US News and World Report just printed an article that will do absolutely nothing to motivate anyone to go into teaching. Why?
The title is “Pursue an Education Career but Stay Out of the Classroom.”
Listen, US News and World Report: The most important job in schooling is classroom teaching. Everything else is periphery. Ask yourself. What if there are no more teachers?
I’m not saying that other education jobs aren’t important, they are. But teaching is the crux of education. It’s where the rubber meets the road. And right now more than any other time, we need to bolster the profession, not tear it down.
I’d say an apology is needed. But you won’t get it from this or any other mainstream media outlet who damn teachers often with faint praise or no praise. The mainstream media is not in the business of cheering on real teachers. For the most part, they are anti-teacher.
Can you imagine someone saying go into medicine but stay out of the hospital? Go into architecture but don’t go into any buildings? Go into cooking, but stay out of the kitchen? I could go on with this but will spare you.
What do they suggest one do in education? Almost anything but actually teaching children and adolescents.
- Technology. Of course. It is the age of class disruption and Competency-Based Instruction or “transformation” as it is being advertised. If you can design online games for children to play on the computer you are an instantaneous hit. Will students learn this way? Who knows? Also, they are encouraging young people to learn by going online. I do know parents who wish their children would get off their tech devices. They mention “digital badges” too.
- Speech and Language Pathology. No one can deny that this area is critical. But why highlight it this way? Why make it sound like an alternative to teaching? Why not encourage young people to go into the classroom too? Speech and Language assistance goes hand-in-hand with teaching. Teachers are actually those who often discover the students who need speech and language help.
- Education Leadership. Not only do they highlight going directly to management—no student experience necessary—they tout online learning to get there! Does learning online create a good leader? How many leaders do we need in schools? And how effective as a leader will you be in education if you have never taught in a classroom? Hint: It is usually difficult for teachers to respect so-called leaders who have not worked in their shoes.
- School Psychology. Like speech pathologists, school psychologists are critical to schooling, but so are teachers. Without teachers what point is there to have school psychologists? The whole point of gathering information about how a student learns is to assist teachers in understanding how they teach the student!
- Adult Learning. Teaching adults is worthy too, but let’s not make it sound better than impacting how children develop and learn in younger years.
- Health Education. This is not about public schooling or teachers in those schools. Go into health areas if you are interested in this area. It is ridiculous to go into any area to avoid teaching, if teaching children is what you truly would like to do.
- Policy and Research. Like all the other listed areas, policy and research is critical to good instruction. But again, why pit it against classroom teaching? And while we are at it, it usually takes someone who has worked with children, to come up with the best ideas for school research, in my opinion. The closer you are to the classroom, the better you are able to see what students need.
At a time when schools are being pushed to replace teachers with technology, the last message young adults need is to hear that they can go into all kinds of outside jobs to avoid actual teaching.
The implication that the classroom should be avoided is irresponsible at a time when there is a so-called teacher shortage and teachers are striking in the streets of Chicago to improve funding.
Certainly, things have gotten bad in so many classrooms that many teachers want to leave, but it shouldn’t be like that and a major publication shouldn’t be encouraging individuals to avoid the classroom.
Imagine America with no more real teachers.
Teaching is a beautiful profession. It is a career that needs support, not essays that mock it.
The classroom is sacred. We should fight for it.
An apology is absolutely needed.
Agreed! Thank you, Lori.
When will they learn? Hope it is not too late.
I wish these heartless misguided fools would make those recommendations of parading around as physicians, dentist, engineers or numerous other important professions.
Education is already crawling with the seedlings of under-educated non-educators who refer to themselves as teachers while they feel incredibly well trained and priviledged to recommend the chaos and mess we now refer to as EDUCATION.
Scratch the surface of any, I mean almost any Reform foundation, and you read their bio’s full of teacher references. Look further, and you see the lies, padded itas, and loosely spun experience, when they were near children, somewhere!
I have read many psych reports where 15+ pages were generated in a canned program, change only name, gender & pronouns. Pure JUNK! Parents paid $100+ per page, while the pretend-psychologist couldn’t identify the child in a group of children. The weight of such JUNK PRACTICE in all areas of education, by marginally online “educated” imposters, is the unraveling of teaching and learning of our children.
The article braggs about the ease of playing a teacher on TV. Once we are six feet under, our standards will be history. The only quality of teaching and learning will be available to the über rich at Sidwell Friends and other wealthy institutions. The rest of America may attend something educational at Walmart, near the garden & fertilizer departments. Maybe!
This is very true. I spend a lot of time looking up credentials. Lots of poly sci majors parading as educators.
