Reply to NY times op ed on the teacher crisis

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Let's say everyone here is right: teaching has perks that outweigh the negatives, and if teachers are complaining it's just because they don't know what it's like in other jobs. Even if that's so, the shortage was grossly apparent in 2019 (https://www.epi.org/publication/the-teacher-shortage-is-real-large-and-growing-and-worse-than-we-thought-the-first-report-in-the-perfect-storm-in-the-teacher-labor-market-series/) and has only gotten worse.

So you say, "teachers shouldn't be complaining and they shouldn't be quitting because the job isn't that bad." But the reality is, [i]they are[/i]. Experienced teachers are quitting, new teachers are quitting, and enrollment in teacher education programs is way down (https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/what-teacher-preparation-enrollment-looks-like-in-charts/2023/08#:~:text=Teacher%2Dprep%20enrollment%20over%20the%20past%20decade&text=From%202009%2D10%20through%202014,of%20the%20pandemic%2C%20Fuller%20said.).

Saying it [i]shouldn't[/i] be happening doesn't make it [i]not happen.[/i]

[/quote]

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.[/quote]

Yes, which is why it was so disappointing that so many parents bullied and shat all over teachers during the pandemic.

-Parent
[/quote]

Politicians did a great job of exploiting animosity between teachers and parents during the pandemic. Teachers (and administrators, and teachers unions) did PLENTY of complaining, bullying, "$hitting" on parents during the pandemic, during a time when parents should have been viewed as true allies since they were mostly at home with kids facilitating virtual school. Instead parents were scolded for not wanting to spend time with their kids (that was never the issue, most parents I know relished the extra time with kids), told "school isn't childcare" (it explicitly is), gaslit that "school is open, it's just the building that's closed" (come ooooooon) and were expected to pivot constantly to adapt to virtual school, hybrid, masking policies, rolling quarantines, etc. I was also a big fan of "just get a nanny" and "whatever, it's not like you're actually working anyway" (actually, yes! we were).

If you can't see how that situation went both ways, then you obviously weren't a parent during the pandemic. Because yes, teachers took abuse during Covid closures and I'm not endorsing that, but being a parent was not some glorious vacation. Unless you think working at 2am every night for months because you spent half the day surprising virtual school and trying to meet your kids basic needs sounds like a beach retreat.[/quote]

But your last paragraph is exactly what happened. Parents were exhausted and took it out on teachers, who were just doing what their bosses asked. [/quote]

1. Most parents didn't take anything out on teachers. Most of us just muddled through, thanked teachers profusely for everything they did, and prayed it would all work out in the end (which in some case, it didn't -- some of us are still dealing with issues that arose during the pandemic and still aren't getting the support we need)

2. Many teachers (and teachers unions) explicitly did not do "what their bosses asked" when it came to returning to the classroom. In my own district, the teachers union took a hard line "only when it's safe" attitude that resulted in most kids in the district being virtual until August 2021 (including no or very limited summer program which had been promised to help kids catch up from the lost year but the schools were unable to staff). I know that teachers and teachers unions are not always in perfect agreement, and I get that a union might take a severe stance to get more concessions. But for parents who had been home kids (especially those of us with kids under age 7 whose virtual school required near constant supervision and was incredibly hard on families), the continued school shut downs, at the behest of teachers' unions, well after teachers had been given priority for vaccines, felt like a slap in the face.

If you view criticism of those union policies or the refusal of individual teachers to return to the classroom even after the union gave the go ahead as "taking it out" on teachers, that's a weird framing. Kids needed to go to school, teachers were vaccinated (or had been given the opportunity to do so), there were masking and quarantine policies in place, and STILL unions and individual teachers refused to return to the classroom in my district. If that's your position, don't be surprised when parents are unhappy with you.[/quote]

I agree 100% with your first paragraph.

I also agree that unions/teachers wanted to stay home longer than most parents wanted. HOWEVER, I support them in that and could see how they felt attacked. [b]NO ONE has the right to tell another person/people who work in a close environment (classrooms, etc.) with others during a pandemic what their risk/safety tolerance shoudl be.[/b] You have no right to dictate that for teachers or anyone else. You also had options for dealing with that: send in under the parameters allowed (FCPS was only "closed" for about 6 mos.); homeschool; tutor/supplementl; private school. We both work and muddled through doing enrichment I found online for FREE and one tutor on occasion (that was not $$$).

So, I'm a hard disagreement with how you characterize the teacher refusal to work. You have no business telling them what they have to do, what risk they should take and bring home to their families, etc. And you sound like a real a$$hole saying that you do. [/quote]

Tell that to the many people who worked in person through the entire pandemic. Teachers fought to not be considered "essential workers" so that they could work remotely during the pandemic. They wanted to be home with the white collar workers. Ok. But now you see teachers complaining about doing the basic function of their jobs, and people are responding "hey, as a fellow white collar worker, there are things I don't like about my job too, but I still do it because they pay me. you should try that."

Teachers want to stay in that special category of being especially revered for the sacrifice they make. But unlike other similar workers, they didn't make that sacrifice. They wanted to stay home.

Start a thread discussing dealign with the nursing shortage, and you might discover that people have a different attitude. Because nurses showed up and did their jobs through the pandemic like the essential workers they are, and people are grateful. Teachers didn't want to be in a category with nurses. They wanted to be in a category with accountants. Okay, well no one cares about the job satisfaction of accountants. You picked the field, do your job.[/quote]

...Or leave, which teachers are doing in droves and why this thread started. It is not surprising to me that teachers are leaving because every single thread about them devolves into attacks over things that most of them had no power over. My kids are out of the system now, and I hope every single teacher sees the animosity and disrespect on this thread and gets out. [/quote]

[b]A significant portion of this thread has been teachers saying that they would stay in their jobs but only if parents stop sending them messages or talking to them, or if only they could work remotely 1-2 days a week.[/b]

I mean, I too could quit because I don't like responding to email. I will wind up in another job where I have to respond to email.

I actually respect my kid's teachers enormously, but they all seem okay performing the basic aspects of, you know, being a teacher. I guess that's why none of them have quit.

[b]Most of the teachers I've heard of quitting in the last two years have simply moved schools, for better pay or a better administrator or simply a different challenge. I don't actually know anyone who has left the profession,[/b] and the numbers indicate that most of the loss of teachers have been in red states where pay is dismal and there are often lower requirements for becoming a teacher in the first place. That's not a parent problem. That's a "our city/county/state doesn't value public education" problem.[/quote]

The opening paragraph isn't true. [/quote]

At my child's school (in a well regarded fcps hs), multiple teachers left mid-year for better pay and a better work-life balance. [/quote]

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