So I’ve been thinking more and more about getting out of teaching. I love teaching and most days, I’m pretty good at it. Teaching represents a huge piece of my professional and personal identity. Yet for various reasons I am willing to leave a profession I love and wrestle with an identity crises (the likes of which I haven’t dealt with since the late 80s). What is going on? Lots of people don’t like their job or feel meaningless within their company – I get that. I am grateful to be working. Here’s the thing. Normally I tell people “I’m going to school.” More and more, I find myself saying, “ I’m going to work.” Teaching never used to feel like a job. Sure it is hard work, but the adventure was always worth it. What’s going on?
For various reasons I am not going to discuss my reasons with you. After looking at why teachers leave the profession, I am not unique in this dilemma. In years past, public school teachers fed up with working conditions left public education for private schools. Now it seems that independent schools may no longer provide professional sanctuary. After teaching for so long what could I possibly offer a company?
There are occasional reports of new teachers leaving the profession in their first years. According to The Washington Post the number of teachers leaving the profession in the first five years of their career may not be as high as first thought (Brown, 2015). The validity of these numbers and the underlying reasons behind this revelation are up for discussion. Other articles suggest that these numbers may differ in certain areas of the country (Thompson, 2015, Huicochea & Jung, 2015). As with other jobs and with regional economic trends, teachers staying or leaving the profession may differ due to regional economic trends around this country. It should be noted that in other countries this data vary (Weale, 2015).
Other, less recent articles point to the lack of respect for teachers, an unrealistic workload, poor work conditions, and inept leadership as primary reasons behind the staggering attrition rates. In an NEA Today Kopkowski (2008) discusses the dismantling of professionalism by educational leaders and the financial cost of constantly recruiting and hiring for teachers schools could not retain. For those who aren’t convinced about the educational cost this problem has on students, the $7 billion yearly cost should grab their attention.
Riggs (2013) describes in The Atlantic the lack of respect and the impact of constantly shuffling new teachers into classrooms has on student learning. Teachers get little respect and have little power over their profession. Administrators and leaders (many of whom have little experience in the field outside of having once gone to school) call the shots and shape the policies that impact teachers and students everyday. On paper, teaching isn’t a bad gig. In actuality, the physical, emotional, and professional burden is not for many not sustainable in the long (or short) run.
Whether you agree with the NEA or The Atlantic, good teachers leave the profession at an alarming rate. Maybe the percentage of teachers leaving doesn’t concern you, but few can argue the impact that good teachers have on students. Think about this. How many people would even think about walking into a surgery and telling the doctor how to do his job? Or, who walks into court and tell the judge and lawyers what they could and couldn’t do? Yet these types of actions occur in school all the time. Sure there are bad teachers, but there are poor employees in every profession.
We live in a country in which the UPS driver is more respected and better compensated than teachers. Don’t get me wrong – UPS drivers work hard (peek into their truck between Thanksgiving and New Years sometime). It is a company in which every person starts in the warehouse. The starting salary for a driver far exceeds the starting salary for a teacher. For that matter, drivers starting salary exceed the salary of a teacher with a doctorate and years of experience. Folks are usually pretty excited when the UPS driver comes towards them with packages. Parents are pretty excited to drop their kids off on the first day of school, but not many people get excited to see a teacher walking their way. What does this say about our priorities as a nation?
Investing in education periodically captures local or national attention, but rarely do people seriously discuss investing in teachers. The lack of respect for teachers as professionals is perhaps most evident in salary and responsibilities. Nobody gets in to teaching for money, but almost everyday wants to be respected in their field. And yet, administrators, etc. have gradually stripped teaching of its professionalism and stripped teachers of responsibilities or control over how schools meet the needs of students and communities. If you want better schools and better teachers invest in teachers – pay them a professional wage and expect them to be professionals in their fields. A recent op-ed piece (Startz & Goldhaber, 2015) outlined their case for investing (and respecting) in teachers as professionals. While this idea is not cheap, it is a more effective long-term economic and educational solution. The school the authors focus on (The Equity Project (TEP)charter middle school in New York) pays teachers a respectable starting salary ($125,000) and hands over various administrative responsibilities to the teachers. Sounds great and it seems to be working for the teachers, students, and for TEP. The teachers I know already work hard and would relish the opportunity to have a hand in how their classrooms and schools function. I’m not sure about you, but I think I would respond well to being paid and treated like a professional. A boy can dream I guess.
Who knows what I will do moving forward. What is certain is that the various data and the reasons for why teachers leave suggest that something is wrong. What company or profession would ignore this problem. Something isn’t working. Will anything change? For starters, until inept leadership decreases and professional respect increases – I doubt it. I guess we will see.
So what keeps you going? What made you leave? Are teachers respected enough? What does the future hold for teachers and the profession?
References (in order of appearance)
Brown, (2015). http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2015/04/30/study-new-teacher-attrition-is-lower-than-previously-thought/
Weale, (2015).http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/31/four-in-10-new-teachers-quit-within-a-year
Thompson, (2015). http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2015/04/thompson-why-teachers-leave-the-profession.html#.Vcl7daZZ9l8
Huicochea & Jung, (2015). http://tucson.com/news/local/education/shortage-puts-uncertified-teachers-in-arizona-classrooms/article_b0344334-7730-5356-89d7-bdbc9eb461a7.html
Kopkowski, (2008). http://www.nea.org/home/12630.htm
Riggs, (2013). http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/why-do-teachers-quit/280699/
Startz & Goldhaber, (2015). http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0309-startz-goldhaber-pay-teachers-more-20150309-story.html