle of class, and return to that same classroom after a mere three day suspension. That teacher left the profession at the end of the year. a lack of administrative support/backbone is commonplace and causes teachers to question their career.
It is not just discipline. District policies concerning grading and graduation rates have spawned nightmarish policies. For example, several years ago a high school principal was informed by the district superintendent that all seniors will graduate (100% graduation rate!) The principal develops a plan and asks for all 12th grade teachers to compile a list of students with failing grades. Students on the list are subsequently removed from those classes and placed in alternative courses where they EASILY earn the required credits for graduation. The next year senior students who were actually passing all their classes ask senior teachers to add them to the principal's failing list. The classroom nightmare is no reality as students purposefully sabotage their grades to "take the easy way out of high school." Very few of those senior teachers returned to that school the next year.
Correct. I had a rather vial parent who routinely blamed me in front of other parents for things that didn't exist. She did this to other teachers. I usually did my best to keep it "PC," but in front of the principal this parent claimed I was being rude, calling her names and being disrespectful when I was in fact being calm and being very respectful intentionally. I finally had enough of her lies and called her out in front of the entire school. Later I was called into the director's office. I thought I was done for, but the principal admitted the same parent had been speaking to her the exact same way for several months. I then asked why the kid was still enrolled at the school and she said it was because the kid was innocent and she didn't want him to suffer for what his mother had been doing to us. So, to save a kid she made several teachers suffer instead. One of those teachers did in fact quit and she stated that the reason she left was because she came to school everyday dreading having to interact with that parent and knowing nothing would be done about it.
I had a similar situation with a crazy mother, parent of a crazy daughter and simple son, but because the principal had my back and every one knew the woman was crazy it didn't bother me. The daughter who hated me eventually left the school, I was the son's favorite teacher.
We all need to learn to deflect these comments- teachers, cops, store workers, athletes...
All my teachers friends would last 6 months in a high pressure corporate/engineering/business environment. I've witnessed this firsthand a couple of times...
Not sure where they are going to find other work.
your point is so stupid. The OP says if teaching is so easy why don't more people teach, then you try to argue that teaching so easy. Maybe teaching is easy, but for you, learnin' ain't.
I used to be a teacher, I became a corporate lawyer that works in finance in NYC. "business" is a joke. People work hard at times, but also spend so much time on the golf course, at lunch, at dinners, etc. No one works on a friday afternoon, and people get paid ten to 100X a teacher's salary for a similar amount of effort. It used to be easier to get into Bschool than many teacher's colleges.
Do they? Where do they teach. I used to be a teacher. I married a teacher. The only teachers that have breaks are the rare one in a specialised area that is on less than a full time contract.
Give us some receipts - what district, what grade?
but teachers only work 1/2 year , no? the school yr is 165 days approx, summers off, 2 week Christmas vacation off, spring week or 2 off, snow days, state and fed holidays, and the hours are 8-3 each day
So keep going then - the job is soooooooo easy right? So tell me again why no one wants it?
I can’t believe we’re still talking about this when 90% of you don’t even know what Phonics is. At my school, education majors take 18 credit hours a semester on top of teaching multiple days a week. For anyone who doesn’t understand, that basically equates to completing 6/7 full credit, in person classes three days a week while teacher for free the other two days. Nobody here, unless they have experience working in Education, knows about the totality of work that goes into being a teacher. You are constantly hands on and get maybe 30 minutes a day to eat lunch- no other breaks. You have to go beyond “just” teaching and provide kids with whatever they aren’t getting at home just so that they’re able to concentrate and learn in the classroom.
And for all the talk about how the schedule is soooo favorable, I can’t imagine any of your teachers were the first one out the door at 3:00 or whenever your school day ended. Most quality teachers come early and stay late by necessity. Teachers also have to furnish their entire classroom, which they are neither reimbursed or compensated for. That chair your teacher had that you loved? Your favorite chair for reading? Your teacher paid for that out of pocket, along with all the other books, pencils, and classroom supplies.
The real shame is that we’re on this board acting like our teachers aren’t worth a reasonable wage and the support of the community they teach in. No wonder education is so unappealing to prospective students.
All my teachers friends would last 6 months in a high pressure corporate/engineering/business environment. I've witnessed this firsthand a couple of times...
Not sure where they are going to find other work.
You and your business friends wouldn't last six days in a teaching environment ...
I also wouldn't last six days working a shift at the coal mine, so I choose not to partake.
You linked a bunch articles sponsored by the public education cartel that seemed to push narratives rather than give actual data. I did not read every word but I'd need to seem some data to show widespread shortages nationwide.
Why would be having shortages, if we indeed we are, I'm guessing its localized. Here would be my guesses at the causes. A highly progressive "leftist" culture that makes it impossible for anyone on the right or center to be apart of the profession. Districts with major issues as far as crime, poor attendance, etc. where teachers don't want to teach. Artificial shortages created by teachers unions.
I'm a cartoonist/graphic novelist, but have done some teaching. It's the hardest work I've ever done. Managing a classroom is a gift, and I don't have it.
