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Please welcome Daphne, a guest teacher blogger who’s got something to say!
Setting:
School library - present day middle America
Cast:
SPORTY: A fresh-out-of-college gym teacher; engaged to a doctor just entering residency
GEEKY: An accountant turned part-time first-year business teacher; married with 2 small children
MISS SOCIAL: A 2nd year school social worker (first year in this district); hoping to be engaged very soon
All three teachers have had excellent reviews and are liked by students, colleagues, and administrators.
The three lovely young ladies are discussing their professional futures and an interesting common thread becomes clear: not one of them sees teaching in their far-off future.
SPORTY is busy planning her upcoming wedding, has just bought a house, and dreams of getting to stay home with children at some point. She talks of getting her doctorate and working in another field. She says, “I dream of my husband and I being known as Dr. and Dr. X.” She’s brand-new to the profession but in her first year has already been beaten into submission by her male counterpart in the physical education department. She isn’t allowed to plan her own lessons and sees no chance of that changing in this district. She says, “I don’t mind coming to work, but I really don’t love it. I want to love what I do. It’s not the students, it’s the work environment.”
GEEKY is frustrated by the lack of support she receives from administrators and colleagues and is currently being bored to tears in her position, which is essentially just babysitting a computer lab. The part-time consulting work she does is much more stimulating and much more flexible for her family. She hopes to leave the profession in the near future to pursue this full-time, working from home. She feels this work would be more lucrative, engaging, and would allow much more creative license. She says, “I just want to do what is best for my family, and the ability to work from home is key.”
MISS SOCIAL is getting anxious to get married and is desperate to get to stay at home with her future babies. She’s seriously considering returning to school to earn her PhD - she says, in response to Sporty, “I’d just be happy with being known as Dr. and Mr. Y! One Dr. is good enough, right?” She sees this as a necessary step to being able to either teach part-time at the college level or do clinical counseling, both of which would offer more flexibility for her future family and would be more personally rewarding.
Is this just an example of three women whining about their jobs?
Maybe.
Is it an example of why young, highly educated, female teachers aren’t staying in teaching like they used to?
No doubt about it.
Teaching isn’t the final option for us. It’s not the end of the road. For many of us, it’s hardly the beginning.
WANT US TO STAY?
Empower us.
Value us.
Recognize us.
Pay us.
Give us the option to teach online or in a more flexible schedule.
If those things don’t fit in education today, then neither do we.
We aren’t just three complaining 20-somethings, we’re the future of women in the profession.
Fix it.
Now.
Your children need women like us as teachers.
11 responses so far ↓
1 GingerTPLC // Mar 12, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hello Daphne! I knew, coming into this profession that I’d only be a teacher for a max of 10 years before I stopped to re-evaluate my passion. I’ve had several BIG changes in my education career so have kept mentally engaged. But I know that it’s not going to last too much longer.
“Is it an example of why young, highly educated, female teachers aren’t staying in teaching like they used to?”
Completely.
2 Taylor // Mar 13, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I was recently walking into the building alongside another teacher, who told me that day was her retirement day.
As she walked into the school.
She can’t afford to retire.
Then she told me of many others that have the same experience.
And then she alluded to my own retirement.
And it hit me that there is no conceivable way I can retire in this profession. It’s the fault of the system that that’s a problem, really. Teaching requires a balance between time to give out and time to take in.
I hope I can move in and out of teaching, but if I can’t I’ll have to leave it.
3 Tom // Mar 21, 2008 at 7:25 am
My wife and I were both K12 teachers.
We had kids. She wanted to stay home and I left K12 because I needed to make more money if we wanted to eat and continue living in a house.
Sucks, I had to make that choice almost purely on money. What really depressed me though was the fact that people said things like “I knew you wouldn’t be here long,” “off to bigger and better things” etc. That’s sure not how I felt.
I most felt bad. I felt bad they’d expect people to leave if they were good at their job. That’s a messed up mindset and certainly a symptom of a messed up system.
Tom’s last blog post..BattleDecks- Presentation Ninjitsu
4 Taylor // Mar 21, 2008 at 4:00 pm
My friend Kitty Cat has a non-teacher friend who is constantly telling her, “You’re too smart to be a teacher.”
5 Clay Burell // Mar 27, 2008 at 3:17 am
I thought about this post as I emailed my quasi-resignation today.
I say “quasi” because I said this was goodbye only if my admin and I couldn’t find outside-the-box ways to continue our relationship.
Then I proposed “the option to teach online or in a more flexible schedule,” in Daphne’s terms.
Just got the reply, which included, verbatim, Tom’s “off to bigger and better things.”
The nice thing is, I do feel that’s true. I can make far more money tutoring than I made as a school-teacher. And I can’t wait to get started.
Teachers shouldn’t have to settle for poverty, nor for the pretend-learning that is practiced in so many schools - test prep, in other words.
The longer I teach, the more I learn the radical difference between being “schooled” and being “educated.”
I’m leaving teaching, finally, to become a teacher. If life goes according to plan, I’ll never make another report card again.
Clay Burell’s last blog post..Open Thread: Your Favorite Teacher Blogs, by Subject Matter?
6 Taylor // Mar 27, 2008 at 9:08 am
I think I’m going to change my domain name to www.goodteacherresignations.com
But good for you, Clay! I know you’ll be happier. I hope you’ll continue blogging your post-school adventures in teaching and learning.
Blaze the way for the rest of us!
7 Clay Burell // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:06 am
Not only will I keep blogging - God, I hate that word like I’d hate being in love with an Ernestine - I’ll also have time to read others more. (Secret: yours is one of very few I read at all in my current schedule.)
I love the URL name. Interesting angle.
Clay Burell’s last blog post..Open Thread: Your Favorite Teacher Blogs, by Subject Matter?
8 Taylor // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:15 am
That you’re still reading means LOTS AND LOTS. Thanks.
As Jose would say, I really am humbled.
9 Clay Burell // Mar 27, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Who the hell is Jose?
Clay Burell’s last blog post..Open Thread: Your Favorite Teacher Blogs, by Subject Matter?
10 Taylor // Mar 27, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Jose is only the Coolest Teacher Blogger ever– he’s even cooler than you AND me. In fact, since I just figured out that all the teacher bloggers in your open thread aren’t writing exclusively about teaching, I’ll go add him to your list.
11 “So Off I Flew to Seek a Newer Land” - Notes Beyond Schoolteaching | Beyond School // Jul 7, 2008 at 8:55 pm
[…] Taylor the [ex-]Teacher’s web log. Taylor’s guest-writer, Daphne, wrote an open letter to schools in which she suggested, under the heading, “Want Us to Stay?”, the following: Give us […]
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