TEACHER SHORTAGE

By Ruth A. Sheets

There is a national teacher shortage.  In many states, we are told, this shortage has been going on for some time.  It is a critical problem.  I had a friend who had no degree, but was teaching in a school in New Mexico.  She was a dedicated person, but had no substantial training to be in a classroom as its teacher.

Why is there a shortage?  Forty years ago when I came out of college with an Education degree, I couldn't get a job because there were so many teachers looking for work.  Teaching was seen as an honorable profession and although pay was low, teachers were respected.

I am now a teacher.  I just completed my 22nd year in public school teaching.  I love my students and work many extra hours each week and during the summer.  Like so many veteran teachers, I work hard because I believe what I do matters.

Why is there a teacher shortage?  There are a lot of reasons.  Here are a few that I see in my district. 

Teachers are often treated like incompetents.  Our ideas are dismissed in favor of "I feel this would be better for our children" stated by administrators whose experience is not adequate to the needs of the students.  For example, we are told we must have "bell to bell instruction" which means some kind of reading or written work all day long.  As if this were not enough, all classes in a particular grade are to be teaching the same thing at the same time every day.  When we ask where the evidence is for these practices, we are shown none, but told we MUST do this or lose our jobs.

Despite strong evidence that recess, physical activity during the day, and the arts are essential for happy, healthy, well-educated children, our schools have less than 15 minutes per day of recess, limited exposure to the arts, and sitting all day is the norm.

Every couple of years, new curricula are purchased, never the whole curriculum  for any subject, and we are given inadequate training in it.  But, we are expected to raise student achievement with it, while we are trying to learn its nuances.  We are told that unless we follow every single step of the procedure, we are responsible if our students don't get "Proficient" scores or higher on the state exams.

We must daily, perform miracles with students whose living conditions are in some cases 3rd world with limited resources, while governments discuss cutting funding to every program that helps people in poverty.  My students' families struggle to make ends meet, holding down 2 or more jobs at a time. The stress students experience can be dramatic.

In most states, all teachers have at least a Master's degree by the time they have taught 5 years.  That is a substantial education requirement that many occupations do not have, yet teachers' knowledge and experience are ignored as though what has been learned and experienced counts for nothing. 

Then, administrators are in a "gotcha" mode.  Every time they enter a classroom or do a "walk through," of a school, it is not about encouragement for either teachers or students.  It is about pointing out how the teachers are doing things wrong and are incompetent, but "allowed" to teach in the district's precious classrooms out of the goodness of the administrators'  hearts.  Teachers are often threatened with loss of job if they don't measure up to some arbitrary standards, impossible to meet with real children who live in challenging conditions. 

We are no longer to display store bought materials and posters.  Teachers in our district are expected to produce all of our own room decorations and handwritten notes on what the class is working on every day.  These are to be displayed prominently in the classroom so anyone walking in the room can "see" what the class is working on.  This leaves little room for either flexibility or true adaptation for struggling students.  And, we are to provide our own materials if the school does not have them.  It feels like being a robot training robots.

It is hard to attract new teachers to this.  We veterans have come to love our children so much we will put up with all this nonsense.  The new teachers get burned out before they get to see just how great our kids are. 

How do we fix this?  We begin by acknowledging that "not everyone can teach."  The notion that everyone is already a teacher and with a little training can manage and equip a class has let governments, administrators, businesses, and so many others dismiss the complexities of teaching.  If you assume anyone can do the job, you put little or no value on it.  You come to expect that the children will be taught everything they need to know in the ways colleges and businesses want them to be  taught or else the teachers are just not doing their job correctly or are lazy.

I am sorry to have gone on in this way, but I love teaching and want things to change enough to encourage young people to enter the profession and come to love teaching and the children taught as much as I have.  I want young people to know the joy of watching children grow and learn and discover as they move through their childhood into the future. 

We as a nation need to stand up and claim our public schools.  Instead of trying to privatize and shut them down.  WE need to state loud and clear for all to hear that it is in public schools that our children learn diversity.  They come to value our democracy and want to pass it on.  Our children can learn to see and help those who are struggling.  It is where we have exceptional teachers who care deeply for the children, not because their parents have a lot of money to support the school, but because they are children for whom we as a community are responsible.

We count on you, the village that we are helping to raise our children.  Stand up for us teachers and our children.