Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record • Hacker News Board

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#21

Post by Agathos » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:27 AM UTC

allcentury wrote: post #14

There's much more to this story. My mother, a high school calculus teacher for the last 22 years is so ready to retire. I didn't think my mom would ever retire, she spends countless hours coming up with unique lesson plans for the kids - they usually involve games, real world use cases and many ah-ha moments. She lives for those moments when a kid lights up when they understand the value of what their learning. Now t…

> The teachers union in Massachusetts made all the teachers sign liability waivers and arbitration waivers if a lawsuit happens.

Wait what? I thought the union was supposed to at least pretend to look out for the teachers' interests.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#22

Post by sethammons » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:27 AM UTC

gammateam wrote: post #6

Thats because teaching was the fallback plan and all the students they work with daily already realize it. Every teacher that brags about their prior dream in their specialized trade is immediately shot down by middle schoolers asking "so why are you a teacher" "Well Jimbo, as you suspect, it's because something went horribly wrong and I've rationalized my acceptance of this low wage life teaching this nation's futur…

There are teachers who do it because they can't do anything else, and there are teachers who do it as a labor of love. As a student, the vast majority of my teachers struck me as the latter. When I was teaching, it felt kinda half and half in the inner city school I was at. Bless anyone who can do that gig in inner-city San Bernardino CA. As a teacher, I resigned myself to never owning a home and never paying off my student loans, meanwhile dealing with an overwhelming amount of disinterested students, and more than my fair share of problem students. As a software developer, I now hope to pay off my house in the next two to three years.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#23

Post by perfmode » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:28 AM UTC

smaili wrote: post #9

> The departures come alongside protests this year in six states where teachers in some cases shut down schools over tight budgets, small raises and poor conditions. Even as a child myself growing up in the US education system, this was a common topic where even the students knew teachers were underpaid and education in general had a lot less money in it -- but at the same time I don't ever recall schools shutting do…

If I was a student right now, I’d be protesting with them.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#24

Post by tomjakubowski » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:29 AM UTC

jseliger wrote: post #10

I believe we see this article every time we have a strong economy. When the economy is strong, teaching is unappealing. When the economy is weak, many people cannot find other gigs and so flood into the relative security of teaching. Teaching may also be less pleasant in the social media and smartphone age, for reasons enumerated in The Coddling of the American Mind (a highly recommended book). There may also be a ge…

Do you have any evidence other than a Reddit thread of anecdotes (about students "seducing" their teachers - ugh) that male teachers routinely have their lives ruined by false accusations of molestation?

Here's some evidence on the "other side" of the issue: Chicago public schools routinely broke the law by failing to report credible accusations of molestation of students by teachers and staff. https://graphics.chicagotribune.com/chicago-public-schools-s...

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#25

Post by neom » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:30 AM UTC

One of my favourite hypotheticals to play out is what would be like if we somehow paid public school teachers and emergency services/law enforcement professionals an extreme of today, a million usd a year, and increased the difficulty to attain this work. I usually end up in a pretty good place but I'd be curious what others think/why this couldn't work?

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#26

Post by potbelly83 » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:31 AM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #8

yourbandsucks wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. Teaching is really, really important for society. And we've made it low-status, because we are morons. If it were higher-status, you'd see fewer people being 'bored' and seeing the 'excitement' elsewhere. The fact that we've screwed this up should not be celebrated.

Pay more and treat teachers better. Market forces at work.

Depends where. In Westchester/Nassau counties (bordering NYC) teachers get a pretty sweet deal.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#27

Post by Gibbon1 » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:32 AM UTC

wallflower wrote: post #12

It is not mentioned in this particular article and my teacher friends say that dealing with parents is a constant pain. Of course, not all parents are a pain. Only a few. Teachers are not in the profession to listen to why little high school age Johnny did not get an A on his paper, not the least because you, the parent, helped him write that paper.

My teacher friends mention parents are a pain because the administration doesn't have teachers backs.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#28

Post by throwawaymath » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:33 AM UTC

jseliger wrote: post #10

I believe we see this article every time we have a strong economy. When the economy is strong, teaching is unappealing. When the economy is weak, many people cannot find other gigs and so flood into the relative security of teaching. Teaching may also be less pleasant in the social media and smartphone age, for reasons enumerated in The Coddling of the American Mind (a highly recommended book). There may also be a ge…

> Teaching may also be less pleasant in the social media and smartphone age, for reasons enumerated in The Coddling of the American Mind (a highly recommended book)

Can you expand on these reasons?

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#29

Post by throwawaymath » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:34 AM UTC

neom wrote: post #25

One of my favourite hypotheticals to play out is what would be like if we somehow paid public school teachers and emergency services/law enforcement professionals an extreme of today, a million usd a year, and increased the difficulty to attain this work. I usually end up in a pretty good place but I'd be curious what others think/why this couldn't work?

Where do you usually end up with that hypothesis? Walk us through it and we might be able to explain why it couldn't work.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#30

Post by jacobolus » Sat, Dec 29, 2018, 12:34 AM UTC

gammateam wrote: post #6

Thats because teaching was the fallback plan and all the students they work with daily already realize it. Every teacher that brags about their prior dream in their specialized trade is immediately shot down by middle schoolers asking "so why are you a teacher" "Well Jimbo, as you suspect, it's because something went horribly wrong and I've rationalized my acceptance of this low wage life teaching this nation's futur…

A few of my teachers were wealthy enough from past jobs not to need to work for the rest of their lives, but then switched to teaching as a second career because they loved engaging with the next generation.

Most others were career teachers who had known they wanted to teach since they themselves were young and took it up as a profession from the start despite having the talent and work ethic for some much higher paying alternative career.

A few had the ambition of working as teachers for a decade and then moving up into school administration.

A few of my teachers weren’t especially effective, but that’s true of workers in every other field and every other institution.

I don’t think I had any teachers (in an above average public school system in a diverse, generally comfortable, but not outrageously wealthy suburb) who had washed out of other careers and turned to teaching as a fallback. Or if there were some like that, it wasn’t apparent to students. Maybe some of the high school sports coaches / PE teachers were like that.