Saying it shouldn't be happening doesn't make it not happen.
I agree we need to make sure teaching is a desirable profession, both in order to attract great people into teaching and also to ensure the people teaching our kids have high job satisfaction and like their jobs. Both are very important to me.
What I wish is that teachers and parents viewed each other as allies in making that happen, and in making schools great places to learn AND work. It is disheartening to see teachers saying that parents are the primary reason they are leaving the profession, or engaging in arguments about who works harder or has it tougher, parents or teachers. The truth is that most parents do not have high paying, easy, flexible jobs. They are also struggling in their own ways.
When we see each other as adversaries, we all lose.
Agreed, but I have no idea how to solve this. The problem we are facing as teachers is that parents don’t want real life (it’s real ups and downs) to happen to their children. They are trying to protect their kids from all ills, not seeing that interacting with others brings about its own stress because kids make mistakes. Parents then try to hold teachers responsible for every slight, bruise and bump that happens during childhood because childhood should be so “protected.” It isn’t really about being allies because there is no way to keep life from happening to a kid.
Teaching the kids is really fun, but parents have an expectation that everything be “happy and positive” but that isn’t life. Life is about dealing with crap AND being happy and content too. So, I am looking for another job after 24 years. I’m not changing the attitude of parents, but it has definitely changed since I started teaching in 2000. I may make another 6 years, I am only 45, but I am looking to get away from parents and still work with kids (ESL maybe or interventionist).
These are solvable problems, but because you insist on viewing parents as your adversary, you avoid solutions.
WHY do some parents seek to protect their kids from any adversity? Is it because parents are selfish and stupid? No. It's because parents are under intense pressure to ensure their child succeeds, and we live in a culture that punishes people for mistakes forever.
Parents are afraid. They are afraid that if their child struggles in 2nd grade, they won't have the same opportunities in 6th or 9th or college, and they'll be limited and struggle in adulthood to. Parents are also under constant pressure to prove their kids are "thriving," Also, and this one is mom-specific, parents get blamed every day in ways big and small for anything that isn't perfect in their kids' lives. It leads to guilt and anxiety.
And finally, sometimes parents are right. Sometimes kids should be protected. Sometimes a kid is actually being bullied and the school needs to intervene. Sometimes that "quirky" kid actually has special needs that aren't being addressed. Sometimes a parent really does know better what their kid needs, because while you are the education expert, they know their child better. Sometimes listening to a parent could be a gift, not a burden.
I think maybe you don’t understand the scope of the problem. Here is an example from a colleague: Parent email: Larla has small bruise on her shin and we asked Larla 3 times what happened and the kid says I don’t know. (Please see the accompanying picture) And then the parents ask if we happened to see an incident on the playground with 120 Kindergartners that may have bruised their child’s shin when it was such a non issue the KID doesn’t even know, never told the teacher about it, etc. And could we please make sure Larla doesn’t fall on the playground.
I’m glad you think parents are right and children need to be protected, but protected from shin bruises?
I’m sure this will work itself out, but probably not by the time I leave. Go ahead and blame “parental anxiety” and the need for children to “thrive”. Sure blame me/my colleagues and our inability to write thoughtful emails to overly anxious parents in the 20 minutes of time we have. Or blame our inability to “view parents as partners.” It doesn’t really matter, I’m just telling you the problems we are facing. I’m sure I could be much more empathetic and follow the kids around on the playground with foam or put shin guards on all the kids before they play on the playground. I’m not a therapist so I am not qualified to deal with parental anxiety.
"The problems we are facing" = a couple overzealous parents who want to bubble wrap their child into adulthood. Annoying, but manageable and not new.
Part of teaching K, or any ECE level, is teaching parents how school works. It's just part of the job. If you teach PK/K and often even 1st, part of your skill set has to be working with parents who may be overprotective or simply not understand a lot of things. Yes it can be extremely irritating. In my school district, ECE teachers require extra certifications and get paid more than upper elementary teachers specifically because the job is harder. You have to interact with parents more, the kids need to be socialized into school, everything is new and you have to serve as their guide. It's hard. I think all teachers should make more than they do, and that ECE teachers in particular should be better compensated for the very important work they do. But these are not new or unreasonable job expectations. It's just literally what it is to be a teacher, especially in the early levels.
Sorry, you may have been out of the ECE level for a while, but this is now becoming the norm, not outliers. 20 years ago you never saw this kind of crazy, but now it happens all the time.
So, I guess that is my point: If this is the job, the job “expectations” have changed because more parents are overly anxious. I understand I need to find a new job and am looking to be part of the problem and move out of the classroom or career change. But the thing is most teachers are thinking like I am and the profession isn’t attracting new young teachers, so maybe the “reasonable expectations” aren’t so reasonable to most.
