Would you go into teaching? For me, I don't know...

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, I didn't know that the "teaching crisis" was like this... I thought they were just "short staffed" at several schools or districts, but seems several states are severely understaffed and looking at anyone with relevant qualifications to quickly jump on board.

If they have a plan in place for each state to steadily (slow yet surely) raise the teacher pay and benefits, they would not be stuck in this situation. Hopefully, they will correct this situation, the sooner the better. They need to work on it "step by step" and make minor gains.

Link: School districts facing 'crisis' teaching shortage - The Washington Post

[Alpha]

Instead of making it a better job, some places are simply lowering the standards for employment. Once upon a time I might have considered it, but I don't think I'd be willing to tolerate the system at this point.

[MNomadic]

I did it part time for a year. I like teaching but there's no possible way for it to be a sustainable profession in my region. To make things worse the administration was insultingly incompetent when it came to the matter of pay. They said they'd offer me a raise, actually offered me less than they were already paying me, then decided not to offer me a raise after I brought that to their attention. There's no way I'd consider teaching for a public school anymore, even if they paid more(not that they'd be able to compete with my current job in the tech sector). It's a downward spiral and it's a shame.

[freeloader]

Today, no. When I decided that I didn’t want to be a professor (and didn’t want to finish my PhD), I thought about teaching high school. I spoke to teacher recruiters and/or applied in 3 different states, all with the same results. I was told that I was unhirable in a public school system because I had too much education. In one state, I would have cost the school the same as a licensed teacher with only a BA and 8 years of experience. I had an interview with a principal who asked me flatly: who would you hire—a person with no high school experience and an emergency certification or a person with 8 years of actual experience and a BA? This was in a district and state, mind you, supposedly in the midst of a teachers’ shortage that had jobs that went unfilled.

It is no surprise to me that the new teacher programs that DeSantis is proposing in Florida are all for people who don’t yet have a bachelor’s degree—they are cheap. The goal is not to hire good teachers, certainly not the best teachers, the goal is to hire the cheapest teachers. I think that is a great shame, but it seems that I am part of a gradually shrinking population who actually believes that public education is important.

[LevelUP]

The goal is not to hire good teachers, certainly not the best teachers, the goal is to hire the cheapest teachers.

At the college level, teachers have to jump through lots of hoops, gamble and spend a lot of time and money to get their PhD in the hopes of getting on a teacher tenure track that can last 6 years. I think the odds are around 50% don't make tenure. 

Otherwise, they go the adjunct route in which teachers often have to live on less than what someone gets paid as minimum wage. Colleges won't let teachers teach more than a couple of courses as an adjunct. 

The question I wonder is if the system can be hacked? Take on a bunch of online adjunct jobs at multiple colleges so that you are teaching around 200 students total to bring your wages up to 6 figures. What about the workload? Well, hire a teacher's assistant in a 3rd world country to work remotely.

SNHU, for example, pays their adjuncts $2200 for a class size of 20. They charge $960 per course, costing them as little as $110 per professor. Pretty good deal for the college.

[dfrecore]

I am still considering it. I just need to finish an online course (ok, a series of courses) for my teaching certification. I did a long-term sub position this past spring and enjoyed myself. I didn't get to "teach" as much as I would have liked, but that's because of the long-term sub thing (the position already had the course basically taught via videos and planned out).

I plan on finishing the course, and then thinking about next fall. I live in a very nice area with good schools, so don't have to deal with some of the nonsense that other teachers might. I certainly wouldn't consider it in a district where they let kids do crazy stuff with no consequences, or a dangerous one. Nope.

I think one of the things that will fix the system is when schools realize teacher's aren't willing to teach under the conditions they give, and change the conditions. They need to back up teachers and be much harder on students. And not accept any of the craziness. The top brass have let things get completely out of whack, and that's not good for the teachers or the students (especially the ones that want to learn).

[wow]

In today's political environment, where teachers get blamed for everything they both parents and legislators? Where they are constantly hounded for teaching history accurately or describing reality? And most don't get paid very well? No, I would not teach.

[dfrecore]

In today's political environment, where teachers get blamed for everything they both parents and legislators? Where they are constantly hounded for teaching history accurately or describing reality? And most don't get paid very well? No, I would not teach.

They are hounded for teaching history inaccurately.  I taught my kids history (we homeschooled).  I'm half black, so I was certainly not going to whitewash things.  OTOH, I'm not going to say that all white people are bad because some had slaves (and some black people owned slaves as well).  I'm big on giving BOTH sides of things, and not letting them use presentism (using today's standards to judge yesterday).

If I thought teachers were unbiased and teaching both sides, I'd be fine.  But that's not the reality of schools today.

[MrPanda]

The goal is not to hire good teachers, certainly not the best teachers, the goal is to hire the cheapest teachers.

At the college level, teachers have to jump through lots of hoops, gamble and spend a lot of time and money to get their PhD in the hopes of getting on a teacher tenure track that can last 6 years. I think the odds are around 50% don't make tenure. 

Otherwise, they go the adjunct route in which teachers often have to live on less than what someone gets paid as minimum wage. Colleges won't let teachers teach more than a couple of courses as an adjunct. 

The question I wonder is if the system can be hacked? Take on a bunch of online adjunct jobs at multiple colleges so that you are teaching around 200 students total to bring your wages up to 6 figures. What about the workload? Well, hire a teacher's assistant in a 3rd world country to work remotely.

SNHU, for example, pays their adjuncts $2200 for a class size of 20. They charge $960 per course, costing them as little as $110 per professor. Pretty good deal for the college.

I´m teaching in Peru at 1 state university (1 course), 2 private universities (2 courses and 1 workshop), 1 institute (5 courses) and 1 center that teaches PG Diplomas and certificates (1 course):

State university: USD$ 4 per hour 
Private universities: USD$ 9 per hour 
Institute: USD$ 5 per hour
PG Diplomas center: USD$ 10 per hour

[bluebooger]

LOL, what's the point

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...acism.html