Why is there a teacher shortage?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets caught up in why there is a shortage, but that's also been discussed ad nauseam. An equally pressing question is "what are school systems doing to recruit enough teachers to fully staff schools next year?" Because leaving that question until May is far too late.

They aren't doing anything except looking outside of the US. If they want to know what to do, they should be doing exit interviews and making the changes that they can make right now.

Bring in temporary workers? Interesting idea.

Counties have been doing it for years. I used to work for PGCPS. They regularly recruited teachers from other countries. I taught with a handful of Filipino teachers. They were not ready for the unruly behavior of American students and they were not properly supported by the county. I don’t recall any staying more than 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets caught up in why there is a shortage, but that's also been discussed ad nauseam. An equally pressing question is "what are school systems doing to recruit enough teachers to fully staff schools next year?" Because leaving that question until May is far too late.

They aren't doing anything except looking outside of the US. If they want to know what to do, they should be doing exit interviews and making the changes that they can make right now.

Bring in temporary workers? Interesting idea.

Counties have been doing it for years. I used to work for PGCPS. They regularly recruited teachers from other countries. I taught with a handful of Filipino teachers. They were not ready for the unruly behavior of American students and they were not properly supported by the county. I don’t recall any staying more than 2 years.

I work in a district (not DC area) that brought in 200 international teachers this year. It has been a flaming hot mess. The music teacher in my K-5 building is from Nigeria; today a group of Kindergartners were running wild in her classroom and called 911 from her classroom phone for fun. No one knew they did it until police showed up at the building. Good times!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Part of the problem is the teachers themselves. People forget that schools are workplaces with employee cultures that are often toxic and petty. Combine this with the type of person that chooses education and teaching as a new college grad (poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, unclear direction on what they want to do and lack of self initiative) and it’s a really bad work environment.

Now combine your toxic and/or incompetent co worker environment with an even less competent administration, large class sizes, unruly students, rampant untreated mental health in student body, learning gaps from the pandemic and demanding parents terrified..and apparently rightfully so..that 1 B will dash the entire list of planned/hopeful college admissions and it’s a horrible job.

Everyone, here is Exhibit A.

PP is just going to assume teachers are incompetent. They had poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, and an unclear direction in college.

Is there anybody left on this thread who wonders why teachers are leaving?

Dang, PP!!! That’s how poorly you think of teachers? Um, I decided to become a teacher because I WANTED to. It’s not like I didn’t have other choices. I am disciplined, a hard worker, and I graduated with honors from a university DCUM actually respects. (We know there aren’t a lot of those.)

For you to make such gross assumptions about the people you trust with your children? Frankly, it’s sickening. You are sickening.

And I’m going to come out and say what I really think since the gloves are off with you. Teachers have skills that can translate to so many fields. We are managers, communicators, time keepers, presenters, organizers, facilitators, peace keepers, data analysts, creators, problem solvers, and a host of other jobs all rolled into one. We can walk into other jobs because, frankly, we have the skills. I wonder, PP, are you ready to walk into teaching?

And we are now walking away because of disrespect like what you just decided to spew out here on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where on earth did you get the idea that teachers are well paid?

Asher won earth did you get the idea that they are gone by 3?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the problem is the teachers themselves. People forget that schools are workplaces with employee cultures that are often toxic and petty. Combine this with the type of person that chooses education and teaching as a new college grad (poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, unclear direction on what they want to do and lack of self initiative) and it’s a really bad work environment.

Now combine your toxic and/or incompetent co worker environment with an even less competent administration, large class sizes, unruly students, rampant untreated mental health in student body, learning gaps from the pandemic and demanding parents terrified..and apparently rightfully so..that 1 B will dash the entire list of planned/hopeful college admissions and it’s a horrible job.

Everyone, here is Exhibit A.

PP is just going to assume teachers are incompetent. They had poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, and an unclear direction in college.

Is there anybody left on this thread who wonders why teachers are leaving?

Dang, PP!!! That’s how poorly you think of teachers? Um, I decided to become a teacher because I WANTED to. It’s not like I didn’t have other choices. I am disciplined, a hard worker, and I graduated with honors from a university DCUM actually respects. (We know there aren’t a lot of those.)

For you to make such gross assumptions about the people you trust with your children? Frankly, it’s sickening. You are sickening.

