The teacher shortage across the nation is getting more critical, following two years of an extended and mishandled pandemic which affected education in public schools significantly. Unions have made unreasonable demands for their teachers who did not want to teach in a classroom due to an irrational fear of death from a virus.
Some
teachers quit because they refused to teach the divisive and racist critical
race theory (CRT). Other teachers refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Students
older than 12 were also forced to vaccinate against the highly ineffective
Covid-19 injection to attend school and other school-related activities.
The teacher shortage
is exacerbated by the license required by each state’s Department of Education
in order to teach in public schools, even for seasoned teachers with a Ph.D. in
a non-College of Education degree and a lot of years of experience teaching in
higher education – they must have the approval of the vaunted Department of
Education or else they are not qualified to teach.
Knowledge
and content of a particular subject are not as important as a license. Due to
the teacher shortage, licensed teachers are now teaching subjects they know
nothing about.
The license,
a piece of paper issued by each state, guarantees that the prospective teacher
is good at making adorable and colorful bulletin boards and lesson plans - the
paperwork with objectives must be completed, posted, and turned in to the
administrators in a timely manner and placed on visible bulletin boards.
Whether there is actual teaching and learning of those objectives in the
classroom, that is a different story! And the students’ performance on
standardized states proves the lack of learning.
The teaching
profession has attracted students who had a harder time passing science and
mathematics classes in college. Stronger math and science students were not
interested in a College of Education degree because they knew that the pay was
and still is lower when compared to employment with an Arts and Science degree.
Teaching has
never been easy – it takes dedication, long hours, knowledge, and the pay is
quite low. The school day never ends for a teacher at 4 p.m. The briefcase is
full of papers to grade, lessons to plan, and reading materials to keep up with
new developments, good or bad, required by the Department of Education.
I cannot
imagine what must take place in most classrooms today! Judging by the woke teachers
posting on TikTok, the situation in the elementary classrooms, with the most
impressionable students, the teachers are bent on grooming kids into their
depraved and delusional lifestyle. People with obvious mental issues oversee vulnerable
kids.
Gone are the
days when teachers were mostly positive role models, imperfect humans outside
of the classroom. They came to class cleanly dressed, men were shaven, cared
for their appearance, respected their students, and taught them how to be
respectful to adults and peers alike.
Parents were
sure that their kids would be safe in the classroom, would learn to read,
write, do basic mathematics, home economics, learn life-long lessons of civics
and citizenship, and skills applicable throughout adulthood.
Students
were able to tell how many states form the United States, what the capital is,
knew geography and history, the Constitution, their presidents, could write a
cogent paragraph in proper and correctly spelled English, and knew their math
tables.
Now students
must spend time with social activism, social justice, learning Common Core math
which reduces their performance on standardized tests even more; they must read
sexually explicit stories, so explicit that the boards of education do not
allow parents at meetings to read aloud the content of their children’s
homework assigned by teachers following the Common Core curriculum.
Less than
two decades ago, even without a college degree, high school graduates could
read, write, do basic math, cook, balance checkbooks, could do simple math in
their heads without a calculator, knew basic geography, basic history of their
country, how to survive, fix a flat tire, change the oil in cars, cook, sew, learn
useful skills in shop classes, raise a family, understood clearly the two
biological sexes, and be respectful of life, born and unborn, and be generous
and kind to others.
At the turn
of the twentieth century, eighth graders could pass a difficult exam which most
high school and college graduates today would be hard-pressed to even score in
the lower fiftieth percentile.
In 2022, the
pink haired, nose-ringed, lip-ringed, and heavily tattooed woke teachers are
upset because they are not allowed to talk to their kindergarten and elementary
school students about their sex partners, graphic sexual orientations, being
transgender, and other immoralities. The mental and sexual baggage is so
depraved that one wonders what is going to happen to our future generations
exposed to such perversions in the classroom, often without parental knowledge.
It used to
shock us when people with criminal records, liars, pedophiles, and habitual
drunks became teachers and counselors in our public schools. Teachers who had
sex with their underage students made headlines for months and years and they
went to prison for their crimes against minors.
It was
shocking to see college professors have steamy affairs with their students, yet
nobody punished them in any way – liberals rolled their eyes and said, it was
consensual sex. Never mind that the issues of professorial ethics and sexual
harassment were not addressed.
It is now
seen as tame for a public-school administrator to invite an imam to speak to
students about the wonders of Islam shortly before his son and fiancé were
caught trying to join ISIS. What exactly would American Christian students
learn from such a speech that the attendance was made mandatory? And when did
proselytizing for a non-Christian religion became compulsory in public schools?
Liberals have been telling us for decades now that we cannot mix religion with
public schools - we must be politically correct.
There is a
shortage of teachers in our public schools because they have been habituated to
“teach” from home in front of a computer and refuse to be in the classroom;
they are afraid of a virus and want to wear a mask in perpetuity.
