Where did all the teachers go?

[kpete]

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored
than they who produce them; for these only gave them life,
those the art of living well.”
― Aristotle

“One of the first things we learn from our teachers is discernment:
the ability to tell truth from fiction, to know when we have lost our center and how to find it again. Discernment is also one of the last things we learn, when we feel our paths diverge and we must separate from our mentors in order to stay true to ourselves.”
― Anne Hill, The Baby and the Bathwater

“When we become a really mature, grown-up, wise society,
we will put teachers at the center of the community, where they belong.
We don’t honor them enough, we don’t pay them enough.”
-Charles Kuralt

“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task.”
-Haim Ginott

“Well, teachers have been profoundly demoralized in recent years and are often treated with contempt by politicians. There’s a great deal of reckless rhetoric in Washington about the mediocrity of the teaching profession
- and I don’t find that to be true at all.”
-Jonathan Kozol

“Everyone who remembers his own education remembers teachers,
not methods and techniques.
The teacher is the heart of the educational system.”
-Sidney Hook

http://robertcmmacgregor.tumblr.com/post/135748823917/those-who-educate-children-well-are-more-to-be

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

[tecelote]

2. Teachers influence every generation.

Being a teacher should be a well paid and sought after job so we get the best teachers for our children.

I forgot who said it or the exact quote... "People will forget what you look like, what you do and what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel". Teachers help America in so many ways.

This should be a point in Homeland Security - better teachers reduce radical behavior in our society.

But, public schools have been bombarded and have gone downhill for many years. Obviously the current system is not working. Time for change.

[Cassiopeia]

15. I would argue that it's working exactly as planned.

NCLB was an idea born and bred by the GOP because they know that it takes radical behavior to get their party and ideas in power.

Additionally an educated society is less likely to vote against their own best interests.

I firmly believe that today's treatment of teachers and schools are not a symptom of bad planning, it's the feature of that planning.

[Dustlawyer]

3. Two of my three kids are, or will be soon, teachers.

My oldest teaches young special needs kids. Her middle son has Downs Syndrome so she switched from second grade, got certified in special needs, and now this is her first year doing that. She does it because she cares. Also, she had a few years off when daycare for her three kids cost more than what she was paid. She had to wait until they were all old enough to be in school to be able to AFFORD to teach!

My son is in his last year of his Master's degree in English at the University of Texas. He has a perfect 4.0 GPA and will make some lucky students love English class, reading and writing. Hope he can pay his school loans (he won't let me do it)!

Sometimes I worry that I taught them too well to care about others since they do not have any financial safety!

[tblue37]

10. As a teacher myself (college English), I told my kids NOT to consider teaching as a primary career.

My daughter is a doctor (among other things), but she also teaches med students and residents. Still, teaching is secondary to her main work, which is okay.

[KG]

4. apparently, electing a dem president did nothing to improve the lot of the teaching profession

[comradebillyboy]

19. Outging Secretary of Ed Arnie Duncan just loved

charter schools and testing companies. He didn't have much use for teachers however. Sad to say the Obama administration did little to support public schools or teachers. BTW I am a retired teacher.

[Fast Walker 52]

5. it's one thing to be selfish and greedy, but why are so many Americans so short-sighted?

[Chef Eric]

6. "No Child Left Behind" was a disaster.

Last edited Fri Dec 25, 2015, 11:26 AM - Edit history (1)

And Obama continued Bush's disaster by making Arne Duncan Secretary of Education.

[alterfurz]

27. aka/dba "No Child's Behind Left"

[Android3.14]

7. That's why I left the profession

We have sacrificed education on the altar of self esteem, and all while we demeaned the ones tasked with giving our children a chance at a satisfying existence.

[NobodyHere]

8. There were too many asshole teachers and assistant principles in my life for me to care

Consider this a Festivus grievance.

[jtuck004]

11. Some good, but too many mediocre clowns and racists. Just like cops.

Many do more to kill the urge to learn than teach - they ought to have a certification in "blanket training".

That's why they call it schooling - it's more about teaching you to be subservient than to learn.

And they very, very good at it.

[Human101948]

18. I consider those who make complaints like this probably the biggest PITAs

It's like the people who moan about how they work harder than everyone elese are usually the biggest goldbrickers.

[raccoon]

21. ITA--"If you can spot it, you got it." nt

[LanternWaste]

24. I used to share your sentiment until I was mature enough to realize the roles were actually reversed

I used to share your sentiment until I was mature enough to realize the roles were actually reversed, and I was simply being self-serving in order to better stroke my own ego.

"There were too many caring teachers and assistant principles in my life for me as an asshole"

[treestar]

25. True no profession

Is either all saints or all sinners. The demonization of police and deification if teachers is not balanced here.

I had some very bad teachers back in the day.

[Amimnoch]

9. Big time K&R.

Really, what other degree required profession gets less respect??

If your in a social situation, and that job/education question comes up and you say:
I'm an engineer - respect.
I'm a business major - respect.
I'm a Doctor - respect (possible exception Pharmacist)
I'm an accountant - respect
BA Arts - respect
BA Science - respect
etc.. etc.. etc..

I'm a teacher - "Oh, I'm sorry"

Which to me has always been an odd reaction considering that NONE of those other listed professions even exist without teachers to teach them and degree them in the first place.

[LS_Editor]

12. That's why I left education.

All the hoops they make you jump through, and for what?

So you can be demonized by the press for wanting a living wage, blamed by parents for the behavioral issues and academic struggles of their children, and have the right to lose your job whenever a school system decides to let you go.

I continue to renew my license, hoping the environment will change. We'll see.

