Week Five - Economy of Teachers

  During my five weeks at The Principal, I've been surprised by the amount of former teachers that I have come across.  I'd probably say I've met a couple a week and it's been interesting to hear about how they've reached their current career.  As these individuals are striving in this arena, it's easy to see that they possess characteristics that would make them great teachers today.  As I get more and more exposure to the private sector, it's not too hard to imagine what may have drawn them away or what type of life events might have necessitated a career change.  Many of them still have a passion for teaching and have expressed interest in teaching when they retire or want to find more ways of become involved in education.  But it strikes me that these are the types of individuals we want spending the lion's share of their career teaching students and influencing the course of education.  I have a hard time imagining these professionals excepting the static financial or promotional structure of K-12 education and returning to the classroom as a teacher.

   It may be easier to attract these strong candidates for teaching early on.  I think it might be fair to say that teaching is a career choice that students know the most about by the time they start to think about training for their careers.  Not many other careers have that kind of exposure and this might be working to our advantage.  But as these individuals become more and more exposed to different choices, there may be a bit of a "grass is greener" effect taking place and some change course.  I'm lucky to be surrounded by a large number of incredibly hard working, passionate, innovative and knowledgeable educators in my place of work at Carlisle HS and in an organization like IMSEP, but in a way, it's frustrating that the talent pool for teachers seems to be limited to those who aren't worried about big paychecks or titles, those who don't know these things interest them, the altruistic types who are "doing it for kids", or some combination of these.  I'm sure I'm ignorantly simplifying all of this.  I'm just not so sure that K-12 education wouldn't be benefited from a more financially competitive environment with a meaningful advancement structure, similar to what exists in the private sector (grass is greener, right?).  This post could be very unnecessary, as I don't feel this thought process leads to insight that will lead to possible changes to my classroom.  It's just that I'd love to see some of these pros rocking a classroom down the hall.