Teacher Jobs: Targeted Education Is Vital

Moreover, education is not the cushy job some might think. Professional pedagogues do not only put in hours related to classroom teaching. Much time is spent in room decoration, lesson planning, exam and homework grading and report preparation. Then one must take into account myriad meetings with parents (after school and evenings), with other teachers and administrative staff and the school board. Still, in most locales teacher jobs pay well and afford enough holiday time to make them appealing. As a result there is more competition for fewer openings and, remember, being a teacher these days means you are on the front lines in the budget battles owing to falling home values and rising property taxes.
A teacher is an easy target for those who wish to blame education for all the nation’s ills as if it were educators who crafted the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) legislation which has shipped many jobs overseas. It is easier to fault schools for not preparing workers for the right jobs. While there may be some truth to this, it must be remembered that school boards—elected by community voters— develop the curricula for teachers just as it is the community who essentially sets the salaries about which they later gripe. The school board meets the community perhaps once a month but the teacher is visible and accessible every day. Moreover the teacher is tasked with more than educational situations. Pupils are arriving for their first days of school more poorly prepared to perform academically than ever before and often lack necessary social skills, too. In some poorer school districts the child may even be malnourished or psychologically scarred whereupon the school must intervene when it has fewer resources to do so. This is what goes hand-in-hand with teacher jobs and will not be mentioned in the classifieds.
With less money schools are expected to compete with the students from other countries. Politicians are quick to point out—correctly—that the U.S. is falling behind in the academics race which will put it at a competitive disadvantage in the future economic arena. Many Asian and developing countries have nudged the U.S. from the top twenty in Math and Science. It is elected officials who must set the agenda and incentivize students to become math and science teachers by perhaps reducing or forgiving tuition debt for those that agree to seek teaching jobs and remain in them for a protracted time period. It is the parents’ responsibility to encourage their children to take and excel in these subjects. Concrete action—not rhetoric will restore America to the top ranks of education and the teacher job to its preeminence once again.