Good News: NY Times Acknowledges a Nat'l Teacher Shortage. Bad News: [View all]

[Smarmie Doofus]

(You can link to the full Times article from Perdido Street Blog : link below).

It won't tell you why.

Reporter Motoko Rich roots around all over the place. The improving economy. Fewer people in the ed school pipeline. A panoply of other speculations and observations .... generally of the self-evident variety.

But WHY, Motoko Why? Well... as Perdido Street Blog explains..... basically because no one wants to teach since the schools have been redesigned over the last 10 years along the lines prescribed precisely BY the NY Times ( and Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, George W. Bush, Walmart Foundation, Hedge-Fund Managers, et al. ) Well, these supply and demand geniuses have had their way, pretty much unfettered.

And, to be fair, we've GOT the demand. ( Had it before; have it now.) But where the funk is the *supply*?

Perdido Street explains: only an idiot or a masochist would agree to teach under the conditions the aforementioned ed all stars and pioneers have created in public education.

In other words: not only have they driven talented and experienced people out of the teaching ranks... into early retirement or just plain oblivion; they can't find anyone to take their places.

Alas the lesson is lost on reporter Rich. Or she pretends it is. She'll go far, I'm thinking. The gal knows how to get ahead. No teaching for HER.

Here's Perdido's commentary in part:


>>>Yes, it's true that a rebounding economy leads fewer people to go into teaching - there are more opportunities available for other kinds of work with "better pay and a more glamorous image."

But unexplored in the Motiko Rich Times piece is one big reason why teaching isn't a job with a glamorous image. - the consequences of 10+ years of corporate education reforms.

Every day you open the newspaper or turn on the TV, you see or hear some teacher-bashing crap, some politician like Christie saying he wants to punch teachers in the face, some rag like the Post blaming teachers for destroying the lives of children by using the Three Little Pigs as a DO NOW exercise to teach POV and bias.

Then there are the new "accountability rules" - the constant observations, the evaluation ratings tied to test scores (as high as 50%), the increased work load and stress for the same (or less) money, the decreased benefits, gutted pensions, and diminished work protections like tenure (Kansas is an emblem of this, but it's happening nationwide too.)

I'd say if kids are looking around at the job landscape and saying "Hell, I can do better than be a teacher!", they're right - and smart for saying it.

I teach seniors and I tell the ones who say they want to be teachers to think twice about the major - that teacher bashing and odious accountability measures (most of which simply add more work to a teacher's load without making them better teachers) make the job miserable these days.

I also tell them that teaching isn't really a career anymore, that the politicians and educrats and oligarchs who fund education reform see it as a McJob that can be filled by untrained temps who do it for a couple of years and move on (or get moved on by accountability measures) to something else.

To that end, the Times again:>>>>http://perdidostreetschool.blogspot.com/2015/08/ny-times-covers-national-teacher.html