Job Discussion Forums

[Serious_Fun]

I was amazed at the large number of teachers who leave the profession, and the costs to school districts...sad but true!

http://www.nctaf.org/resources/demonstration_projects/turnover/TeacherTurnoverCostStudy.htm

[The_Hanged_Man]

Sad but true is right. I only lasted two years at a low income district in Texas. Low pay, high stress, loads of paper work, and lack of respect all combined to make public school teaching in the States an unattractive option in the long run. I'm now on the international school circuit where conditions are much better.

[soapdodger]

Sadly this situation is universal and would appear not to be accidental at all. The purpose is to create masses of highly uneducated people who actually believe that they are intelligent, or are decidedly hostile to any signs of erudition. This is a lesson learned from history. Over 100 years ago the "working classes", or "common people" started to realise that knowledge was power, that they didn't have it but that it was freely available and they set out earnestly to get it. The result was alot of people who were hard to fool and push around, which was rather bad for business. What to do? Rather than take something away, which raises eyebrows and causes outrage, gradually reduce the quality instead, and more importantly, make people believe that they have reached an acceptable standard of education, then they'll be satisfied and stop learning...I can't be stupid, I've been to university! The methods employed are very effective. Snow teachers under with inordinate amounts of paperwork and rules, deny funding, and soon anyone with anything worthwhile to impart is either going to give up and leave, knuckle under or if they persist, have some or all of their good work undone further down the line. Worse still, the ever-accelerating vortex of dropping standards means that alot of the people who go into teaching are already undereducated themselves ( through no real fault of their own, it might be added) and only serve to contribute more to dropping standards. The immediate results of this awful degeneration are plain to see, although the intended results are not. We should remember that today's illiterate teenager is going to be tomorrow's illiterate public administrator or , God help us, doctor. It is probably too late to do anything about all this now, it is too deeply entrenched, and extends far beyond education. Personally, I sincerely hope I won't be reincarnated on this planet.

[spiral78]

I have to agree with the hanged man, if not soapdodger!
I 'served' two years in a small-town elementary school. It's a job for people who are content to hang around their entire lives, focusing on minutia - ideally it's the second paying job in a family.

For me, the real kicker was the realization that all of the benefits were predicated on one's being in the same system for 25+ years. I'm, uh, slightly too restless to comtemplate that.

I have a friend from high school who's literally been teaching in the same classroom for 28 years now. Her hair's entirely grey - and, no, I'm NOT that old!!

[Jetgirly]

I'm a B.Ed student at the moment and I don't plan to stay in teaching permanently. In my area salaries are relatively high but cap after eleven years. Why would I work any longer than that? I see myself as a public school teacher for five or six years before moving on.

[Serious_Fun]

[Jetgirly]

I definitely want to stay in the field, but just not as a teacher making the same amount of money for the last fifteen years of my career! I'm pretty sure I'll end up doing an MA in Education in hopes of either moving into admin or the Ministry. I love teaching but I also love making money!

[The_Hanged_Man]