And I’m going to come out and say what I really think since the gloves are off with you. Teachers have skills that can translate to so many fields. We are managers, communicators, time keepers, presenters, organizers, facilitators, peace keepers, data analysts, creators, problem solvers, and a host of other jobs all rolled into one. We can walk into other jobs because, frankly, we have the skills. I wonder, PP, are you ready to walk into teaching?

And we are now walking away because of disrespect like what you just decided to spew out here on DCUM.

Nope I work in a high school. Trust me. The teachers are part of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the problem is the teachers themselves. People forget that schools are workplaces with employee cultures that are often toxic and petty. Combine this with the type of person that chooses education and teaching as a new college grad (poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, unclear direction on what they want to do and lack of self initiative) and it’s a really bad work environment.

Now combine your toxic and/or incompetent co worker environment with an even less competent administration, large class sizes, unruly students, rampant untreated mental health in student body, learning gaps from the pandemic and demanding parents terrified..and apparently rightfully so..that 1 B will dash the entire list of planned/hopeful college admissions and it’s a horrible job.

Everyone, here is Exhibit A.

PP is just going to assume teachers are incompetent. They had poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, and an unclear direction in college.

Is there anybody left on this thread who wonders why teachers are leaving?

Dang, PP!!! That’s how poorly you think of teachers? Um, I decided to become a teacher because I WANTED to. It’s not like I didn’t have other choices. I am disciplined, a hard worker, and I graduated with honors from a university DCUM actually respects. (We know there aren’t a lot of those.)

For you to make such gross assumptions about the people you trust with your children? Frankly, it’s sickening. You are sickening.

And I’m going to come out and say what I really think since the gloves are off with you. Teachers have skills that can translate to so many fields. We are managers, communicators, time keepers, presenters, organizers, facilitators, peace keepers, data analysts, creators, problem solvers, and a host of other jobs all rolled into one. We can walk into other jobs because, frankly, we have the skills. I wonder, PP, are you ready to walk into teaching?

And we are now walking away because of disrespect like what you just decided to spew out here on DCUM.

I LIKE being with your kids (even if you don’t as you seem to assume anyone who wants to spend time with them is automatically stupid).

Go on being a jerk, but know that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the problem is the teachers themselves. People forget that schools are workplaces with employee cultures that are often toxic and petty. Combine this with the type of person that chooses education and teaching as a new college grad (poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, unclear direction on what they want to do and lack of self initiative) and it’s a really bad work environment.

Now combine your toxic and/or incompetent co worker environment with an even less competent administration, large class sizes, unruly students, rampant untreated mental health in student body, learning gaps from the pandemic and demanding parents terrified..and apparently rightfully so..that 1 B will dash the entire list of planned/hopeful college admissions and it’s a horrible job.

Everyone, here is Exhibit A.

PP is just going to assume teachers are incompetent. They had poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, and an unclear direction in college.

Is there anybody left on this thread who wonders why teachers are leaving?

Dang, PP!!! That’s how poorly you think of teachers? Um, I decided to become a teacher because I WANTED to. It’s not like I didn’t have other choices. I am disciplined, a hard worker, and I graduated with honors from a university DCUM actually respects. (We know there aren’t a lot of those.)

For you to make such gross assumptions about the people you trust with your children? Frankly, it’s sickening. You are sickening.

And I’m going to come out and say what I really think since the gloves are off with you. Teachers have skills that can translate to so many fields. We are managers, communicators, time keepers, presenters, organizers, facilitators, peace keepers, data analysts, creators, problem solvers, and a host of other jobs all rolled into one. We can walk into other jobs because, frankly, we have the skills. I wonder, PP, are you ready to walk into teaching?

And we are now walking away because of disrespect like what you just decided to spew out here on DCUM.

Nope I work in a high school. Trust me. The teachers are part of the problem.

You “work” in a high school. So you don’t teach. Admin?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the problem is the teachers themselves. People forget that schools are workplaces with employee cultures that are often toxic and petty. Combine this with the type of person that chooses education and teaching as a new college grad (poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, unclear direction on what they want to do and lack of self initiative) and it’s a really bad work environment.

Now combine your toxic and/or incompetent co worker environment with an even less competent administration, large class sizes, unruly students, rampant untreated mental health in student body, learning gaps from the pandemic and demanding parents terrified..and apparently rightfully so..that 1 B will dash the entire list of planned/hopeful college admissions and it’s a horrible job.

Everyone, here is Exhibit A.

PP is just going to assume teachers are incompetent. They had poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, and an unclear direction in college.

