Would You Want Your Child to Teach?

Everyone has a cure to “fix” the problems with our educational system. Everyone praises teachers for their contribution to society. Everyone is thankful when his or her child has a “good” teacher.

At Cleveland High School, we have a Teachers Academy that is designed to encourage young people to become teachers. This is an important program since we know that in the next decade we will experience an enormous shortage of teachers.

We have discovered that parents do not want their children to become teachers. We have discovered that students do not want to become teachers. Students ask: Why should I go to college for five years, earn a degree to prepare for an occupation that qualifies me for low-income housing? Why should I prepare for a career that makes me hold two or three jobs in order to support my family? Why should I want a job that requires me to take three of four hours of work home every night? Why should I take a job where I have to work in old, deteriorating buildings without heat or carpeting?

If the public really wants to attract the best and the brightest into teaching, then it must be willing to pay teachers a salary that is commensurate with an important occupation. Our society measures success in terms of monetary rewards. Many entry-level computer jobs pay $60,000 to start. There are man occupations that do not require a college education and pay more than the maximum teaching salary. All the programs that promise a fix will not be successful unless the public demands that teachers be well paid.

Be honest, do you want your child to become a teacher?