Anyone who goes shopping in a big box store or any other business selling school supplies in August has been overwhelmed by families jamming the aisles of notebooks, pencils, paper, lunch boxes, backpacks, hand sanitizer, and tissues. That doesn't even include the back-to-school clothing aisles, with parents trying to weigh their children's ideas of appropriate attire against what they fear might warrant a phone call from the principal on the first day of school.
September brings out the big yellow buses and the beginning of a new school year. While so many people make this possible, teachers will be the focus of this month's column. There is a crisis in education today, and we are all affected by it. It doesn't matter whether you currently have children in school. Schools form the bedrock of our democracy. A well-educated citizenry requires committed, well-trained teachers to open the minds of their students and prepare them to take up the mantle of leadership in a world filled with challenges. Why are we facing a shortage of such teachers? A number of factors have led to this situation over the last fifteen years. Serving as a Principal during those early years, I watched the number of new teachers entering the field for interviews dwindle each year. Then I saw high school seniors avoid choosing to major in education as they headed off to college. For some, it was the low salaries in comparison to the required years of undergraduate and graduate school education. Others had seen how hard their teachers had to work and then still had to write lesson plans and grade papers when they went home at night. I have often heard people say, "but teachers have the summers off." It is true, but that is the time they have to recharge themselves and often take courses to continue to grow in their field (if they aren't teaching summer school). Teaching is not a simple process, as many parents found during the recent pandemic when their children needed help at home with online courses.
In this column, I've previously written that children have many adults in the community who serve as teachers in their lives. It is certainly true, however, that a significant percentage of children's early education comes from their classroom teachers. One of my favorite quotes comes from Nelson Mandela: "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children."
I had the privilege of visiting South Africa with a group of educators in 2013, just two months before Mandela's death. We traveled to many of the areas that shaped his life. He spoke of the importance of education often. It is the responsibility of all citizens to support the teachers in our schools.
As we begin a new school year, let's make a commitment to encourage our leaders to solve this critical shortage in our communities.
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