Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

It depends on the school someone teaches at. I have worked at several high schools in my career: high poverty urban, high poverty rural, high poverty charter, low poverty suburban, etc. The high poverty schools are extremely stressful and take a real emotional toll on you. They can also be scary at times with students being violent, dealing drugs, etc. It is taxing to go to a job where physical violence and verbal threatening happens on a near daily basis. This is true for non teaching jobs as well: I have a friend who worked for child protective services in a large city. She said she was the most senior in her department by 6 months because turnover is so high.

[Anonymous]

In general, people are scornful and contemptuous of teachers. Most of my students are lovely, but many have absorbed their parents attitudes about my profession. None of them will be going into teaching.

Example: I recently overheard a student telling her friends that "If I screw up my life, I'll have to become a teacher or something loserish like that."

I overhear similar comments, and respectful, kind students inadvertently mention that their parents would not support the choice to become a teacher. I hear a lot of this when I'm talking to students for whom I write letters of rec each year. They frequently share what their parents say about possible college majors, and the sorts of majors the parents do not endorse. Students are quite clear that their parents do not see teaching as a desirable career plan, and parents say dismissive, disrespectful things about teachers to their children.

So, no, bright kids are not going into teaching. Their parents steer them away from this because the parents do not respect or value the profession. Teaching is widely regarded as a career choice for the unintelligent or unmotivated. It was not like this when my brilliant grandmother taught.

I love my job, but there is a recruitment problem, and it will continue to get worse.

I wouldn't have chosen this career if I had known about the stress, or the abuse I would receive from parents, and the hours of and hours of time I would be spending in the evenings, on weekends, and over the summers. The ignorant, outrageously misinformed OP, as well as some PPs who claim teachers don't work much, have no idea what it means to be a high school English teacher in a competitive private. My job is hardly "cushy": it is summer, and I am reading and choosing material for next year's classes, working on my website and resources, and completing work for a class I am taking. I work until 7 pm most nights during the school year, and often later than that.

My friends in public schools have similar experiences, but they have the added complication of bad student behavior. All of us deal with pushy, disrespectful parents and their petty complaints and time-consuming demands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of people saying teachers work long hours. It's bull shit. They HAVE THREE MONTHS OFF A YEAR AND EVERY SINGLE MAJOR HOLIDAY. The school year is what, 182 days? Even if you add on teacher work days and some summer planning days, you are no where near the normal number of work days for an average, full-time employee.

Even if they work 10 hour days, every single working day of their year, they will end up working less than ANY OTHER full time profession.

It's just bull shit that people have to stop saying.

So what’s stopping you from becoming a teacher if the working hours are so awesome?

I have never WANTED to teach, it’s not my thing, I love kids and loved being a stay at home mom, but i never wanted to BE a teacher, I lprefer other types of work - that’s what’s stopping me from being a teacher. My Point is that people need to stop talking about the “long hours” associated with teaching. It’s total Bull shit .

[Anonymous]

Two teacher household here, both elementary. Other than perhaps taking a class every few years I can’t say either one of us do anything work related during the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of people saying teachers work long hours. It's bull shit. They HAVE THREE MONTHS OFF A YEAR AND EVERY SINGLE MAJOR HOLIDAY. The school year is what, 182 days? Even if you add on teacher work days and some summer planning days, you are no where near the normal number of work days for an average, full-time employee.

Even if they work 10 hour days, every single working day of their year, they will end up working less than ANY OTHER full time profession.

It's just bull shit that people have to stop saying.

I’d work the normal number of work days for an average, FT employee if those were the only days I had to work and my time was my own outside of 9-5. Instead, I’m planning, grading, chaperoning, writing reports/recommendations/grants, etc far more hours than I ever worked as a civil servant or as an employee at a private company. I teach because I love my subject and kids, but I have a decade of non-teaching work experience to compare to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two teacher household here, both elementary. Other than perhaps taking a class every few years I can’t say either one of us do anything work related during the summer.

Yes, but that is because you are a. elementary and b. at a public school. And there's nothing wrong with that, but even teachers need to realize that we aren't all doing the same type of work. I spend many more hours each week doing schoolwork outside of class than my elementary/public school friends. To be fair, I could not handle being around little kids for so many hours, so I'm not saying that my job is harder. However, implying that we all do the same thing is doing us all a disservice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two teacher household here, both elementary. Other than perhaps taking a class every few years I can’t say either one of us do anything work related during the summer.

