Teaching is not the same job it used to be.
January, 23 2018
There once was a time when teachers were held in high opinion by the public. Those days are gone. The public’s respectful perception of our nation’s teachers and schools is being eroded.
In 2017, the Phi Delta Kappan journal for educators, reported about 68 percent of those surveyed said they heard more bad stories about teaching and schools than good in all forms of information. Yet, the report also showed that 71 percent of Americans surveyed have confidence in teachers.
What’s developing is a more critical perception of teachers coming from a cross-section of think-tank opinion leaders, politicians and plenty of people on Facebook. Even though researchers and the public acknowledge the classroom teacher as the most important school influence on students, blaming teachers for all student achievement issues is a simplistic way of looking at an extremely complex challenge.
What drives the disapproval? An expectation of teachers that doesn’t match reality, because teaching is not the same job it used to be:
First, schools today need to prepare students for citizenship, the ability to respect others, success in college and skills for new technology-based careers. This is in addition to the traditional task of helping students achieve in reading, math, science, social studies and other fields. Teaching an increasingly expanding curricula becomes more difficult each year.
Second, America is currently swept up in a world-wide whirlwind of economic and demographic transformations that are reshaping our public schools. Most of us don’t grasp the enormity of the change going on around us or its impact on schools, but for students and teachers it’s already a different world, for example:
· Poverty. About 50 percent of U. S. students, 49 percent of students in Kansas and 73 percent of Wichita Public School students meet federal low-income criteria.
· Diversity. Nationally, fewer than 50 percent of white, non-Hispanic students make up the total school population. In Kansas counties surrounding Wichita it’s 84 percent but in Wichita Public Schools that figure is 33 percent.
Across the United States and in Kansas about ten percent of students are English language learners. In Wichita it’s approximately 18 percent. WPS students in 2017-18 speak 119 different languages and dialects and represent 96 countries.
· Students with exceptionalities. Special Education students represent approximately nine percent of the U.S. student population and nine percent in Kansas versus about 14 percent in WPS.
There’s no denying that demands are growing for comprehensive, relevant, rigorous teaching for an increasingly diverse student body.
Welcome to the new frontier of public education. The task is to celebrate and effectively prepare the remarkably diverse student population in our nation’s schools.
This does not mean that today schools prepare students poorly. Examples of high-achieving students in high-need/high-poverty as well as high-income schools can be found across the country, in Kansas and in Wichita.
Given the great change and increasing educational demands occurring in our schools, it makes sense to give teachers encouragement, not shame them.
The Rockefeller Institute of Government suggested recently that perception issues do surround the teaching profession. Creating public awareness of teachers’ positive contributions can reframe teachers as part of the solution, not the cause of educational issues.
We can fix a lot of problems if we treat teachers as the experts they are.
We need new ideas to address Twenty-first Century demands—a long-term policy and implementation effort best met by including, not accusing, teachers.
The attackers can be stopped by raising civic awareness—beginning by personally thanking teachers for their work. Can we all just pull together and do what our parents and grandparents did for us? They helped the country move forward through supporting a public narrative that valued teachers and their role in community life.