Teachers are overstressed and undervalued

Tonight at 9 PM Eastern, I will be an on-air guest for Huffington Post as we discuss how teachers are overstressed and undervalued.

Tune in live here.

Here is the archived video:



This discussion was inspired by Randy Turner's post A Warning to Young People: Don't become a teacher.

My position on this topic can be summarized by a few key points:

• Teaching is one of the most important professions we have on this planet, and I love teaching.

• Would I encourage my children to become a teacher? Yes, but I would make it clear that they have a real challenge ahead of them if they desire to teach the way they aspire to teach.

• Reducing the complex nature of people and learning is highly problematic and we are now witnessing the consequences. 

• Does anyone in their right mind actually believe that if all teachers simply taught common standards and achieved high scores on a standardized tests that the challenges our schools face everyday would simply evaporate?

• No educational reform will ever succeed until those who are in charge actually listen to, trust and empower teachers to work collaboratively with those in charge. As long as teachers are treated with such disdain and are the target of test and blame accountability schemes, there should be no surprise that our best and brightest either quit teaching or don't even consider becoming a teacher.

• Getting rid of teachers is easy. We treat them so badly they leave. In some jurisdictions 50% of teachers quit before 5 years on the job. The question isn't necessarily how do we get rid of bad teachers -- I'd rather us spend more time asking how to we create great teachers and then how do we convince them to stay.

• Will the most impressive teachers likely to be attracted or discouraged from teaching by command-control education policies that teacher-proof curricula and assessment?

• We don't have a shared understanding for what good teaching looks like nor do we have a shared understanding for the purpose of school.

• Inside the classroom, the teacher is the most important factor on student success; however, the influences of the teacher are dwarfed by the influences of out-of-school factors. Equity begets excellence.

• Are there bad teachers -- yes. There are bad doctors, lawyers, journalists and education pundits but you don't improve a profession by replacing bachelor and masters degrees with 5 week in services like Teach for America.

• There are many impressive reasons to use technology in the classroom and replacing teachers and increasing class sizes are not one of them.