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Today is World Teachers’ Day
Oct 5th, 2011 | 4 responses
Why do public school teachers have such a bad reputation in the US and get little pay?
That’s one of the things I don’t get. It’s quite different over here. The job is well paid and respected by most folks. As a country with little natural resources, Germany depends on innovation and a smart work force. Education is good for democracy, happiness etc. The children are our future, yade, yade.
The US has more natural resources and is better than Germany (Europe) in attracting the smartest brains from all over the world, but still it needs a well educated general population to compete in the 21st century.
To improve the level of education in the US requires many reforms (as it does in Germany), but it seems quite elementary that more pay and more appreciation is necessary to encourage smart, talented, creative and committed young people to choose the profession of a teacher and then to stay motivated in this tough job to provide excellent education.
Since today is World Teacher Day, here is a shout-out to teachers world wide!
Watch the trailer of the new documentary American Teacher below:
While research proves that teachers are the most important school factor in a child’s future success, America’s teachers are so woefully underpaid that almost a third must divide their time between a second job in order to make a living. Chronicling the stories of four teachers in different areas of the country, American Teacher reveals the frustrating realities of today’s educators, the difficulty of attracting talented new teachers and why so many of our best teachers choose to leave the profession altogether. One of the very few black teachers at Leadership High School in San Francisco, Jonathan Dearman, loved his job, and his students adored him. But his inability to support his family led him to pursue a new career and left his students devastated by his departure. An elementary school teacher in New Jersey, Rhena is fresh out of Harvard and personifies the smart, young teacher anyone would want for their kids. But even her strong commitment to her students ultimately gets pushed aside when weighed against her own financial needs. Their stories are disheartening, but this wake-up call to our system’s failings also looks at possibilities for reform.
Taylor Mali’s standup "What Teachers Make" is old, but still funny:
4 Responses to “Today is World Teachers’ Day”
It’s a good question, Joerg. I’d say we don’t manage schools particularly well. We don’t agree on what we want kids to learn, for starters. And we’re risk-averse with children, preferring to stick with old practices rather than try new ones that might leave some kids worse off. Perhaps things are different in Germany?
And to an extent, our teachers are getting what they’ve collectively asked for. Teachers unions have a reputation for treating schools as jobs programs rather than education programs. That tarnishes the image of the many excellent teachers they represent, and diminishes what tax payers are willing to spend.
Your argument that more pay would attract more teaching talent is a sensible one. It certainly *should* be the case that we get what we pay for. And taxpayers want the best for their kids. If they believed more money would buy more results, their wallets would spring open much more readily.
But when it comes to proving that more money buys more results, unions are in a quandary, as that argument implies that there’s a higher level of teaching talent out there to be had. Unions don’t want anyone to go proving their constituents are anything less than top-notch, so they oppose efforts to measure teachers’ effectiveness. And the result is that terrific teachers go underpaid, awful teachers go under-fired, and kids come out under-educated.
Thanks for writing about teachers. The dialogue has been very toxic of late. We have become a society that dishonors just about anyone in a position of authority. I’ll choose today to honor the teachers who are blessing my children on a daily basis. Thank You to all the educators! I appreciate you.
This Day…
I would like to thank Ms. Jones of the third grade. She read Hardy Boys mysteries to us at nap time. I thought she was just telling stories until I raised up my head one day and saw that she was reading out of a book. Since then, life has been nothing but an adventure. Of course getting caught leading a platoon of rascals across the school grounds with my uncle’s army officer ceremonial sword almost nipped it in the bud.
Dear all,
Thank you for your comments!
@ Dr. J.
I got to read on unions in the US.
I guess, we need to provide incentives to current teachers as well. Bonuses and awards or just a nice article in a local paper/blog for great work etc. That’s of course, difficult to measure. And there have been a few scandals, lately in Florida, I believe.