The following is from Michiana WSBT 22:
A survey led by the American Federation of Teachers in September found that a third of teachers were considering leaving the profession because of the pandemic. The survey hints at a trend we could continue to see over the next six months.
816 teachers across the country responded to the survey.
If the one-third who said they’re considering early retirement actually retire, that would be devastating news for the many K-12 schools already struggling under the strain of fewer teachers entering the workforce.
And as you’ll hear from a teacher in Eau Claire, coronavirus has added one too many things to her plate.
It’s just a whole other world trying to teach these days.
May Schultz-Reed
May Schultz-Reed calls teaching her passion. If not for the pandemic, the 64-year-old says, she wouldn’t consider retiring for at least three years.
I’m just not ready to be done with this. I love the kids, and I love what we do every day.
But she says coronavirus has twisted and removed so much of what she loves about teaching.
Schultz-Reed told the school board in September of her plan to retire Dec. 18, but after the district struggled to find her replacement, she’s decided to wait until June.
The Lybrook Elementary art teacher still sees with her K-5 students in person, but that’s where the similarities to previous years end.
The kids don’t get to come to the art room and experience the art room. I never have everything I need to do my job the way I want to do it.
Instead, Schultz-Reed goes room to room with a cart stuffed full of art supplies — everything she thinks she’ll need. But inevitably, she says, a kid asks her how to do something — and she’s empty handed.
Being on a cart is really hampering how I do my job. And that makes it no fun.
Gone are the days of guiding kids with hand-over-hand techniques to help with using scissors or learning cursive — now she has to stay six feet away at all times. And like 50% of the teachers who responded to the AFT’s survey in September, she has someone in her household who’s at high risk for coronavirus.
My husband has heart issues and diabetes, and I don’t want to bring anything home to him.
Schultz-Reed says it’s not one thing that made her decided to retire early. Coronavirus teaching frustrations and her husband’s health are the two biggest factors, but there’s been something else weighing on her for several years now as well that’s become a third factor in her decision.
The lack of respect for teachers is unbelievable. And that’s a very sad commentary on our world right now.
If more local teachers follow in Schultz-Reed’s footsteps, Michigan and Indiana would be in big trouble. In addition to fears of teachers retiring early or leaving the profession, fewer students are choosing to become teachers.
As we’ve reported before, in Michigan and Indiana especially, the number of students entering teacher preparation programs between 2010 and 2018 decreased by more than 50%.
And Schultz-Reed made a comment about the shortage of teachers. She intended to retire 10 days ago, but decided to stay on until June. That was because with only a few candidates applying for her job, she says the school might have used a substitute teacher for the entire spring semester.
That’s what happens, she says, when fewer teachers are entering the workforce.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
The education system in this country has been absolutely broken for years and years, and with all the absurd covid restrictions and mandates, any actual teaching and instruction that was left is now burning in the cafeteria dumpster fire behind the building.
I attended Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana. I have far too many stories I could waffle on about, but to summarize a few basic events my freshman year to illustrate how ridiculous our “education” is – my English teacher was not an actual English teacher: she taught Theater and learned her new position as she went. My Spanish class was still using textbooks from the early 90’s, so we were forced to learn how to say “floppy-disk,” but I had no idea how to intelligibly communicate with a Spanish speaking person. In Business class, we spent most class periods watching “Shark Tank” and talking about sports. That is but a dent as to all the things I could list.
Now that many of the schools across America are halfway to totally shutdown, there is no need for as many teachers, staff, and bus drivers. And why would you when everything is practically over a Zoom call? And yet good-for-nothing Congress and the President signed a bill that includes $82 billion for education, so more teachers can quit; sports, art, music, and other clubs and electives to be defunded and erased, and buildings and busses to rot and rust.
I will say one thing to corroborate with what this teacher in the article had to say: there is no respect. So many schools do not give the teachers the proper tools to even teach a child. Plus, children, by and large, have absolutely no respect for authority anymore. They have more rights than anyone else in America, especially if they are anything but White. Then the administration has to obey ridiculous parental complaints – plus having to preach social justice – leads for teachers not being able to come even close to doing REAL teaching.
As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.
Isaiah 3:12
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