Pioneering A New Generation: The Teaching Crisis Versus Aspiring Educators
When is being there for our students no longer enough?
“The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a TED Talk that more people need to listen to. Adichie talks about her own experiences growing up in Nigeria, and how her worldview was shaped not by her community, but by the material in which she was educated with. This was a speech that I listened to often throughout college. Not only did I feel that this message was important to hear as a consumer of knowledge, but as an advocate for education, too.
Spring of 2022, the world was starting to return to normal, students and teachers were reentering classrooms, and I faced the realization that I was not going to be there. I wanted to be a teacher. After graduating with my Bachelor’s in educational foundations, with goals of becoming a secondary English teacher, one of the hardest decisions I made was deciding that this field was not for me. Sadly, I am not the only educator that feels this way.
Between school shootings, standardized tests, and inexperienced oversight, it makes sense as to why many teachers are leaving.
Of course, there is also the issue of pay. Honestly, this was not the primary reason that I decided that I was not going to teach. Teaching is not known for money. Even as a college student, I considered getting my master’s in administration or instructional design. Something that was still education-related, but would make more money.
It was never the kids. It is never the kids. If it seems like you hear every teacher say that, it is because it is true. We teach because we love our students like they are our own. We want them to be the best versions of themselves that they can be.
As an English teacher, there are so many factors blocking my ability to teach my students. This is not about an “agenda.” There is no agenda in teaching history. There is no agenda in teaching acceptance and tolerance. There is no agenda in teaching other world views as long as we do not hold one above the rest. I wanted to teach my students about the world around them. I wanted them to see how they can become adults that make their communities stronger, not conform to the society that is trying to hold them back.
“Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.” -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
It seems like all of the odds are stacked against teachers. There are daily articles covering the exodus of educators and the chasm between teachers and community members is expanding rapidly. What I wanted to know was — Why are new teachers still wanting to teach?
Caleb Moreland, a third-year high school history teacher, said that he too cherishes the curious nature of his students. When entering the field, COVID shutdowns were in full swing. Not only was he inexperienced, but there was no room for support. Teachers across the country were all trying to adjust to a new normal.
During this adjustment period, Moreland felt that many of the flaws of the American education system were exposed. Education became a process of “educating the mind without educating the heart.” We learned the truly damaging effects of developing machines and not humans, a process that non-educators are trying to return to.
When coming back to the classroom “I had a lot of students that did not know how to read in seventh grade” and these students were expected to walk back into the classroom as if their education had not been interrupted. “I spent thirty minutes every morning looking for a new job. What were my other options with an education degree?”
Now, in his third year of teaching, Moreland has made himself a home within his classroom, but it took some time for him to reevaluate what it means to run a classroom.
Austin Bennett, a second-year high school English teacher, highlights this issue while discussing the disconnect between teacher preparation versus real classrooms. “We are trained to teach in perfect classrooms, where all of the students want to be there and are engaged in the lessons.”
Maybe it is because of the teacher shortage, or maybe it is because many professors are too disconnected from their years away from the classroom, but it is as if professors are afraid of teaching college students the reality of teaching. Instead, teachers create units with no interruptions for state testing, behavioral issues, accommodations, or parental push-back. This leaves many new teachers frustrated and overwhelmed when entering the field.
When it comes to their ideas for a solution, both educators agreed that there are too many parents and educationally inexperienced politicians making decisions that affect all students. Bennett states that the “war against teachers is a large reason that teachers are leaving.”
Teachers want parents to be involved in the education of their children. The problem is that it has shifted from a team dynamic to an antagonistic relationship. Instead of a parent making a decision for their child, they are now taking it upon themselves to impose their beliefs onto all of the children in a school, district, or even state. Moreland suggests that “experience within the last 5–10 years max should be required to make educational policy.”
It seems that there are news stories covering the teacher shortage, and the crises facing the classroom, are daily occurrences. Many teachers are looking for options to leave.
Why are experienced teachers leaving? Is it the demands of the physical classroom, or is it the challenges of the field entirely?
Christy Miller, a high school science teacher, switched to an online platform of education. While still teaching with the public school system, she removed herself from her classroom after almost two decades of teaching experience.
