While on the one hand we’ve got a major teacher retirement upheaval about to hit the American school system, during which we’ll be losing a third of the current teaching force, on the other hand we’ve got a sketchy economy that’s sending boatloads of career-types running for the safety (I use the term loosely) of the business end of a classroom. Stock markets can crash, but barring a new world order, there will always be schools full of kids to teach.
For anyone out there who might be considering a career in the educating arts, please read this collection of short pieces in the New York Times written by three teachers, one professor of education, and one economist, about how hard teaching really is and the fact that, just because there’s a shortage coming down the pike, it doesn’t mean landing aand keeping a teaching job is going to be a piece of cake.
You might also want to read Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt, the most realistic, unromantic, non-Hollywood memoir about McCourt’s career as an English teacher in the New York public school system. It’s amazing and beautiful, but it would never serve to convince anyone to become a teacher unless the urge to educate was present in their bones prior to reading the book and had managed to stay put through to the last page. Teacher Man does not do for the teaching profession what Top Gun did for naval fighter pilots. It doesn’t make the teaching profession sexy in the slightest; it makes it terrifying and frustrating and also a tad eviscerating. (Is it possible to only be a tad eviscerated?)
Teacher Man is a beautiful story because Frank McCourt is who he is and because he wrote the way he did about how he felt about his students and his teaching of them. No other teacher will have the same relationships or career experiences, so for god’s sake don’t go becoming a teacher so you can be the next Frank McCourt. He writes honestly enough (he’s painfully blunt) that I feel certain reading his book will serve as an excellent chaff separator.
Further Reading:
A ‘Tsunami’ of Boomer Teacher Retirements is on the Horizon
As Economy Falters, Interest in Teaching Surges
Report Envisions Shortage of Teachers as Retirements Escalate
‘Relentless Pursuit’: A Year Teaching in America
Alternate Route to Teaching is Now a Road More Traveled
Education Degree Resources
Posted by Alexa Harrington
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