[dpatbrown]

13. Thanks for the post

Just retired after teaching for 26 years in inter-city low income school. First let me say, regardless of the stress, demands, and expectations of performing miracles, it was very rewarding. Very difficult. Certainly an area where politicians only make it much worse.

Both my sons became teachers. One, a special ed teacher, and the other a high school history teacher. I'm very proud of them.

For me the biggest reward is staying in touch with several of my students, who are now in their 30's, many with their own children. Two will be coming over on Christmas Eve with their families.

Again, thanks for the post. I always tell people who want to criticize teachers to go teach in an inter-city school for a year, and then lets talk. That also goes for "NobodyHere".

[kpete]

17. dpatbrown

A teacher gave me this advice:

"Action is our duty, reward is not our concern"

To my surprise the rewards came anyway!
from my students:

heck, even here at DU, i get little recognition for my Life's Work:
http://artcorpssd.org/ArtLessons/
they rather I rant & rave about all the other stuff
education, art, not so much.....

[Smarmie Doofus]

14. Ask Obama. Ask Duncan.

I'd start there and go down ( Or is it UP?) the line: Gates, Walmart, etc.

We ( i.e. teachers) told you what was going to happen.

So.... where are ya' now?

[ancianita]

16. Teachers do throughout the year what St. Nicholas through Santa does for the young at year's end.

Year end holidays are the ways that adults show our collective, adult commitment to preserving beauty, sweetness and light, innocent wonder and hope -- to the young, the suffering -- and even ourselves. Teachers continue through the year (putting twelve months' work into nine) us learn skills to contribute to the building and protection of the world.

The art of teaching brings all this out into the world through children. Adults feel and understand that the betterment of the world's children is a calling, not just a profession or job.

When what is measured, tested is all that teaching becomes forced to be (through lazy political bureaucrats who wouldn't be caught dead in a classroom) no wonder there is a teacher shortage.

No one but parents loves and teaches for free. If homeschooling is what the public wants, they'll soon come to learn why the teaching profession came to exist -- those who fail to read history are doomed to repeat it.

Allow teaching the room to be an art again, and not just a measurable science, and the real teachers will stand up and come back.

[kwassa]

20. Everyone wants great teachers without paying for them.

both in prestige and in compensation and in classroom supports.

So much talk for public education is merely lip service, only.

Many teachers I know are totally stressed out by excessive testing and ever-increasing documentation demands on their time.

[treestar]

26. The pay issue I bet

Started because they were mostly women.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. Excellent quotes too. nt

[bvar22]

23. Strong DU Rec.

From the OP:
"Those who educate children well are more to be honored
than they who produce them; for these only gave them life,
those the art of living well.”
― Aristotle


Unfortunately, "Living Well" (The Liberal Arts and Humanities) are being eliminated from our educational system.

NOW, all they are teaching is how to be a good employee.
Education for the sake of education ("Living Well&quot is no longer a goal.

I am glad I lived in a generation that valued Education for Education's sake, and not a vehicle to make money.
Follow your Bliss.

I would rather live in a cave and know WHO Aristotle was, than have a Million Dollar job on Wall Street
and remain ignorant of the greatest minds, writings, and art of mankind.

[moondust]

28. Hopefully not to Nigeria.

In Nigeria alone, approximately 600 teachers have been killed since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency.

[longship]

29. Ask Michelle Rhee.

She has bountiful experience in destroying the teaching profession. Helped by the "No Teacher Left Unpunished" bill.

[kwassa]

30. She is a has-been, now.

[longship]

31. But how many teachers' careers were destroyed by NCLB before she became a has been?

Plus, the bullshit keeps on keeping on. Testing students is useless to determine teacher performance. If the students are under educated, no amount of good teaching will improve the scores.

Trust me. I've been there. And my field was mathematics.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

32. Teacher training colleges do not prepare teachers for what is in store

These days teaching is lion taming and teachers need to be trained accordingly.

[Smarmie Doofus]

33. It's less lion-taming they need.

PS teachers know classroom management is tough and they expect challenges there.

What they (teachers) really need is preparation and training in organizing to defend themselves and their profession from know-nothing politicians of both parties and the billionaires and profiteers who rent them.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

36. Yes the no-nothing politicians seem to know best?

THe testing companies must be raking in billions

[adigal]

35. I have to chime in...I'm teaching 25 years, the kids are mostly awesome

It's cowardly administrators, parents who accuse teachers of crazy stuff, mostly having to do with not coddling their kids, and the federal govt that has gotten involved with education way too much - and yes, I'm looking at you, Obama. And Cuomo. But the kids, are the only part of my job that I like. I love most of them. And I teach high school.

[adigal]

34. I'm a high school teacher and I continually warn my kids against being a teacher

I have three of them in their early 20s, not a teacher among them. Thank God. We are looked down upon and have no protection from anyone accusing us of any crazy stuff. Even the Union can't protect us against some of the crazy people out there. And don't get me started on how much time we waste on the effective teacher plan du jour.

[Starry Messenger]

37. Well. they can't say we didn't predict it.

People were warned. They told teachers they were idiots for even having concerns and that anyone who complained was a hater of children. Chickens, roosting, etc.

[bhikkhu]

38. I almost got an education degree ten years ago

When I began (here in Oregon), there were no education jobs to be had locally, but I figured by the time I was credentialed it would have to change. Three years in I talked to an advisor at the college about what their last year's crop of graduates found; out of 250, from that college alone, there were only 20 job available in our own state. The rest chose between scraping out a living hopefully as base-pay part time subs, which might eventually pan out for them, or moving out of the region. The biggest portion moved to take jobs in Texas, which was recruiting that year. I don't know that things ever improved.

I decided not to finish, though I got what I needed for my "plan B" so the college-time was all worthwhile anyway.

[appalachiablue]

39. K & R