Call in to this national NPR show–the Diane Rehm show--and tell Diane Rehm why there is a growing national teacher shortage.

Categories Teachers

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Mark Collins says:

August 11, 2015 at 10:34 am

Also hit her up on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/thedianerehmshow

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jsolomon207 says:

August 11, 2015 at 11:11 am

Hi Diane, in response to this blog I sent the following via email:

Dear Diane,

I subscribe to the blog of Diane Ravitch. You may read my comment on the air, however, please DO NOT use my name as I fear becoming a target in my district. I am a single mother of three and I need and love my job. She is encouraging teachers to inform you of the problems with education, and in particular, why fewer people are choosing education as a profession. I have been a teacher for over 20 years. Sadly, I have already told my own children that if they think they will want to pursue an education degree, they will have to fund their college education. I will not pay for them to become a teacher as I simply will not pay to watch my children be underpaid, harassed, and devalued. It is no longer a profession. You know, a craft that you spend years honing and perfecting to become the best. In the last 10 years, I have felt battered and abused as a teacher. The school building has become a bullying ground for teachers by their administrators who are pushing pointless state and national policies that devalue my hard work and place unnecessary stress on teachers and students. I have watched so many of my wonderful colleagues be harassed with the outcome of either seeking psychotropic medications or quitting in a state of depression or anxiety. Teachers are by nature caring and nurturing people. That’s what draws us in the first place. So we naturally attempt to go about our job with the least amount of confrontation and conflict. Lately, in most buildings I have worked in, teachers are working under a cloud of fear that can be immobolizing, and worst, they are afraid of speaking out for fear of becoming targets by their administrators. One of the favorite weapons of administrators is the “teacher improvement plan” which essentially means the teacher is going to harassed out of the classroom. It’s not really meant to help struggling teachers, but to make them so stressed out, they actually start to look and behave like an incompetent teacher. Who can work under these conditions. Once the school year starts, I have always happily and eagerly, ate, slept, and breathed my classroom, thinking about the things I wanted to do to get my students excited about chemistry. But lately, I just feel exhausted and discouraged by policies that are pointless and disrespectful to the importance of my job in the classroom. I am now treated as if I were the problem with education and that I am easily replaceable – anyone can do my job!? They want me to quit because I have too many years and make “too much” money. How dare I make the money I do!? I am here to tell you that the problem with education is NOT the teachers. It is the people who are making policies who have never spent a day in a school building, many of whom do not even send their kids to public schools that are subjected to the same policies that are being pushed in the poorest public schools – overtesting, VAM, SLO’s, RISE, Tripods, etc. just to name a few. By the way all of the acronyms listed are ALL in place in my district! It’s ridiculous. So now, instead of spending my time planning and thinking about great lessons and providing meaningful feedback, all of which take enormous amounts of time and thought, I spend my time keeping up with the clerical duties needed to prove that I am worthy of my job! Finally, everything that mentioned above is not only happening in my district but across the country! What does this tell you? We surely do not have a nation of incompetent teachers. Instead of targeting teachers in an attempt to raise the educational outcomes for children, why not target poverty and other social ills that keep kids from learning in even the best environments. There is a positive correlation between poverty and test scores, but that would be to hard to tackle, so the targeting of teachers continues. Worse, for profit educational institutions have figured out how to make money from this mess.

Let me end on this note: the last thing that I want you to remember about me is that I am passionate about the subject I teach and finding creative ways of teaching it. I am also passionate about being with my teenage students and want to bring out the best in them both in and out of the classroom. This year I will be sponsoring two clubs without pay that get the kids outdoors biking, hiking, and camping. I also sponsor the chemistry club. While my official work day starts at 7:10 and ends at 2:30, I always arrive by 6:30 and never leave before 5,and when my day ends at work, I take paperwork home with me and devote at least an hour to it at night before bed time and at least another 8 hours on the weekend. You do the math for my pay and whether or not I have earned my summers off.

Sincerely,
Joanna

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- FLERP! says:
  
  August 11, 2015 at 11:46 am
  
  You just posted this on the Internet — if you’ve used your real name in this post, you should ask Diane to delete the post.
  
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- retired teacher says:
  
  August 11, 2015 at 1:37 pm
  
  The hostile environment in which you work is frustrating and insulting. You are a dedicated professional, and good, effective science teachers are valuable assets to the district, even though they may not treat you that way. If you want to prevail in these difficult times, hang in there until you can collect a full pension. In the meantime, enjoy making a difference and try to block out the negativity around you.
  
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Joe says:

August 11, 2015 at 11:13 am

I just caught a bit of the show near the end and it was pretty discouraging. Rehm seems to think that the big problem is low teacher pay. No, the big problem is the war on public school teachers and their unions. One of the guests on the show said that CA teachers really love the common core. Huh? One caller said that teachers get all that time off, get great pensions and all kinds of terrific benefits that those in the private sector don’t get, blah, blah, blah and then I puked.

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- Linda says:
  
  August 11, 2015 at 11:37 am
  
  Yes, this call also said we worked for 8 months and have 4 months off. No one corrected her. Linda DH could have. There was a caller who spoke of disrespect, parents emailing at 9pm and being annoyed that they didn’t get a response right away. One of the men on the panel basically said yes it’s a tough job and it will get tougher, but just deal with it and basically, stop complaining. I believe Rehm was sympathetic towards teachers but she has no clue what is happening nationally and most on the panel were attempting to minimize the problems, including LDH who should have been more aware. It appeared she was more contender with defending CCS.
  
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- The Real One says:
  
  August 11, 2015 at 12:19 pm
  
  The problem is low teacher pay combined with top down micromanagement and implementation of absurd and unproven mandates. The Union’s have no one to blame but themselves for selling their members down the river and accepting money from the very people who have destroyed the profession. Just look at who they are endorsing for POTUS and it’s obvious they are not looking out for the best interests of their members in the slightest way.
  
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learningfirst says:

August 11, 2015 at 11:56 am

Very disappointing, and no representation from public perspectives (besides a late stage insertion of an HR rep). Private entities and philanthropists continue to be allows to dominate the conversation.

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Chuck says:

August 11, 2015 at 12:25 pm

Diane–Have you ever been on her show? How about Anthony Cody? Mercedes Schneider? Their control of the narrative is ever so insidious.

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Ms. Cartwheel Librarian says:

August 11, 2015 at 7:03 pm

I was driving North on Interstate 95 when her show was on. I really could not believe how out of touch the guests were. There was one brief mention of testing but the rest was about pay and and a little about lowered perception of the profession. This was an opportunity to put it all out there but the guests seemed to be PR folks for putting any warm body in a classroom for on-the-job-training. Scary. There was also praise for the now de-funded NC Teaching Fellows program. It was mentioned that it was no longer available but other states were going to do something similar. Really?!? That doesn’t help us in the Old North State.

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Jack says:

August 12, 2015 at 12:38 am

Here’s two reasons why many current teachers are quitting:

1) Teachers are being put through trainings like this:

2) So they can teach their students like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDnxRVPiMSg

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