Once a department chair at a Florida high school, Miller has spent the last four years as a department chair with oversight of other virtual educators.
“Online has let me have more flexibility… I spent too much time micromanaging and I wanted to spend more time with my family.” While in an administrative role, she agrees that a lot of the stress in education comes from the disconnect comes from a lack of awareness of what is truly happening in classrooms. “Admin needs to be in the classroom.”
Contrary to expectation, Miller has “received more pushback from parents” in the virtual classroom than the physical classroom. While teaching Biology, evolution, and sexual reproduction are topics that are infamous for their controversy in American classrooms. Despite trying to build trust and relationships with the families of her students, there have been times that she had had to give students zeros for these units when parents refuse to allow their child to partake in any of these lessons or assignments.
Other teachers decide to leave the education field altogether. Kate Howick, a former high school math teacher, decided to take advantage of her opportunity to leave the field. Now working as a Director of Operations for an engineering and construction company, she takes the management skills of running a classroom and applies them to a client-faced setting.
Howick emphasizes that she had options and an exit strategy, a luxury that many experienced teachers cannot afford. She is able to work with her spouse and had connections to a stable job immediately upon exiting the education field.
In her new position, her expertise is valued instead of questioned. “Respect in the community [or lack thereof] is the reason that a lot of teachers are leaving.” She discussed her feelings of burnout looming. Howick did not want to be miserable when she left teaching but rather leave while she still enjoyed the profession.
Many of my peers graduated in 2020–2021. Many of them had aspirations of becoming a teacher, even with all of the changes caused by the pandemic. Unfortunately, many felt that the career they were trained for did not match the environments that they walked into.
Sterling Reese, a former middle school English teacher, left the education field to earn her Master’s degree in instructional design. “There is a generational disconnect between professors and new teachers.” She expressed her frustration with her primary professors being out of the classroom for over ten years. “A lot of students are used to plugging things into Google and are unable to break the habit in order to learn post-pandemic.”
Another issue is how to handle the dynamic between parents, teachers, and students… a theme that is apparent across generations of teachers.
“Culture wars are ruining the educational experience for both teachers and students. They are making a bigger gap for marginalized students. People are no longer acting based on their own child, but an entire community of children. Why would I go into education to hurt your child? I went into teaching to help students, not limit their access to education. I felt like my job was more about making the parents happy rather than taking care of the kids. We need to trust our teachers. Treat us like the professionals we are. I’m not willing to leave education, but my day-to-day may not center around my own classroom.”
While there is an influx of teachers leaving the field, there are many educators that are staying in the field despite the exponential challenges.
Jeff Draves, a high school history teacher of 20 years, is a mentor to many teachers and students alike. He feels that the options for many teachers have changed, especially post-pandemic. There have been more opportunities to work online or in other fields entirely.
“Parents have a much stronger voice.” While Draves notes that it is essential for parents to be involved in education, the dangers occur when “there is a mob mentality.”
“They tried to raise salaries” but it was not enough to keep teachers in the classroom. As one of the few veteran teachers left at the school, Draves tries to be a mentor to other teachers. “It is important to surround yourself with adults who understand you. Do not isolate yourself in the profession. Have time with other adults.”
The stories of these teachers, along with many others, are not a single story. They are interwoven with both frustration and love for their students and their communities. This is why new teachers want to be educators. They want to educate students about everything the world has to offer.
Our society is too focused on teaching our students that they need to be exactly like us, believe exactly what we believe, and look at the world as a single story. Identities, religion, politics, love, morals, race, etc. are all seen as black-and-white issues. When we allow no room to discuss the gray, we remove the abilities of future generations to learn from our mistakes.
“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
New and experienced teachers want to break that mold and want to be given the resources to do so. Every year, teachers are being asked to do more with fewer resources and exponential restrictions.
Why are teachers leaving?: This issue, in its simplest form, is a lack of money (both pay and resources) and a lack of respect for the profession responsible for the next generations.
Why do they keep coming back?: There are students who still deserve the best teachers — even when there is an entire country doing everything that it can to make sure they do not get them.
