There have been a few articles making the rounds lately about a teacher shortage in California. The articles list many reasons for the shortage–from pay, to millenials wanting more, to burnout–which end up being the usual suspects. Everyone knows why there’s a shortage of teachers. IT’S HARD.
My wife will tell you it’s not the pay, it’s the working conditions. She claims the educational system is not set up to help students be successful in their 21st-century worlds. And for that reason alone, teachers and students are set up for failure and frustration. I’m not going to argue with her–after all, she’s the one in the family with the Teacher of the Year credits. Plural.
A teacher might argue that teaching is not that tough. That’s the same teacher who will tell you that writing is easy. It means they’re not a very good teacher and probably don’t write very well. Here’s a riddle–in a town of two barbers, which one do you go to for a good haircut?
But I’m not even sure what a good teacher is anymore.
We spent a year on Common Core training–our whole district’s middle and high school teachers. All of us had to show up for half a day, once a month, to be reminded of many things we already did in the classroom, just under different guises and catch phrases. And, to be on the same page when it came to reading and writing. However, since there are still four English standards categories, I guess listening and speaking just had to wait their turn. And anything digital, too, for if you look online for resources, even in reading in writing, the pickings are slim.
I feel like Michael Moore, going through topic after topic of why there’s a teacher shortage. But maybe it’s just because that’s all you are–a teacher. A noble profession to some, a babysitter to others. Just a stepping stone that a student must step over to get to the promised land of college. I’m certainly not as interesting as Snapchat, or even a phone.
Today, a girl who eats lunch in my room, said that she skipped her English class because she would just rather sit in her car and eat breakfast and listen to her car stereo. She is in the class I wrote about yesterday–the one being led by a sub who no one knows, replacing that teacher who never existed–and claims that the class is just waiting around for a full-time substitute and doing nothing but talking. That’s what she claims.
Maybe teaching isn’t very attractive anymore. Was it ever? But, even our school and district make the job less than glamorous. We’ve known for months that this position would be open. We’ve known for months when this position would be open. Yet, here is a student eating in her car, missing a class she should be in, because she doesn’t feel she’s missing anything.
By the way, the answer to the riddle above is–you get the haircut from the barber with the worse haircut. It is assumed that each barber must cut the other barber’s hair.
The answer to the teacher shortage might be as simple–hire the better barber, no matter if they have the worse haircut. And, if they’re a good barber, do what you can to keep them. There’s a pamphlet when you leave that explains what I mean.