Yes, but that is because you are a. elementary and b. at a public school. And there's nothing wrong with that, but even teachers need to realize that we aren't all doing the same type of work. I spend many more hours each week doing schoolwork outside of class than my elementary/public school friends. To be fair, I could not handle being around little kids for so many hours, so I'm not saying that my job is harder. However, implying that we all do the same thing is doing us all a disservice.

So are you at a private HS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am so sick of people saying teachers work long hours. It's bull shit. They HAVE THREE MONTHS OFF A YEAR AND EVERY SINGLE MAJOR HOLIDAY. The school year is what, 182 days? Even if you add on teacher work days and some summer planning days, you are no where near the normal number of work days for an average, full-time employee.

Even if they work 10 hour days, every single working day of their year, they will end up working less than ANY OTHER full time profession.

It's just bull shit that people have to stop saying.

Let's do the math on this. An average teacher has 12 weeks of vacation (1 week spring break, 2 weeks Christmas, 9 weeks summer) and major holidays. An average employee has 3 weeks vacation and major holidays.
Teacher works 40 weeks @ 50 hours= 2000 hours
Avg. Emp works 49 weeks @ 40 hours- 1960 hours

So a) No, teachers work MORE hours than an average full time employee and b) I'm a 25 year veteran and have been able to reduce my hours to 50 a week on average. For most of my career, I worked around 60-65, which is 2600 hours +.

[Anonymous]

Teachers aren’t “on vacation” PP. I get paid to work 190 days per year. I get one paid personal day per year and three sick occurrences per year. That’s it. I don’t get any vacation days that are paid.

[Anonymous]

Teachers are contract workers. We are sort-of unemployed in the summer. This is not a paid vacation. Time to put an end to that misconception.

[Anonymous]

We also don’t get every holiday off. MCPS teachers work on Columbus Day and Veterans’ Day. That’s when we have Open House and Parent-Teacher Conferences. As a result, not only do I work those days, but I can’t attend these events for my children.

[Anonymous]

I teach at a public middle school in the DMV. The biggest reason why I might stop teaching is that the level of physical danger has increased dramatically between now and when I first began teaching 15-20 years ago. School shootings are dramatic and scary but they aren't what scare me on a day-to-day basis. What I'm scared about every day is that the level of physical actions by students tolerated by the school system.

Last year we had students bring nunchucks, knives, and BB guns to school. The students were suspended for a few days and then allowed back into the classrooms without a word to their teachers about why they were out. I've witnessed students hitting teachers with fists, kicking them with feet and throwing books or desks at the teachers, and those students are suspended for a few days and then allowed back into the classroom. The pushing and shoving in corridors is unbelievable. We've had weeks where there have been multiple fights before the homeroom tardy bell. We had false fire alarms and lockdowns because of students causing fake incidents. We had students watching porn on their tablets and then mock the teacher who corrected them on it. We've had male students call female teachers ho's, tell them to suck their c*cks, tell the female teachers that they will be coming back to r*pe them, etc. Our custodians reported finding used condoms in a few of the student bathrooms. We had one student start a fire in a bathroom two different times.

I love my job and I know that I'm very good at it...but I won't work if I'm scared of my students AND if I think that school administrators aren't going to take my safety seriously. I'm fortunate that none of the above happened to me or in my classroom; however, last year there were probably ten days that I almost walked out the door because I was so frightened by what I heard happened in other classrooms.

I've been thinking about it a lot this summer. I'm not doing putting up with all of that again this coming year. I'll quit and go to a private school to teach or I just won't work. If I contribute to the teacher shortage then so be it. My life and my quality of life has value to me and my family. I am not going to work in a place where I am scared all the time or where I don't feel like my safety is important.

[Anonymous]

I teach in a similar situation PP and I so wish I could quit. Our principal blocks any transfer requests so we are stuck there. I actually play the lottery in the hopes of winning just enough to quit. I'm a single parent and college is coming up in the next few years so I can't quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two teacher household here, both elementary. Other than perhaps taking a class every few years I can’t say either one of us do anything work related during the summer.

Yes, but that is because you are a. elementary and b. at a public school. And there's nothing wrong with that, but even teachers need to realize that we aren't all doing the same type of work. I spend many more hours each week doing schoolwork outside of class than my elementary/public school friends. To be fair, I could not handle being around little kids for so many hours, so I'm not saying that my job is harder. However, implying that we all do the same thing is doing us all a disservice.

So are you at a private HS?

Yes. I am sure public school teachers of my subject spend similar amounts of time working out of school, though.

People need to understand that workload is different between elementary and secondary, and even within subjects.

[Anonymous]

I blame the new discipline policies in place for a lot of the above mentioned issues. The school to prison pipeline is a thing at my DC's school. Overcrowding compounds existing issues.