The Great American Teacher Shortage | Dr. David Jeck | TEDxWarrenton

so I want you to stop for a moment and think about your favorite

teacher

, what he was like and what made him special, because we all have that person in our past that we can point to and remember that that person wanted us to become the best . version of ourselves, but now we have a little problem because there are fewer and fewer people who want to take on that role, there are more and more

teacher

s who are leaving the teaching profession, there are fewer and fewer potential teachers leaving colleges and universities, 58 percent of teachers surveyed last year said they were seriously considering leaving the teaching profession between fall 2020 and spring 2022. 300,000 teachers stopped teaching entirely, that's about the population of Pittsburgh who left and are being replaced by far fewer well-prepared professional teachers when you ask the average person what we do about this teacher

shortage

problem because if you've been paying attention you've probably seen the media state government federal government catching up with the problem they are catching up with this problem we have known about it for a long time and we have done a pretty poor job of preparing for it but now it hits us square in the face when you ask the average person what we do with this

shortage

most Of the times the reaction you will get is that we have to pay more, that is absolutely true, I don't even think it is debatable anymore, we have to pay teachers proportional to the value they provide not only to schools but to communities schoolchildren and those are two different things, so when you ask teachers who have left the teaching profession and this is where it gets interesting when you ask them why you decided to leave the teaching profession, they mentioned salary but then they mentioned a bunch Of other things that are qualitative in nature that really have nothing directly to do with money, they say that I don't feel appreciated by my Administration and that falls on our shoulders, I don't feel it. uh, I'm doing too many things that have nothing to do with teaching any teachers in the audience.

Can you relate to that? There are too many things that have nothing to do with teaching. They don't feel supported and this is going to step on their toes. parents I'm a parent I know most of you are probably parents, you're tired of dealing with difficult parents, okay, okay, so I'm going to tread carefully here because I work for parents, huh, but the ball game has completely changed the relationship between teachers and parents. it's completely changed expectations, time commitments are completely changed, and it's stressing out teachers. The other part I just mentioned is that I was asked to do too many things that have nothing to do with teaching.

This is my favorite evaluation example. We evaluate the poop. of children in Virginia are doing well between third grade and high school 32 standardized tests now in Finland you've probably heard this Finland is the country with the school system we're supposed to emulate dan two not only are we doing all this end of year testing but getting ready for that end of year assessment we are doing more formative assessments growth measures Benchmark testing Buddy testing now someone has to manage the grade breakdown use the breakdown data to figure out how best to help the kids and who normally you have to do that, teachers spend a lot of time and they get resentful, and I don't blame them, in the last 125 years we have put a lot more on the shoulders of teachers and I think we are at that breaking point, I think that's part of this problem time is another problem we don't give enough time to teachers, we overload their planning time sometimes i was previous principal i'm guilty hey can you cover this duty? can you go cover this teacher? can you come to this commission?

Meetings and teachers are good people, so they say okay, sure I'll help them, but the work they don't do during their regular planning time they take home and I've been married for 32 years to a teacher. principal who brings work home every night, is here somewhere and people are upset that teachers are resentful, so there are things we can do that are qualitative to help teachers, give them time, show them that we appreciate them, support them and here's the other part and I'm glad I don't have any of my school board members here tonight. We have to be courageous leaders and we have to reclaim the narrative regarding K-12 education.

We have to get it back because it has been stolen. Other people tell our story and they tell it wrong and we've let it happen, especially in the last two years. For example, our teachers achieved a miracle in the last two years. We absolutely asked them to pivot. We asked them to teach. differently we asked them to use technology for instruction we asked them to use we asked them to use new technology that they had never used before for instruction we asked them to do all these things and then one day we tell them this and then the CDC says something to the next day and we say no, you have to do this other thing, they achieved a miracle, we have to bravely support our teachers.

I don't know if you remember this guy, if you Google, crazy guy at school board meeting, that's the guy you'll see. Now, typically at these school board meetings, this energy that you've seen on television or perhaps in your communities has typically been directed toward the superintendent of the school board. He's fine, we can accept it, but sometimes he goes to the teachers, which doesn't make sense. outrageous and even if it's not directed at them, they have to be thinking if I really want to be a part of this organization, I really want to be a part of this, this is crazy, so imagine a 22 year old kid, genius.

What's happening, we have to bravely face this and you know, we haven't and often the reason we don't is because we don't want to be the story, but this is a way to actively support our teachers right now we're going to go even deeper we're going to talk about critical race theory are you ready? Well, everyone knows what a red herring is, the reddest of red herrings on the planet is critical. Race theory, okay there is such a thing, but the idea that it is somehow infiltrated into our public schools and that teachers are grooming and indoctrinating students is ridiculous, teachers don't have time to pee during the day school, it's crazy, but people have held on to it.

This and again teachers see this and say: What are you talking about? There are 1865 standards in Virginia. It's time to teach critical race theory. Now there are some bad actors. Someone in Michigan, a teacher gave an assignment or someone in Florida, you know, said something. class and yes, there are 3.5 million teachers in this country, there are some bad actors if someone goes off script and teaches the informal formal curriculum in an inappropriate way, of course, but the idea that this is somehow way part of our schools is just crazy and the teachers feel it and here's something else they see that is insulting lines of advice for teachers. we have tip lines now in Virginia we have an environment where someone can contact someone in Richmond and share a concern about something they heard that may have happened in a classroom, so they jump over the teacher, they jump over the beginning, They jump over the superintendent, they jump over the school board, they go right to Richmond.

I don't like something that is happening in the classroom. Okay, but you know, that's where it stays. I don't get that information so think about it, people are the ones who can best adjust the problem, they don't even know the problem exists for the most part, they are not informed again, it is an insult to the teachers, it is a negative influence and I'm going to end this talk about school shootings. You want to talk about something that is widespread school shootings that are real children, teachers are being murdered in classrooms and I'm going to tell you something that school divisions will do whatever it takes.

What they will do to protect their staff and their children will put up fences will hire arm guards will redesign the lobby to make it difficult for people to enter will buy software where you can just press a button to call the sheriff's office, but these teachers see this anemic response from state and federal government officials and you must be thinking: do they really care about me? Do they really want us to be safe because they don't seem to be doing anything they normally do? What I do is they will suggest thoughts and prayers. I am a believer in prayer, but I also know that faith without works is dead, it has to act and that is where we are and someone will suggest that we need to arm the teachers, no.

Aren't teachers there to teach? They are trained to teach. They are not armed bodyguards. That's our job. We're supposed to protect them. If we are going to insist that teachers be armed, then double your salary because we are asking for it. to do two things serve as a teacher and ad hoc school resource officer look like I said, we have to take back this narrative, we have to take back our message, we have to support our teachers with courage, courage, because here I am. We'll end this, every student, no matter where they live, no matter what kind of car their parents drive, no matter what community they are from, no matter if they are a city kid or a country kid, deserve to be taught by a highly qualified teacher. and well paid.

Well prepared teachers, every one of them and right now we are not doing that and the problem will continue to get worse unless we do something meaningful about it, but these children deserve it, every one of them and we are not doing it now in the short term kids will pay for it in the long run guess who is going to pay for it we have to do something and on a more positive note I have a bunch of teacher contracts in the green room if you are interested let me know thank you very much thank you thank you