Is there anybody left on this thread who wonders why teachers are leaving?

Dang, PP!!! That’s how poorly you think of teachers? Um, I decided to become a teacher because I WANTED to. It’s not like I didn’t have other choices. I am disciplined, a hard worker, and I graduated with honors from a university DCUM actually respects. (We know there aren’t a lot of those.)

For you to make such gross assumptions about the people you trust with your children? Frankly, it’s sickening. You are sickening.

And I’m going to come out and say what I really think since the gloves are off with you. Teachers have skills that can translate to so many fields. We are managers, communicators, time keepers, presenters, organizers, facilitators, peace keepers, data analysts, creators, problem solvers, and a host of other jobs all rolled into one. We can walk into other jobs because, frankly, we have the skills. I wonder, PP, are you ready to walk into teaching?

And we are now walking away because of disrespect like what you just decided to spew out here on DCUM.

I LIKE being with your kids (even if you don’t as you seem to assume anyone who wants to spend time with them is automatically stupid).

Go on being a jerk, but know that

I can’t believe the “teachers are stupid” PP is okay with us around her children.

Perhaps our low IQs will rub off on her children?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I would never allow my children to be taught by anyone who I believed didn't work very hard or wasn't very smart. People who do can't care about their kids very much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets caught up in why there is a shortage, but that's also been discussed ad nauseam. An equally pressing question is "what are school systems doing to recruit enough teachers to fully staff schools next year?" Because leaving that question until May is far too late.

They aren't doing anything except looking outside of the US. If they want to know what to do, they should be doing exit interviews and making the changes that they can make right now.

Bring in temporary workers? Interesting idea.

They've done this for years in my district. They bring in teachers from the Philippines and they are shocked by the behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I would never allow my children to be taught by anyone who I believed didn't work very hard or wasn't very smart. People who do can't care about their kids very much.

What would be the alternative for such a person?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Simple answer is teachers are treated like unpro crap and blamed for society's ills while being paid peanuts and getting no support from the admin or union.

That’s the reason. I can’t think of another profession requiring a specialized degree and license that pays so little

I can’t think of any other profession that gets over 3 months off per year.

Me neither since it's more like two months. Even that doesn't help. There is a shortage and it will get worse. Nobody seems to care to do anything about it. Eventually, schools will go to a model that already exists in places. One certified teacher will teach online while many classrooms will watch. They will employ monitors to watch the kids in person in the classrooms.

Summer alone is 2.5 months. There are lot more days/weeks off and vacations during the school year. It is a lot of time off

IT DOESN'T SEEM TO HELP THOUGH, DOES IT? If these benefits are so awesome, people should be flocking to fill these positions but they aren't. We've had vacancies for over a year and not one person has even applied to most of them.

So…teachers should get paid a lot more for working a lot less?

Let’s be very, very clear about this:
Apparently these glorious summers aren’t a huge perk. WE ARE ALL STILL LEAVING. If you think these amazing summers are worth it, then apply to work as a teacher.

You clearly know the workload and the pay AREN’T worth it, because I don’t see you lining up for an interview. I don’t see anybody lining up for an interview!

I’m so sick of hearing “but you get all this time off.” I work 7 days a week. Yes, 7. I am never caught up. I spend my glorious unpaid summers you seem to crave in classes that I PAY FOR in order to keep my certification.

So just stop with the “all the time off” nonsense. Frankly, it’s very insulting.

Teachers haters irrationally hate teachers. There is literally nothing that you can explain to them that will help them understand.

No one hates teachers, but let’s not claim teachers are working 8+ hrs per day 7 days per week and 365 days per year. They don’t. In fact, it’s been discussed to pay teachers more and have them be year round employee and many teachers chimed in stating there isn’t enough work for them to do. No other profession gets as many vacation days as teachers do. Some people want to make a lot of money and seek a job that pays as such, but you’d be lucky to get. Some people would rather make less and have more time off and a schedule more closely aligned to the days off their children have. Short of taking FMLA leave, no other employee could take the same number of (unpaid) days off a teacher has without getting fired. The avg American only gets 11-15 paid vacation days, of which most people don’t even take for various reasons. That is comparable to the paid time off teachers get as well.

Teachers don’t get paid time off. They work 180 days and get paid got those 180 days.

My kids have 6 teachers/6 classes daily. There seems to be a least one sub per week in a class, sometimes more. Does this get deducted from their 180 days of paid working days?

