teachers (are nuts)

I ran into a friend at the library yesterday. Told her I was applying for teaching jobs.

“Why?” she asked. She works at a school. “I don’t know why teachers do it.” She’s at a Title I school where test scores and morale are at an all-time low. The principal rules whip-in-hand. Sad. Makes me want to go in and turn things around—not that I could or am in a position to do so. 

Teaching anywhere is challenging, but some schools are definitely more challenging than others. So far I’ve tried to apply for jobs at schools I would enjoy working at—the types of schools I would be happy sending my kids to. I’ve had four interviews, which I consider pretty good in this market, but no offers yet. 

I have to say, I wasn’t upset that the local high school rejected me, after I’d learned that the teaching load is six sections of 36 students.  Can you imagine grading over 200 papers?  How can a teacher possibly give frequent, constructive feedback to 200 students? In contrast, at the charter school where I interviewed this week, teachers have five sections of 25 students each—125 students total.  Some college professors have as many students.    

How do charter schools do it? Well, their teachers aren’t unionized and are often paid less than their district-school counterparts; starting salaries are comparable, but median salaries are much lower at the charters (in part because all the charters are new, so the teachers haven’t been there long).  I for one would take the lower pay for the smaller classes.  Not that anyone around here pays teachers well: the median teacher salary in Utah in 2011 was $45,329; $46,448 for district schools, $35,000 for charter schools.  Median starting salary: $32,889. 

I’m not—teachers aren’t—in it for the money (at least, not in our fair state).  Like most or all teachers, I’m somewhat idealistic—I like the idea of doing good in the world, changing lives, teaching kids.  Maybe I could make a bigger difference in a poor urban school than in a prep school, but frankly I can be a better teacher in the prep school where I have 40% fewer students and supportive administrators.  And I want my kids in schools where their teachers have a reasonable teaching load and supportive administrators (let me say that my local high school is neither poor nor urban and seems to have supportive administrators).

Our society has unrealistic expectations for teachers—we overflow their classrooms with students and drown them in mandates, then blame them when our students don’t perform as well as students from other states or nations. 

So, why is it so hard to get a teaching job?