There's a part of me that misses teaching. I left because of the gravity COVID presented for my life in multiple ways, but as I watch educators face countless pandemic- and other challenges in schools today, I find myself wishing better for teachers, parents, students and schools. These are my wishes.
Reasonable job expectations, fair pay and adequate staffing
All roles in education are not equal. Some roles have far too much responsiblity and far too little pay. This means that some educators, typically those working with the most children, are working around the clock to do a good job, and still they are greatly compromised because children today need a lot of care ,to thrive and one teacher with too many children cannot fulfill that need no matter how many hours they work.
We can change this dangerous dilemma by increasing teacher leadership as well as the numbers of skilled staff that directly work with children--this will make every educator's job more reasonable and provide the needed nurturing and support for every child.
Dissect the web of confusion that exists in schools
In many ways and with much good intention, schools have become the answer to most of life's problems. Via policies, laws and multiple programs, schools are trying to fulfill children's every need. The problem with this is that schools have become a thick web of conflicting and competing services which may look good on paper, but in reality spoil the good programming and service to students possible.
As an educator I watched child after child not get the services they were entitled too because of conflicting, competing school agendas. A specialist teacher would show up to provide service, but the child may not be there because that child was at another service, attending a special program or on a field trip. This situation further exasperated the inequity of roles because teachers assigned to one student at a time would be left with no students while the teacher assigned to multiple students was left with a large group with extensive needs and less than adequate support. Further, the education plans outlined for children often don't reflect the reality of staffing or school, and are therefore not carried out. Many in-the-know parents speak up about this and their children get the support, but parents less in-the-know and more compromised often don't know to speak up and then their children lose out.
The entire infrastructure of school services needs to be revisted and simplified in ways that prioritize essential teaching/learning and ensures that children are getting a deep and meaningful program with plenty of personal support each and every day. Also, when I speak of "essential teaching/learning" I refer to a modern learning community infused with the arts, technology, teamwork, physical fitness, traditional subjects and other meaningful leaerning that gives students the tools, knowledge and mindset to live a good life for themselves and others.
Too many bosses
It was my experience as an educator that often educators who were less willing to speak up and advocate for students and more willing to go along were promoted to leadership. That means that the education leaders were often yes-people who went along, but didn't work for meaningful, substantial change. This left the teachers in the ranks with leaders who were not as invested as possible telling them what to do. Also, it was my experience that leaders like that often solved problems by hiring more leaders like them tipping budgets and needed resources in the direction of more bosses than hands-on, direct-student support. This would result in teachers like me who were responsible for lots of children receiving numerous emails a day from multiple bosses telling me what to do, and often the instructions from those numerous bosses contradicted one another. To me, many of the leaders I had made up what I call a layer of useless fat in schools. That said, I do believe some leadership is necessary and I did have some incredible leaders over my tenure.
The entire leadership structure in schools has to change to make schools better. Right now the leadership structure is outdated and ineffective leaving teachers discouraged and students and parents unserved. We can do better in this regard.
Happy children
School as an institution has to modernize. Too many schools today still reflect the cold, assembly line model of industrial age factories. School buidings in many places are outdated and insufficient leaving little space or equipment for modern day teaching and learning. Just take a look at modern businesses and fancy neighborhoods--most schools where children spend many hours a day pale in comparison. The rules that many schools still follow are similarly outdated, and there isn't enough staffing to give children the skilled and caring attention they need to thrive. I often watch children step off of busses when I'm driving to and from activities in the community, and many children don't look that happy. Happy learning should be a goal of every school, and teachers in every community should have the leadership authority to work with parents to determine what will spell happy learning today and into the future for those children. In every community that will look a little different.
Parent support
It has always been the aim of oppresors to pit the oppressed against one another. We see this happening today in places where parents are pitted against teachers. This is ridiculous since both parents and educators have the same aim which is healthy, well-educated, happy, successful children. It is true that educators and parents won't always see eye-to-eye, but that happens in family situations too. Parents don't always see eye-to-eye about what's best for a child and that's when good conversation and debate occurs to figure out what a child needs. At times when a child presents a great challenge, these conversations often require additional expertise and resources. Doing the hard work to figure out who children are and what they need results in happy, healthy, positive people so it is worth the time and effort.
Too many parents in society are strapped with lack of support. When it is often true that a parent can't figure out who to write down on an emergency card, we know that isolation for families is a big issue, and I believe this is true to a large part because our communities are over industrialized and under resourced when it comes to what people need to live happy, healthy lives. Isolation is an issue for families today because many parents are overworked and underpaid leaving little time or money to be vital parts of their families or communities. We can definitely improve this as a people.
Healthy, collaborative communities
The great wage gap that exists in the United States has resulted in communities where mostly the wealthy have a say while everyone else is working too much to be able to take part in community life. This is a problem. Also in communities where people have less power, we notice greater pollution and lack of quality supports. We can make improving communities by way of less violence, quality public services, no pollution, beautiful-inspiring natural/human-made areas and lack of poverty a mainstay throughout our country. If we do this, eveyone, rich or poor, will profit. Even if you have all the money in the world, life won't be so happy if you're living amongst angry, destitute people. Instead when everyone enjoys a good standard of living, the whole community or nation thrives.
The United States is mired in outdated, harmful White supremacy, industrialization, wage-gaps, greed and oppression for many. The results of this can be seen in the heartache we witness in the news--heartache via unnecessary deaths by guns, racist violence, criminal behavior, deadly pollution and more. It doesn't have to be this way.
With good intelligence, modern perspectives, collaborative spirit and a will to serve one another we can boost this country way ahead. Turn away from backwards, self-serving, ignorant, bigoted leaders and turn towards intelligent, collaborative, positive leaders who want to develop a better United States. We can do this--we must do this.