School Counselor here in a public school, 18 years in Education and have been a teacher, work closely with teachers, admin, paraprofessionals, substitutes, parents, students, school nurse, school resource officer (police), and most other staff. Similar thread on LetsRun almost a year ago, my comment:
RunRR wrote: All work has value, and I'm not here to draw comparisons to Educators vs. other professionals. However, after 17 years as a Teacher and School Counselor, it's baffling how many people make assumptions about how easy, lazy, cushy schedule, and sweet the pay is. I started around 34k and around 88k now in high(er) cost area. Most entered the profession with some combination of passion for subject matter, helping, contributing to development of young people, and sure some of the perks (schedule, benefits, some level of job security, defined contributions and retirement). Other fields have higher stakes, hazards, and even less pay so I tip my hat to my firefighter friends, law enforcement, Healthcare, grocers, you name it. That said, anyone who complains of teacher salaries has no clue the rigors, complexity, stress, off duty time devoted, and what it's like. I spend my days juggling crowd control, mediations, breaking up altercations, pushing trash cans, assisting sick kids, consoling kids and families experiencing loss and tragedy, addressing hunger and homelessness, kid drama, social media, bullying, belligerent parents, awesome parents, grades, testing, truancy, immigration matters (reunification), risk assessing for suicide, teaching content, presenting, paperwork, trainings, team meetings, legal protocol, subpoenas for court appearance, answering to attorney's, barrage of emails, zoom calls, phone and text messages (during pandemic at times 100 a day to my personal phone), teacher support, classroom coverage, emergency planning and response, oh yeah and covid contact tracing and quarantine plans for kids. Granted every staff has their unique role (some less crazy), but so many teachers have to juggle the above (and be rock star engaging to capture the attention, respect, and motivation for kids to focus, work, an succeed). After a few years you'll have a few insane stories that are stranger than fiction and some that fill your soul, others heartbreaking. Anyone who works in a school knows what's up, and if you're passing judgment, you're outside looking in and can't imagine...and at least in the current times the pay is probably insufficient. That said, communities always need good people and change makers, so get involved and help your local school community. At the very least be kind to a teacher (and all folks).
but teachers only work 1/2 year , no? the school yr is 165 days approx, summers off, 2 week Christmas vacation off, spring week or 2 off, snow days, state and fed holidays, and the hours are 8-3 each day
I get to school at 7:00am (My official day doesn't start until 7:45am) to work parking lot and drop off. The extra $1500 I get before taxes annually isn't much, but it does help the budget. After I leave at 3:30pm I go straight to another school where I coach cross country, I'm the assistant so it only pays another $1350 for the season. I leave practice at 6:30pm, and if we have a meet I won't be home until after 8. I also coach track and field and pick up at total of $3500 between middle school and high school. I also have 2 kids, so my day doesn't start at 7am. It starts at 5am. Some nights I don't get home until after they are asleep. All of that for a combined take-home of about $45K.
If I didn't love what I did, I'd say the hours, the effort I put in and the pay absolutely aren't worth it. Teaching is NOT an easy job.
Crikey mate, I have no clue what they teach kids down under, but I dont think anyone teaches falsehoods to kids.
As for your nutty second paragraph, then whats the point of school?? So ask them about their home life and send them home because they wont amount to anything? Insane.
How do you think kids grow and learn?
I can't tell if you're incredibly naive, 14 years old, or both. Schools absolutely teach falsehoods to kids. If you think truth is the highest priority of education boards, I don't know what world you've been living in for the past 10 years.
Well blimey mate, you can't provide a single example of all these lies we are feeding the kids. Have a crack at it then, eh?
The cultural rot is so serious that these kids are largely unteachable and being a 'teacher' really means 'babysitting until the kids are ready for jail or until they can be shoehorned into the next costly and useless government school, ideally taking on debt in the process'.
I used to volunteer in an elementary school in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Most of the kids didn't speak english. Many of them had poor behavioral training and the teachers were powerless to train them properly. No time for learning the language (or anything else) when you're continuously correcting bad behaviors with ineffective punishments. Not a job anyone sane person would want.
Meanwhile on the other end of town local private and religious schools were paying teachers less and they had a seemingly endless supply of competent (or at least mostly competent) candidates.
Better to give up on the whole government school project and let folks figure out how to educate their own kids. Can't be much worse than it is -- and maybe with this traumatic and extremely costly babysitting arrangement out of the way parents will start to think about how to invest in their children instead of simply assuming wrongly that the state has it covered.
All those inner city schools need is one of those teachers like in the movies. You know the white teacher shows up, and after taking a lot stuff from the students, they show the students how they too are tough and smart! So the students now respect him/her and they realize that school IS important, that English class is cool!
The students teach the teacher some really cool new dance moves and in the end they all do a big dance routine to a rap song.
What doesn't add up? The hourly pay is very high but the hours are low. TEachers aren't willing to work during all of those off hoursshich would elevate their pay greatly. But the main cause of shortages in certain areas is that many people want fulfilling work. Tey don't want to be bored and they don't want to be threatened in inner city schools.
Loving this promo image featuring a guy who dresses for the gym and then (surprise!) he is actually going to teach your children. No wonder kids later show up for work looking like slobs.
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