SanLuisObispo.com | 04/27/2007 | Frustration with school leaders, not pay, forces teachers out
… frustrations with administrators and unnecessary bureaucracy drive thousands of teachers out of the profession every year, according to a study of nearly 2,000 California teachers released Thursday by California State University’s Center for Teacher Quality.Those who quit overwhelmingly cited bureaucratic impediments to teaching, such as excessive paperwork, too much classroom interruption and too many restrictions on teaching.
Bureaucracy, huh.
What is it good for?
Do you think this can happen here? Rhetorically speaking, of course.
2 Comments
I left teaching because (a) I couldn’t go to the bathroom when I wanted (or make a dr. appt., or take a phone call, or…) and (b) the time 9:23 a.m. makes no difference to anyone in the world (except maybe NASA) and the school world ran that way.
Summary: the above reasons are right (in your post) and very symptomatic of the real world. I suffer with those folks. But when I thought about returning to teaching 10 years later, with a PHD and 14 years of experience, I was offered $30K and had to take summer courses. C’mon.
I come from a long line of teachers, and it’s crossed my mind to look in that direction, but at the K-12 level? I’d need to be locked up.
I heard a couple of horror stories about a local middle school where teachers were being injured dealing with student conflict. I’m conflicted about sending my daughters there because this place has never had a great rep.
But we continue to pay teachers barely livable wages and make it hard for them to discipline to keep order. We teach kids how to take tests, not how to think.
I’ve never appreciated my Catholic School educational environment more.