Yes, there IS a shortage of teachers. No, it’s not going to be easy to solve. Yes, paying more helps. Some. And, yes, the value proposition for teaching is pretty terrible right now.
Barnum and Fernandez note several of the obvious reasons that teaching is a less attractive profession these days. Low pay, especially if you compare it to the pay for similarly-educated professions. The rising tide of bad behavior from students. The onslaught of attention-sapping technology. The insistence that good education is only for the right people and for other people we just need schools to crank out compliant meat widgets to serve corporate overlords.
And, well, there’s a lot of negativity when teaching – formerly one of America’s most revered professions – is discussed:
There is the absolute unrelenting negativity directing at the profession. Twenty years ago, American schools were failing, and it was all teachers’ fault. Then teachers were run down as groomers and pedophiles. Then they were part of the evil conspiracy behind COVID. Commies and traitors! If you aren’t on the ground, in schools, I’m not sure you can really grasp just how relentless and ugly the steady denigration of teachers has been in this country for the past few decades. And the folks who could be the next generation of teachers have had a front row seat.