I love your writing, H.A. and always appreciate your comments.
Good critiques all. To be fair, know that most freelance journalists for publications who’ve outsourced their writing (like USN&WR) don’t get to write the headline. I suspect this writer falls in that category as the lead starts with a question rather than a directive. Provocative headlines are the order of the day in the digital world, and editors are only too happy to oblige.
It’s also an important message for college students to consider and know that a degree can lead them in many directions beyond the expected. This article strikes me as that sort of “what can you with this degree?” often put out by collegiate departments that are oft overlooked. For the senior soon to graduate with EDU degree in hand who entered a program with all the best intentions as a Freshman, did their student teaching only to find out that it’s not what they thought it would be, and now faces an uncertain career trajectory, this kind of advice is important, but best provided by a good adviser (also an increasing rarity on collegiate campuses).
That said, while it’s filled with some unexpected career pathways that college EDU grads ought to consider, it’s a poorly written article from the question (snicker) as lead to the end.
Thank you, James. I am not opposed to any of those professions as I know I stated. And it is true that teaching has been made into a very difficult job.
But there is an underhanded effort going on to get rid of teachers and put everyone online.
In some places they are laying off speech and language pathologists too.
This isn’t a magazine about teaching, nor do they talk about teaching, and its main focus is about business and the economy. So why react as if this article has anything to do with teaching; it expressly doesn’t, in fact. The article starts out: “Interested in education but not in entering – or staying in – the classroom?” If anything, it may point out to those who don’t know how dire the situation is for teachers these days (though there is no analysis).
Thank you for commenting, Jeff.
I wish U.S. News & World Report was just about business and the economy, but they are big supporters of school reform and privatization.
David Gergen was once the editor of this publication and he is a big Teach for America supporter. His 2005 U.S. News & World Report editorial about TFA “A Teacher Success Story” is an example.
Exactly, Nancy! U.S. News and World Report is JUST about business and the economy (not education at all) because they are all for making money through privatization. They can pretend they are for ‘school reform’ but sadly, the only ones who know the truth are real educators and educators’ voices are not being heard.
This Us News and World Report article is all part of the “bad teacher” propaganda. What this article is talking about is not “education” – rather it is business and profit making. We must take back the language of education. Thank you Nancy Bailey for exposing this false narrative for what it is – lies and propaganda.
Thank you, Jo! Thank you for all you do and say on behalf of children.
While I can not endorse the warped message, I think it does point to significant reality that we have been fighting against for, well, longer than I care to think about. (It’s certainly longer than my career!)
Respect.
Why has society deemed great teaching to be substandard to all other careers? We are sowing the seeds to foster the development of interest in all other careers?
I don’t love teaching; it is who I am. But I will leave it – it’s now to the point it’s not worth the constant struggle at dinner parties to explain summer vacation is not six weeks long, (I teach in Europe) or that my salary goes to funding activities at my job, or the hassle of trying to encourage colleagues to embrace technology, even in small steps. Yes, parents value what I do – but those very same parents are part of the society that are not endorsing the value in our work. They are the managers in business, the ministers in the government.
Without wanting to sound naive – I’m all for privatisation of education – I can do it better! than the government regulations. I would embrace returning to a time of inquiry and self actualisation that existed with a Socrates.
What is proposed in a blatantly disrespectful article, is still functioning within the paradigm of the current system. Time to get rid of the dysfunctional system.
Thank you for your comment. I think respect is what teachers in America long for…respect, resources and to be left alone to do the job in which they are prepared. I am sorry your teaching career is not going well. Best wishes.
Excellent. And The Atlantic and plenty other media imply the same: the “business” and most important aspects of education occur outside the classroom. (It’s pedal to the “metal.”)
You are correct, David. The mainstream media has not been a friend to teachers in most cases. Thank you.
This comment is intended to be helpful.
«I’m not saying that other education jobs aren’t important, they are. But teaching is the crux of education. It’s where the pedal hits the medal.»
The phrase is “pedal hits the metal” (floor of the car) and it means “accelerate as hard as possible” or “with all haste”.
The phrase “where the rubber meets the road” (referring to tire rubber) means “where theory meets reality”.
Thank you, Peter. I stand corrected!
That message has been out there for a long time Nancy. I have “experienced” novice teachers who did not want to be teachers at all. These individuals taught for three years and then poof into administration. The vast majority with disastrous results.
Thank you for sharing, Robert.
We assume the Surgeon General is an MD who has practiced medicine. It’s a given that Supreme Court Justices have practiced Constitutional law. However, the Secretary of Education is not required to have spent any time as a classroom teacher. Our society does not view educators as professionals.