Most teachers get 8-10 days of leave a year. So those teachers lost a day of leave, yes.

I think the PP is trying to point out that the days teachers don’t work (summer break, spring break, etc) aren’t actually leave. Teachers contracts are for 180-190 days a year. Breaks aren’t “leave”. They just aren’t work days. Teachers aren’t paid for them.

(And they often are work days. When I taught public school, my family was very mad at me for grading on thanksgiving. I had no choice. It had to get done.)

So teachers do get paid time off in addition to the unpaid breaks

Do you think of your weekends as “unpaid breaks”? I suspect you don’t.

So 10 days of leave for 190 days of work. That’s not a lot.

My husband gets 45 days of personal leave a year, including 2 additional weeks at Christmas. He also gets paid about three times more than a teacher and doesn’t work 40 hours a week. He can take just 1 hour of leave and doesn’t have to do anything to prepare for it. He has true flexibility.

I think you are trying to make the argument that teachers have it so good. They don’t. Period. That’s why the teacher shortage exists.

Teachers make average pay, for average work. They have decent benefits, some of which are very unique and many find helpful for their lifestyle (having holidays, snow days, and summers mostly off). It isn’t the best job, but it is far from the worst. I find the constant complaining and demands for respect exhausted. Many many people have harder and more demanding jobs with less benefits. I’m sure we all could find a million complaints about our current jobs. Leave if you don’t like it, doesn’t bother me a bit.

Then why are you commenting on this thread?

Cause they want to be nasty. They don't have kids because any parent who cares education cares about the shortage.

There wasn't anything "nasty" in that post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I would never allow my children to be taught by anyone who I believed didn't work very hard or wasn't very smart. People who do can't care about their kids very much.

What would be the alternative for such a person?

No children. No one would want to reproduce with someone so nasty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets caught up in why there is a shortage, but that's also been discussed ad nauseam. An equally pressing question is "what are school systems doing to recruit enough teachers to fully staff schools next year?" Because leaving that question until May is far too late.

They aren't doing anything except looking outside of the US. If they want to know what to do, they should be doing exit interviews and making the changes that they can make right now.

Bring in temporary workers? Interesting idea.

Counties have been doing it for years. I used to work for PGCPS. They regularly recruited teachers from other countries. I taught with a handful of Filipino teachers. They were not ready for the unruly behavior of American students and they were not properly supported by the county. I don’t recall any staying more than 2 years.

I work in a district (not DC area) that brought in 200 international teachers this year. It has been a flaming hot mess. The music teacher in my K-5 building is from Nigeria; today a group of Kindergartners were running wild in her classroom and called 911 from her classroom phone for fun. No one knew they did it until police showed up at the building. Good times!

At first I read this as the teacher called 911 because the kids were so out of control. That would have been an even better story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of the problem is the teachers themselves. People forget that schools are workplaces with employee cultures that are often toxic and petty. Combine this with the type of person that chooses education and teaching as a new college grad (poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, unclear direction on what they want to do and lack of self initiative) and it’s a really bad work environment.

Now combine your toxic and/or incompetent co worker environment with an even less competent administration, large class sizes, unruly students, rampant untreated mental health in student body, learning gaps from the pandemic and demanding parents terrified..and apparently rightfully so..that 1 B will dash the entire list of planned/hopeful college admissions and it’s a horrible job.

Everyone, here is Exhibit A.

PP is just going to assume teachers are incompetent. They had poor study skills, lower academic aptitude, and an unclear direction in college.

Is there anybody left on this thread who wonders why teachers are leaving?

Dang, PP!!! That’s how poorly you think of teachers? Um, I decided to become a teacher because I WANTED to. It’s not like I didn’t have other choices. I am disciplined, a hard worker, and I graduated with honors from a university DCUM actually respects. (We know there aren’t a lot of those.)

For you to make such gross assumptions about the people you trust with your children? Frankly, it’s sickening. You are sickening.

And I’m going to come out and say what I really think since the gloves are off with you. Teachers have skills that can translate to so many fields. We are managers, communicators, time keepers, presenters, organizers, facilitators, peace keepers, data analysts, creators, problem solvers, and a host of other jobs all rolled into one. We can walk into other jobs because, frankly, we have the skills. I wonder, PP, are you ready to walk into teaching?

And we are now walking away because of disrespect like what you just decided to spew out here on DCUM.

Nope I work in a high school. Trust me. The teachers are part of the problem.

At the elementary level too...