Great Thought From Someone Who Is Not Me

I'm not writing today (although I plan on writing again soon), but I wanted to pass along something that I read today anyway. The following excerpt comes from a fellow (more acclaimed) blogger named Dan Meyer, who has been leading nation-wide discussions on education reform, particularly in math classrooms. Dan actually quotes another blogger, Shawn Cornally (INCEPTION!) in a post he made today. As someone who just started out in teaching, I thought it was particularly relevant to what I'm experiencing now and what I am planning on doing with the rest of my life. Dan writes:

Twin Pressures On Good Novice Teachers

February 11th, 2013 by Dan Meyer

Shawn Cornally:

Hence, the argument for higher teacher pay: we’ll stay in the classroom longer, rather than jumping ship when our salary schedule is incremented less than inflation (i.e. making less the older I get, like my second year of teaching). In other words, it’s not student achievement you’re directly paying for, it’s avoiding turnover.

“Maybe that’s not a bad thing?” you say. “Some of my best teachers were young and excitable.” you opine.

So here's the rock: there are certain teachers who thrill a great deal more to the challenge of good teaching than to any missional obligation to care for children. (See: McMatherson, Mathy; Nowak, Kate; Pershan, Michael.) As teaching gets easier, these teachers are forced to impose tougher and tougher challenges on themselves (because teaching itself doesn't offer that kind of differentiation) just so they can stay interested in the field.

And then there's the hard place: the demands of good teaching, particularly in charter systems, are often unmanageable for anybody but the young, single, and childless — long hours, comparatively low pay, and only a thin veil of separation between you and your work.

Without even glancing at a census table, it's possible for us to see that the rock and the hard place close in on good novice teachers at almost exactly the same time. The job becomes untenable at about the same time that it becomes unchallenging.

If you like Dan's blog (I would highly recommend it to any math teacher), you can read it here.