Live data from Hacker News

Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

wsj.com

51–60 of 420 posts

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#51
post #32

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…

> Especially now that she has to post everyone's grades online, instantly emails roll in when a student didn't perform as well as the parent expected. Not to take away from your point, which I think has merit, from the other side of the spectrum as a parent that has a child that struggled mightily to not fail for the first couple years of high school, the amount that teachers screw up the online grading is incredible…

This. The number of errors my son's teachers commit is appalling, and he's in a top 50 hs in the country.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#52
post #31
post #11

Articles like these, while only loosely related, always make me think that the software engineering bubble has to pop. You have people with ton of education busting their behind dealing with little brats all day to try to make sure they have a future... During that time, some bro who read a couple of books and hammered on his keyboard, and MAYBE did a 3 months bootcamp gets bummed if he can't pull in 100k in one of t…

This is a very valid point. While I don't have all the answers, but it seems like if a person is pulling an honest 40 hour week they should afford at the very least a real minimum standard of living, regardless of what that person does. I know this sounds hairy and anti-capitalist and "who is going to pay for this", etc. But this is what real value is in my opinion.

What if I spend 40 hours a week making paper hats? Should I be entitled to a living wage?

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#53
Lots of comments to the tune of "pay teachers more." Teachers in large urban areas with strong unions tend to be paid quite well, especially factoring in benefits, and it doesn't necessarily correlate that well with various metrics of "success" in education (standardized test scores, on-time graduation rate, fewer violent incidents) once you look into individual cases and see through the administrative means by which those numbers can be rigged. Of course, there are markets where teachers make very little, with many needing to take second jobs, and I don't mean higher salary wouldn't help in those districts. I think the comments that speak to the respect for the profession, unreasonable accountability, and increasingly risky liability are more on the mark about why people jump ship when their career prospects improve in a strong economy.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#54

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…

What's sad is that all this desperate competition by parents to improve their kid's grades is zero-sum: A noisy but pointless rearrangement of positions on the socio-economic ladder.

One kid getting into Princeton means another misses out.

Very little of it results in actual useful learning or eventual public benefit.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#55
post #11

Articles like these, while only loosely related, always make me think that the software engineering bubble has to pop. You have people with ton of education busting their behind dealing with little brats all day to try to make sure they have a future... During that time, some bro who read a couple of books and hammered on his keyboard, and MAYBE did a 3 months bootcamp gets bummed if he can't pull in 100k in one of t…

I won’t make any predictions about the future of software engineering opportunities, but your line of reasoning will never have any inherent connection to job opportunities. As the cliche goes, life’s not fair, and working harder preparing yourself for your career has never meant that you will make more money than someone who didn’t work as hard.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#57

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…

>She told me of an email she received that said "X is trying to get into Princeton - an A- isn't going to get her in. What extra credit can she do to make this an A?". Get off your kids ass, for starters, lady

That may or may not be an accurate characterisation of the circumstances.

And it’s hard to argue with working harder / smarter / longer to achieve better outcomes as an option.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#58
post #11

Articles like these, while only loosely related, always make me think that the software engineering bubble has to pop. You have people with ton of education busting their behind dealing with little brats all day to try to make sure they have a future... During that time, some bro who read a couple of books and hammered on his keyboard, and MAYBE did a 3 months bootcamp gets bummed if he can't pull in 100k in one of t…

I think we should treat teachers better and pay them more. I agree we should value other professions too. That being said, I’m not following how attitudes in software engineering are related to the topic of this post. The freebies, on call outrage, etc is inherent to the tech industry with venture capitalist money or otherwise insane net profits... the longer term sustainability is questionable, but fresh college gra…

I think we should pay teachers more as well, but not the same teachers we have now. Based on my experience in public school (and my own opinion, obviously), teachers on average earned what they deserved, or more than they deserved.

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#59
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?

I think a million bucks is too hyperbolic to make for a plausible thought experiment. How about just a 50% raise?

Re: Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate on Record

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>She told me of an email she received that said "X is trying to get into Princeton - an A- isn't going to get her in. What extra credit can she do to make this an A?". Get off your kids ass, for starters, lady

That may or may not be an accurate characterisation of the circumstances. And it’s hard to argue with working harder / smarter / longer to achieve better outcomes as an option.

Riding your kids too hard also causes burnout and rebellion
Post reply on HN