In a former life I taught science in Catholic schools to students in grades 6-9. My undergraduate degree was in Forestry, but I later earned my teaching certification in K-12 Biology. I also spent a few years as a student database administrator, facilities manager, assistant principal, and principal. I didn't get much enjoyment from the years I spent in administration. I entered the field because I wanted to teach. I found it tedious to sit behind a desk all day and so after a while I returned to the classroom, where I was much happier.
It was not uncommon begin a new school year with a few teachers on the faculty who'd recently graduated and were eager to embark on their teaching careers. Catholic schools don't suffer from the sorts of discipline problems seen in many of our nation's public schools, so some new teachers began their careers with us, honing their skills in content presentation and classroom management. Sadly, many would leave after a year or two, transferring to a public school where the salaries were more lucrative.
I bumped into some of those teachers afterwards and learned that a few of them had followed the same path I had -- classroom teacher to administrator. When I would ask how they were doing, some of them shrugged and gave me a lukewarm response. They missed being around the kids, but found administrative work to be safer. One person referred to the higher salaries in the public school as "hazard pay."
A few left the profession entirely, citing various reasons for their discontent. A common response was that they had an opportunity to earn more money doing something else, but some mentioned burdensome bureaucratic details like meetings that interrupted the school day, lack of support from school administrators, apathy and hostility from the students and their parents.
For a few years, I kept track of the number of weeks in the school year where we did not have an interruption such as a fire drill, school assembly, or more often a shortened day due to a faculty meeting. Our school year ran for forty weeks. For the years I kept track, there were no more than two uninterrupted weeks of school per year. Each interruption distracts the students and breaks the educational rhythm. When I brought it to the attention of the principal, he told me that those interruptions were important because "We're educating the whole child." Granted, fire drills are crucial and some assemblies are worthwhile, but many of those faculty meetings could have been accomplished via email.
Some teachers complain about longer working hours while others mention being assigned classes that are outside their area of expertise. For example, I was once asked to cover a 10th-grade chemistry class in summer school for a week while the regular teacher attended a seminar. I took two semesters of chemistry in college, but that was back in 1976. I managed to stay a few pages ahead of my students but it wasn't an experience I'd ever want to repeat.
Turnover among educators is reaching problematic levels. In the 2021-2022 school year, teacher turnover hit 10% nationally meaning an additional 114,000 teachers left their classrooms. Given the increasing number of reports of teachers and administrators promoting transgenderism and inappropriate sexual topics in K-12 schools, some of those teachers and administrators will not be missed.
Annual pay, medical benefits, and retirement plans are obviously important, but many teachers stay in the profession for other reasons. Factors such as opportunities for personal and professional growth, recognition, responsibility and rewarding work ultimately may carry more weight. Everyone has bills to pay, but the question becomes whether we’d rather earn more money to work in an environment we hate, or take home less money in exchange for more intrinsic job satisfaction. For me, if I wake up in the morning eager to begin the day, life is good. I have had jobs that caused me to wake up in the morning and imagine reasons why I could skip work that day. That’s when I knew it was time to make a change.
I worked in the Soviet Socialist Republic of New Jersey, a state with crippling taxes and high cost of living. My income was acceptable, but what kept me enthusiastic was being around young people who enjoyed being in school with their friends, who were respectful of their teachers and who participated more-or-less enthusiastically in class.
Teaching is a performance art. You might present a concept and see that only half the class understands it right away. So you approach it from a different direction, explain it again and maybe another quarter of the class gets it. You've still got maybe half a dozen kids with that "deer in the headlights" look on their faces. So you explain it yet another way and sometimes you can almost see the light bulb over their heads go off. Their whole face lights up and they may even say, "Ohhhhh!" when understanding dawns. It always made my day, and it's a big part of what kept me coming back.
That's the sort of moment that keeps the best teachers in the classroom, despite the endless bureaucratic interruptions and drudgery, the students who may be apathetic or hostile and the helicopter parents who want you to give their child an 'A' despite the fact that he's not doing the work.
I've written here before about hostile students and have reported on alternatives to improve education. I wouldn't mind having classrooms being video-streamed with the content accessible to the parents to ensure their children are safe and being properly taught with appropriate content.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has stated her department’s convictions, which is a good place to start:
Our educational system is on life support. Good teachers being driven out of the profession for preventable reasons. Schools now lack 55,000 teachers and 270,000 teachers are not properly credentialed. We must attract the most qualified people into the profession and give them reasons to stay.
There are too many activists in the schools who are doing psychological damage to our kids, there are too many school districts that are failing their students, and too many of our young people are unprepared to enter the workforce.
These issues need to be addressed, and soon.
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