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Nobody wants to teach anymore

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Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#31

Post by eric4smith »

Because the old way of teaching has been broken for decades now - by broken I mean not applicable to todays world.

One good thing about C19 is that it forced us to re-examine how we taught and what we taught.

And I think we clearly see that we are spending too many hours in classrooms with boring teachers.

Looking back many years at my schooling I can see that much of it was impractical and unnecessary.

Things like math were not tied into the real world so I was never really taken with it.

It Was very boring and when I became a teacher years later, I burned out after a year of following the curriculum.

I could not really grok chemistry and physics in high school because it was mostly just theory completely divorced from the normal word.

On the other hand our biology teacher gave me a lifelong start in that subject because she really tied it into our daily lives and we could relate.

And I was not the only one.

There are very very few teachers who teach like that - and so, most people just finish school and promptly forget everything they learned.

Can this be fixed?

Not now. We are more focused on culture wars that improving the way how we teach.

It would take a really serious event (not any politician) to make changes.

And that’s why as more parents wake up, home schooling has increased from about 50,000 to well over 500,000 as of last year in the USA.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#32

Post by judge2020 »

mkl95 wrote: post #26

Currently turnover is high for many jobs with great working conditions, so it shouldn't be news that people don't want a stressful job with relatively mediocre pay. I don't have the data to back it up, but I would expect a few European countries to be the only exception, and only those that have moved on from older educational models.

Not just mediocre pay, but nowadays unlivable pay with the current rent trends in suburban and city environments.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#33

Post by throwaway9870 »

The problem with teaching is that the role has expanded way beyond what it used to be and teachers are expected to do FAR too much in the classroom and they get minimal support from admin who are more worried about their careers than supporting teachers.

I just had this conversation last week with a couple teachers. If this matters to you, I suggest you find some older teachers who have been around long enough to actually see how the job has changed and ask them what they think.

It has become an impossible job for any amount of money.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#34

Post by bradleyjg »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #3

Teaching/training is quite difficult. I've done quite a bit of training (but not true teaching -there's a difference), over the years. My family is full of teachers. I have many friends that are teachers. It's amazing how "solutions" never seem to actually get around to simply paying teachers more, and maybe not expecting them to be child-rearers, in lieu of parents.

As long as we have tenure and the seniority system we aren’t going to see significantly higher pay.

Virtually everyone else has a boss that judges his or her performance. Sometimes those judgments are wrong or unfair. Almost every institution has determined that’s still better than nothing. But somehow not schools.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#35

Post by SamoyedFurFluff »

GiorgioG wrote: post #5
uniqueuid wrote: post #2

As a European, it has always been perplexing to me how little the US invests in teachers and schools, given that we know how huge the benefits are down the road (educational attainment, income, pro-social behavior, life satisfaction). Watching how large parts of the political spectrum embrace hardship as a societal teaching tool, I begin to understand that the expectation may always have been that kids ought to figur…

"K-12 schools spend $666.9 billion or $13,185 per pupil annually." - https://educationdata.org/public-education-spending-statisti... We invest plenty. We just don't get a great return on our investment.

I don’t think it’s fair to assume the money is evenly split. Public schooling must also support students who need much more support, ranging from ESL to a variety of disabilities with a variety of severity.

If you think of specialized needs students the 13k number looks ridiculous. 13k is an alarmingly low amount of support for dyslexia, or autism, or diabetes.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#36

Post by mantas »

8jef wrote: post #12

That's a great thing happening. No one knows how to teach anyway anyhow. It's a lost art, a forgotten knowledge, which have given way to formatting, somewhere in the last Century. Preparing young souls for Life: _teaching_ is very different from telling people how to do things and stuff: _formatting_. We are forced to go full circle now. Throwing out garbage, as we can't keep up. That's a good thing.

The garbage is education system, not teachers. The art is not lost. But people who want to be Teachers get forced out of the system. Too much paperwork, too strict rules, too much content, too many students... No place left for performing the art of teaching.

Some private schools (many focus on making parents happy in short term..) and tutoring is the last refuge of the art of Teaching.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#38

Post by SamuelAdams »

seibelj wrote: post #10

People do want to teach and get paid to do it. It’s called private schools. They charge what the market will bear for their quality and location, and they pay what the market rate is for teachers of the requisite quality that let them charge the rates they need. What confuddles people in education is the same thing that causes endless articles about housing, healthcare, inflation… it’s called “basic economics”. Just…

Problem is two things: one, Americans strongly believe that every child should have access to an education. Two, not every family can afford 25k per child. Hell many cannot afford one child at that rate.

You’ve got a point - quality schooling does exist, if schools can pay well and offer sensible class loads. However to apply that to the current public school system requires significant dollars long term, and a lot of people don’t want to pay for that - think retired people whose children are out of school, or couples who have no children.

I don’t agree with that, but I’m simply stating some different positions from people whom I’ve talked to about this topic.

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#39

Post by throwaway9870 »

bell-cot wrote: post #8

s/to Teach/to be treated like shit for crap wages/g Not exactly news, these days. In much of America, local school districts still have quite a bit of autonomy. As thing keep getting worse, there might be a district or few, here & there, where a different approach gets an honest try. Might.

People keep saying crap wages, but put some real numbers up here. What do you consider crap wages?

Re: Nobody wants to teach anymore

#40

Post by elevaet »

mantas wrote: post #17
ekianjo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

paying teachers more is not going to solve the problem that most people do not appreciate teachers whether its kids or parents. It is certainly not a job for those who cannot stand being criticized the whole time.

Paying more will solve the appreciation problem. My wife is (ex)teacher. Parents would flat-out say that they can't respect her because of her salary. Along the lines of, if you're smart and can do stuff, why the hell are you working for such a low pay? Ergo teachers are dumb and parents (along with their kids) feel free to make fun of dumbasses who work in schools. On top of that, paying more would help with self-re…

> Parents would flat-out say that they can't respect her because of her salary. Along the lines of, if you're smart and can do stuff, why the hell are you working for such a low pay?

Damn, that is so gut wrenching to read. It's so short sighted that society does not value teachers more highly. The next generation is the ultimate investment.

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