It was recently revealed that about 30 teachers in Harrisburg had unexpectedly quit their jobs due to the fact that they were being assaulted by students as young as seven-years-old. The teachers claimed that they made their superiors aware and tried to talk to the parents of the problematic kids, but there was no change. Some of these teachers had a cognition and development degree, so a lack of problem solving skills wasn’t the problem. What is surprising is the fact that the school board in this case released a message disparaging the teachers for making their issues public rather than staying put and working harder. Teachers just aren’t passionate about their jobs because they have many other issues that fall into their laps. They weren’t hired to deal with discipline issues, and they don’t have time to coddle individual groups of students who don’t want to follow the rules.
Lack of Parental Involvement
You can see young kids getting on the subways by themselves in New York so they can travel to school, but that is a unique situation. Children of all ages thrive when their parents are involved. Kids are being sent to school and are expected to do well without any input from the important adults in their lives. Children who don’t have homework support or any type of home discipline can act out at school because they haven’t been taught appropriate behavior. Even worse, there are neglected and abused children who lash out at their teachers because they don’t have any other outlet.
Lackluster Backing from School Boards
Some teachers try to bring the problems of their students to the attention of administrators, who may or may not be as concerned. A lot of school officials don’t want to ‘air their dirty laundry’ so to speak, so they’ll downplay poor state test results or even violent incidents in an effort to make things appear better than they are. Teachers, even those with a master of education in learning, can be completely turned off of the education system, when they see administrators not doing their jobs. However, for those teachers who may want to step into an administrative role and work to change the system they can get an education doctorate here.
Little Appreciation
All in all, teaching isn’t the type of career for people who want lots of public accolades. You might get a service award when you’ve taught in the same school for a decade or more, but no one is going to shake your hand and give you a ribbon for helping kids with their homework after school. But maybe public school teachers do deserve an award for what they do with the youth.
Teachers aren’t completely lacking in passion, but they don’t get the level of respect that they deserve and need to be more boisterous. Sometimes they hit a brick wall when trying to connect with parents, and other times they are hard on themselves because they can’t make every student successful. They need more support from school principals, from city mayors and from parents who see them making a positive difference in their children’s lives. Maybe it isn’t a trophy they need, but more thanks would be beneficial.
