The Future of Teaching

I had a great December.  My son had a son.  My daughter became engaged.  I celebrated 33 years of marriage.  I had a birthday.  All of this happened in the same month that includes Christmas and New Year’s Eve.  Yes, an all-time positive, record-setting December.  Now, in mid-January I look forward to the remainder of this year and the beginning of the next:  STAAR.  Prom.  Graduation.  Promotion.  Banquets. Construction.  Budget.  Contracts.  Accountability.  It can be a great year for our kids, our staff and our community.  Yet I know many teachers spent some time over the holidays thinking about retiring or simply leaving this profession.

335,000 teachers in Texas teach 5,000,000 kids.  That is an average class size of 15 kids per teacher.  They earn an average of $48,638, and those with 20 or more years experience earn an average $58,691.  I know averages can be deceiving and wish the Texas Education Agency would publish medians and quartiles, etc. for the raw numbers, but averages are what we have.  You can find these numbers and many more on the TEA website under the state AEIS data at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2011/state.html.

There are 46,644 medical doctors in Texas.  There are roughly 84,000 lawyers in Texas.  There are 10,656 Dentists.  (And, there are 1,029 school superintendents.)  If you add all those professions together they do not equal half the number of teachers.  I happen to think that teachers are more important to our democracy and our economy than any of the other professions listed above.  In fact, none of those other professions would be staffed if it were not for teachers.  We know that 100% of the current patients doctors see will eventually die.  We know that 50% of the lawyers engaged in civil or criminal trials will lose their cases.  Doctors will still get paid, lawyers will still get paid.  And we know that the average salary of all those other professions is well above the average teacher salary. 

Knowing all of that, we ask teachers to ensure that 100% of their patients, their clients, their students achieve academic success as measured on standardized tests.  Tests that change, become more rigorous, and tests that teachers have not seen.  To compound the problem, there is a movement afoot to tie teacher employment and salary to the outcomes of these tests.  It does not seem to matter that no teacher takes the standardized tests, just their kids. 

There is something seriously flawed in this logic.  I understand that public school folks are paid and funded by tax dollars and that there is a constituency of folks in our country who really want to reduce their taxes and shrink government.  Public education is part of that government and an easy target, and Texas like many other states has experienced those cuts and targeted public education.  Private sector operations fight additional regulations because it costs more to produce when you are regulated more.  Public education is the same, but somehow that argument falls on ears that transmit to brains that have already decided that it is OK to ask the students in public schools to do more, learn more, and perform better with fewer resources.  Public schools have become the most regulated industry around.  And the heat falls on teachers and principals.

Couple that with a new wave of parents who have literally grown up hearing bad news about public schools.  The accountability wave hit in the 1980’s and since then it is hard to read a news source that is not lambasting public schools based on data from the latest round of standardized measures.  Long gone are the days when most parents told their children to do their homework and behave in school or they would get in trouble at home.  Now, if a child has a problem at school regardless of whether the problem is academic, behavioral, body mass index, or extracurricular, the assumption is the school did something wrong, the school is at fault, and it is up to the school and the staff therein to fix it.  School Boards get elected by such folks.  School Boards hire superintendents who in turn recommend principals and teachers.  Unless a Board has real courage, it is difficult to withstand the parental onslaught of “blame the school.”  (I am blessed to work for such a Board!)  Kids figure that out pretty quickly.  If I were a student today I could avoid the real work of learning that comes with doing homework, reading, thinking, writing, studying, doing what the teacher says to do, and thereby fail the course knowing my parent will storm the school demanding that the teacher fix it.  The simple truth is, the teacher cannot learn for the student.  The student must do the learning and the parent must support that effort.

In this context it is easy to see why many in our profession are considering getting out.  The top-down decision-making at the micro-management level is modeled by the Legislatures in state and national capitals, replicated by the voters who elect school boards who hire administrators.  Teachers have few folks to turn to if both the parent and the principal side with the kid who is either not putting forth the effort or arrives at our door ill equipped to do so.

I believe there is no more noble profession than teaching.  I am worried about the future of this profession.  If men and women of good character, sound minds, strong preparation and tireless effort on behalf of their students leave our ranks we as a nation are truly at-risk. 

Incentive pay won’t change that, it will make it worse.  Altering teacher evaluation processes so that outcomes are tied to student outcomes won’t change that, it will make it worse.  Ever new high stakes standardized tests over more rigorous curriculum won’t change that, it will make it worse.  More charter schools won’t change that, it will make it worse.  More home-schooled kids won’t change that, it will make it worse.  More technology may help.  Changing the way we staff schools may help.  Changing the way we pay teachers may help.  But we know that children aged 3 to 18 still learn best when taught by a professional adult who is committed to their success and knowledgeable enough to structure and scaffold that learning so that it is linked to what came before and what will come later.  Teachers teach children both the “what” to learn and how to learn.  Professional teachers do that.

Who will choose this career in this new context knowing they will make little money, have little or no support, experience ever increasing accountability and micro-management, and at the peak of their careers will earn maybe $60,000?  There are not 335,000 qualified folks in Texas who are ready to step up if everyone leaves.

I left the classroom after 10 great years.  I did so for two reasons.  I was angry at and frustrated with administrators who did not value the profession and too often made decisions without consulting teachers.  I also left because my wife and I both taught and between our two salaries we could not afford the two kids we had and own a home.  We flipped a coin; I lost and became an administrator.  Hopefully, a good one.  She still teaches.

Despite that I say, teachers, please stay.  Five million kids showed up at our doors in Texas this year, and there will be even more next year.  They need you to teach them if they are to have a positive future.  Some legislators may not get that, some parents may not get that, maybe even some administrators may not get that, but many do.  Our profession is morphing before our eyes and we must both change and lead the changes to come.  And changes are coming.  Stay and help.