Peter Green, a contributing author at Forbes Magazine published an article earlier this year titled "We Need To Stop Talking About The Teacher Shortage". The article talks about the fact that there isn't actually a teacher shortage. My favorite line from the article is "We need to stop calling it a teacher shortage. You can't solve a problem starting with the wrong diagnosis. If I can't buy a Porsche for $1.98, that doesn't mean there's an automobile shortage. If I can't get a fine dining meal for a buck, that doesn't mean there's a food shortage".
I remember this article circling around the internet being shared by my teacher friends and non-teacher friends alike. People outside of education often ask the question "If you aren't satisfied with your job and its pay... why don't you just get a new job?" In terms of being an ethical educator, I just don't think it's that simple. I worry all the time if I don't do this job and take care of these kids... who will?
Your post inspired me to go back and read this article. I like Green's metaphor at the end that states, "If I want that car, I need to do better."
ReplyDeleteSometimes when I'm teaching careers in a particular branch of science I'll mention that you could be a science teacher if you like this kind of information and everyone just rolls their eyes at me so one time I actually asked, Why don't you guys find being an educator interesting? and their reply was unanimous - You guys don't get paid much.
ReplyDeleteI love your question Nikki and totally agree: "Who will?" My undergrad degree is actually a Math degree with a teaching emphasis, so I could be many other things besides a teacher. I remember my senior year taking a class and the professor put up a slide showing all the careers we could get when we graduated with our major and the matching salary. WAAAYYY at the bottom was Math Teacher. I knew that's what I was going to do but EVERYONE else in the class was like, "Why would you want to do that? You could do so much more with this degree." Some days when I make a strong connection with a student I think, "Really, could I actually make a bigger impact with this degree than what I'm doing right now?" I don't think so. Great insight, Nikki!
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