Truthfully, I couldn't agree more with this article. Just starting Teach For America, I feel that the excitement is very high and the majority of people can't wait for the school year to begin. That being said, I know quite a few that are already expecting to move on after two or three years. While I don't doubt the impact that they will make, I do agree that a teacher that has been around for many years can have a tremendous impact. The real question is, how do we change this? How do we make teaching an appealing long term career option for the best college graduates? In my mind, pay needs to increase. At the end of the day, if you want the job's prestige to go up, and want better candidates to pursue the job, you need to start paying like many private sector jobs. Until that happens, I don't know that the majority of people will ever have enough incentive to push through any potential "burnout." Maybe this is a sad way of looking at it, but I'm convinced that money plays an enormous role.
Truthfully, I couldn't agree more with this article. Just starting Teach For America, I feel that the excitement is very high and the majority of people can't wait for the school year to begin. That being said, I know quite a few that are already expecting to move on after two or three years. While I don't doubt the impact that they will make, I do agree that a teacher that has been around for many years can have a tremendous impact. The real question is, how do we change this? How do we make teaching an appealing long term career option for the best college graduates? In my mind, pay needs to increase. At the end of the day, if you want the job's prestige to go up, and want better candidates to pursue the job, you need to start paying like many private sector jobs. Until that happens, I don't know that the majority of people will ever have enough incentive to push through any potential "burnout." Maybe this is a sad way of looking at it, but I'm convinced that money plays an enormous role.
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