Teachers Are Telling Us. Are We Gonna Listen?

It's time to address this crisis for real.

This can’t be the best we can do as  a nation.

The United States has more educational institutions than any other country in the world. If that was the measure, the US would be, hands-down, the country most invested in education for all. But alas, this is not the case.

This nation that prides itself in civic engagement, innovation, and development, is hemorrhaging the professionals that we most need in order to promote unity and understanding,  heal historical trauma, and bring up the next generation of innovation and ingenuity. Without people to teach, to engage in a praxis that dares argue that knowledge is power, and that learning is democracy, this place is about to become a Mad Max movie.

No one is thriving in education. According to one first-year teacher in Nashville, “I just want students to believe in learning, in taking an interest in school.” A third-year teacher in Las  Vegas worries that schools are not resourced enough to engage students. Veteran teachers in my city struggle for the words to describe their exhaustion, frustration, and discouragement. Teacher preparation programs are wilting under the weight of low enrollment. Morale is at an all-time low. Teachers are struggling to teach; students are struggling to engage.

And yet, we do nothing, at a systemic or an institutional level, to address this crisis. We carry on with our strategic plans, the status quo, as if more operationalization will empower our students and communities and encourage our teachers. We cannot operationalize our way to healing and liberation. The Biden Administration has advocated for increased teacher pay, but also dragged its feet on student loan forgiveness and celebrated the power of bilingualism, but has done little to set the vision for a re-imagined educational system that inspires students and their communities while sustaining a vibrant and energetic teaching force.

The system is out of ideas. As expected.

It is time to take radical action for teachers. Teachers have been telling us why they are reeling. Exhausted. Overworked. Underpaid. Disrespected. But we insist on ignoring what they tell us and go back to the same well.

Compensation matters. Money matters when attempting to survive late capitalism. But as articulated by Aaron Duignan, it is the bottom rung of the ladder. So let’s do that. Pay teachers. Don’t you think there’s a relationship between teacher shortage and outrageous home prices?

Reduce the workload of teachers by half. Yes, by half. This includes SSPs. To be sure, millions of students have needs. But it is clear that if we continue to burn through educators in this unsustainable system, we will go from understaffed to not staffed at all. 

The disrespect piece is the most dangerous part of this. Teachers around the world are overworked, there’s a global teacher shortage, too. But the hate, the disrespect, and the persistent and destructive attacks on  teachers by people who seek only to win votes and fifteen minutes of popularity. Perhaps there’s not a lot to do about that, but we perpetuate this at the local level. Every time a principal undermines a teacher, every time a parent is allowed to run amok at PTA meetings and  principals’ coffees, this harm is perpetuated. Every  time this system weaponizes evaluations over providing genuine, good-faith support, resources, and coaching, we contribute to the  harm. 

I don’t have great answers. But I do know that in order to change the game, we’re going to need to look outside of the systems that have only let us down.