NP. Young teachers aren’t coming into the profession IN NOVA because of the parents.
And the cost of living.
When investigating job opportunities, our DD (who just graduated with her masters in teaching) laughed and said no one in her university’s education school recommended northern Virginia and in fact advised against it. Word is out.
Being happy as a teacher really depends on the personal situation right now. Overall, I read Loudon co. VA, Howard Co., and Montgomery Co. MD as the best options depending on your family/spouse situation. As a teacher in MCPS I have been happy with the diversity of students and programs compared Tom
I would recommend places like Hershey or state college, pa over anywhere in nova unless your spouse is a mid six figure earner
The best places to teach in public schools in the country are college towns in the north east if you want to teach and cant secure the bag via spousal choice;/quote]
can’t secure the bag via spousal choice? Why hello there 1940s!
its a fact that nova teachers with high earning spouses have a much more positive outlook on teaching here than those that don't have that type of household.
Anonymous wrote:The simple answer is pay. They can work less, for more $, in the private sector. Why WOULD they want to teach? Loving kids, or loving your work etc (despite the problems) is not always enough. They have families to support too. Raise pay. Significantly.
That said (to address one of the comments): k-12 teaching will NEVER be a career that commonly offers options to work remotely. Ever ever ever. That is an incredibly unreasonable expectation. If you want to work from home, K-12 teaching is not the career for you.
I agree pay and benefits are the core issue. FWIW, we are in DCPS and it seems like even in our Title 1 school, they retain teachers really well. I know there is a pay bump for Title 1 teachers and I think it makes a difference. Some of the veteran teachers at our school make as much as 120k. That's a very good salary in the public sector -- there are engineers who make less, and even high level administrators who oversee large departments only make a bit more. So paying teachers well definitely helps with retention (and I'm betting also helps with job satisfaction -- it's easier to deal with annoying work stuff if you feel you are being well compensated).
But I think the other key issue is administration. The number one complaint I hear from DCPS teachers is frustration with either Central Office or school administration, and the biggest issue is the feeling that the people setting policy, deciding on curriculum, determining schedules, etc., are checked out or don't really care about what is happening at the classroom level. So I think one concrete thing school districts could do to improve teacher retention is to hire more people with actual classroom experience into administration and support roles, and to do a better job of listening to teachers and responding to their feedback. Teachers should have a say in curriculum changes, and their input should be essential to other aspects of policy-making.
Anyone notice some parallels here? Teachers don't like admin imposing one-size-fits all policies and dictating so many of their actions for them, just like many students don't like teachers imposing one-size-fits all policies and dictating so many of their actions for them. It's a problem all the way down. People of all ages like to have as much agency and responsibility as they can handle.
Anonymous wrote:The simple answer is pay. They can work less, for more $, in the private sector. Why WOULD they want to teach? Loving kids, or loving your work etc (despite the problems) is not always enough. They have families to support too. Raise pay. Significantly.
That said (to address one of the comments): k-12 teaching will NEVER be a career that commonly offers options to work remotely. Ever ever ever. That is an incredibly unreasonable expectation. If you want to work from home, K-12 teaching is not the career for you.
I agree pay and benefits are the core issue. FWIW, we are in DCPS and it seems like even in our Title 1 school, they retain teachers really well. I know there is a pay bump for Title 1 teachers and I think it makes a difference. Some of the veteran teachers at our school make as much as 120k. That's a very good salary in the public sector -- there are engineers who make less, and even high level administrators who oversee large departments only make a bit more. So paying teachers well definitely helps with retention (and I'm betting also helps with job satisfaction -- it's easier to deal with annoying work stuff if you feel you are being well compensated).
But I think the other key issue is administration. The number one complaint I hear from DCPS teachers is frustration with either Central Office or school administration, and the biggest issue is the feeling that the people setting policy, deciding on curriculum, determining schedules, etc., are checked out or don't really care about what is happening at the classroom level. So I think one concrete thing school districts could do to improve teacher retention is to hire more people with actual classroom experience into administration and support roles, and to do a better job of listening to teachers and responding to their feedback. Teachers should have a say in curriculum changes, and their input should be essential to other aspects of policy-making.
Anyone notice some parallels here? Teachers don't like admin imposing one-size-fits all policies and dictating so many of their actions for them, just like many students don't like teachers imposing one-size-fits all policies and dictating so many of their actions for them. It's a problem all the way down. People of all ages like to have as much agency and responsibility as they can handle.
Do you not see a difference between the role of the teacher and the role of the student in the classroom?
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