I came across a link to an article on The Epoch Times on a friends Facebook page yesterday that I found concerning. The article, titled Overwhelmed Canadian Teacher Quitting in Droves caught my eye and once I had read the article I came to realize that it addressed many relevant concerned for both practicing teachers and pre-service teachers like me!
Pressure from parents, society, increasing workloads, stress, and issues with the government's educational policies are causing many teachers to leave to profession. Increasing workloads and expectations are also a major contributor to teachers leaving the profession.
While the article doesn't offer a solution to the problem it does raise many questions and concerns relevant to what lays ahead in my own teaching career.
I think it's important for you to go into the profession with your eyes wide open to these and other issues. As someone who has been doing this for 25 years I can attest to the erosion of autonomy for teachers. That said, the biggest difference in teachers that are enthusiastic about what they do and those who feel like these folks is that they have some leadership supporting and encouraging them to grow and innovative. Whether it's a principal or a superintendent, every teacher needs someone that has their back. That certainly doesn't mean they won't ever have to deal with these things but knowing others are supporting you allows you to still do what's best for kids and be proud of that and yet deal with the annoyances of some of these changes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Courtney! I found the stats really shocking. I have a question. Do you think the 30-50 percent of quitting teachers would decrease if a little more money was offered to them? Or would the demands still be too much for one person?
ReplyDeleteIn my own opinion, I don't think that more money would make a difference. Money isn't the main reason that most people choose teaching as a career, it's a passion for teaching and learning (for myself at least). For that reason I think that more money wouldn't make a huge difference, but I am also the kind of person that if it was a job that I hated no amount of money would change that.
DeleteI think part of it is also what Dean said in his comment above about having someone that has your back and the importance of creating a team and collaborating with your coworkers to deal with these issues together