There is a
shortage of teachers because the best, the brightest, and the most
knowledgeable among them chose to leave the profession and pursue other ways to
earn a living. With notable exceptions of the most dedicated and stellar
teachers, the worst and the least prepared among the licensed ones chose to
stay – they have few other avenues of employment.
There is a shortage
of teachers because student discipline and behavioral issues caused by bad
parenting or lack thereof have driven many teachers to renounce the profession.
Administrators expected them to be first responders, doctors, nurses,
counselors, and social workers, and to give students passing grades even though
they had not earned them.
If you ask
the National Education Association, the teacher shortage in all states can be explained
by underfunding, poverty, and inequality. “Policymakers must take action
to fix the underlying issues – underfunding, poverty, and inequality – that
have dug us into the deep hole that we’re now in.” Teachers view the classrooms
as “dangerous,” following the pandemic. “Teachers
often have master’s degrees, even doctorate degrees, and yet they earn far less
than other college graduates.” The Teacher Shortage Can Be Addressed
— With Key Changes | NEA
The deep
societal divide pushed daily by the mainstream media and Democrat politicians
via their divisive policies is reflected in the classrooms. “Poverty, segregation, and inequality are huge issues,
deeply embedded in American societies, and manifested in classrooms. Students
come to school unprepared to learn, hungry or sick; parents have life
circumstances that make it difficult for them to engage in their children’s
learning; teachers’ safety and mental health is threatened.” The Teacher Shortage Can Be Addressed
— With Key Changes | NEA
Societal
issues reflect the sad reality that young generations now are not ready to be
parents, have not learned how to be responsible adults themselves and are still
relying on their parents for their survival. Some are hooked on drugs, alcohol,
and on their smart phones, constantly taking selfies to post on TikTok, hoping that
they will become the next Internet “influencer.”
Their role
models are immature, entitled, narcissistic and whiny individuals, and are thus
not ready to be parents. The main ingredient of a successful adult, personal
responsibility, has never crossed their paths and lips. And their wild
and misbehaved children, unfortunately, are now in the classrooms. Why would a
low paid teacher deal with such parents and their children, in addition to teaching
them?
Sadly, as a
profession, teachers, good or bad, command little respect from society as a
whole, even though they are the ones shaping America’s future by virtue of
having your children’s ears and minds longer than any parent.
Thank you, Ileana, for so thoroughly tabulating the many severe problems in education. Being ‘up in years’, I have witnessed the collapse in the once-excellent public schools, to what they are today. For example, women teachers in my Ohio high school could not be married, for fear that child-raising would distract from their teaching duties, including grading papers in the evening. Without exception, those women teachers did an excellent…..even superb…..job. One example of the downturn in education is that most schools now refuse to teach cursive writing….a lifetime skill like bike riding, or swimming. So instead of producing notes and letters that are truly beautiful works of art (especially for girls/women), they produce klutzy, mis-shapen printing that is difficult to read.
ReplyDeleteLiving in the home city of the U. of Michigan, I’ve seen how the Vietnam war student protests and hippy days have been the main driving force in education’s collapse. Men’s haircuts, women’s permanents, and proper attire, including coats, ties, and dresses were replaced by long hair and tie-dyed shirts, and blue jeans, even among teachers. Permissive sex became rampant, starting with Woodstock in 1969; open dorms quickly followed. Campus radical Bill Ayers (guided Barack Obama into politics), who escaped prison for bombing the Pentagon on a mere technicality, became an education ‘expert’ at the U. of Chicago, corrupting American education with his liberal writing.
The ex-hippies in the NEA drove the foray of public education into the present, wrongful, sexual grooming of our children. Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum ‘spies’ reported that the first five or six resolutions at the NEA summer convention each year were about how to promote homosexuality in the classroom; sadly, promotion of transgenderism has followed.
Public education will not be saved until we abolish the Department of Education, and concerned parents take over their school boards.
I agree, Dr. Sponseller.
DeleteParcel man from California:
ReplyDeleteYou say that teachers are getting a bad reputation. I would say that they probably deserve it. They don't stand up against all this trash that they are teaching the students and some of them even teach it even though they don't believe it. They defend themselves by saying "I'm just following orders.... this is what they are paying me to do". That's what the Nazi's said when they invaded Poland, and the Polish people were coming up to them and asking them why they were destroying Poland.
Thank you for your article. My wife -- "Mrs. Appalachian Irishman," by name, on my website -- has been a teacher/vice principal for over twenty years -- in a "public" (aka socialist) school system. For years, I have encouraged her to find a teaching position, in a reputable religious or Christian school. She still stands -- as one of a few who stand – for biblical values in that school system. I've heard the "war stories" for years.
ReplyDeleteThank you to your wife for her dedication. She is a rare gem.
DeleteFrom Nancy R. Walten:
ReplyDeleteIt is an absolute crime what is happening in what were our schools.
From Parcel man in California:
ReplyDeleteI don't know about Canada but in American schools it has been happening for a long time. Americans have just been asleep as to what the schools have been teaching their kids.