Memorably, George Bernard Shaw wrote, ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.’ Of course, he was wrong. After all, Shaw publicly conveyed support for Stalin and Mussolini, so we shouldn’t put much value on his judgment, should we? Notable can-do historical figures taught and used educational settings as springboards to great accomplishments. Albert Einstein and John Adams were teachers early in their careers. Socrates, C.S. Lewis, Clara Barton, Booker T. Washington, and Sir Isaac Newton were teachers. They also were doers. Flip through a list of Nobel Award winners: an inordinate number were teachers, researchers, lecturers, or affiliated workers in teaching institutions. People who accomplish extraordinary achievements are frequently found in academic settings, which have spawned stunning American achievements, establishing a culture of scholarship and technical advancement unrivaled among the world’s nations. The seminal force behind most weighty accomplishments: teachers. No surprise. However, our education system has recently entered a red zone, and prospects are dim for what lies ahead.
A few weeks ago, an article in The Washington Post offered this view: “America faces catastrophic teacher shortage” (Hannnah Natanson, 2022). And recently, according to the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), national testing scores for fourth grade students declined to a 30-year low. Explaining why our children are not up to speed academically is complicated, but surely the COVID pandemic had a devastating impact on learning. Add resource inequities that failed to serve underprivileged students during the dearth of in-person learning, and the report card for American education is dismal. Forced to offer online classes, school districts were left with few delivery choices, none of which were as effective as brick-and-mortar education. Surveys have shown that math and reading scores in K-12 grades plummeted since the time the pandemic forced students out of classrooms and onto alternative platforms. Exacerbating the maladies in K-12 education, meager pay and low morale combined with obtrusive pressure from school boards and parents have hogtied teachers. Why would an instructor want to remain on a job that pays little, is not respected by the community in which he or she serves, and is told that a considerable part of US history, its racial inequities, and matters of gender and sexuality are not to be included in courses and must not be part of class discussion? Across the nation, buttinsky lawmakers have proposed placing cameras in classrooms for both security reasons and teacher accountability. Teachers are taking cover from political storms that threaten their livelihood and rain blows on academic freedom. Who can blame them for choosing to deliver pizza pies rather than be forced to eat humble pie?
In some states the teacher shortage is so critical that matriculating college students and military veterans have been recruited to fill-in despite their lack of training or grounding in germane disciplines. In Florida, thanks to a program called Military Veterans Certification Pathway, a veteran can get a temporary teaching certificate without having earned a college degree. That veteran needs only a C average in his or her unfinished undergraduate education. In short, that person hasn’t done the work, nor is he or she likely to understand basic pedagogy. A placeholder, a docent, a safety guard is that person holding forth in the classroom. Remember your high school days; recall those stoical people who sat behind the big desk in Study Hall, the ones whose purpose was to keep things quiet and breakup disruptive behavior. Those are the people being hired in districts with severe teacher drought. Wait! Why not address the medical shortage with the Military Veterans Certification Pathway? Why go to medical school, anyhow? Makes almost as much sense because improving our minds is equally as vital as healing our bodies. How about addressing the airline pilot shortage with a slapdash crash course in becoming a jumbo jet pilot? What the hell! Looney Florida office-bearers along with their autocratic governor have undercut and disrespected the teaching profession entirely. Rightwing policymakers have long tried to denigrate academic people because they, the undereducated folks, are jealous of bookish smart people, especially teachers, who probably gave those policymakers bad grades. If I had a school age child in the Florida school system, I’d move out of state, or I’d use my life savings to enroll my child in a good private school.
Let’s admit it. The K-12 education system in America is a mess and is about to become a tragedy. According to a June 2022 NEA survey, nearly half of its three million members have recently considered quitting, and even more have entertained the idea of changing professions as soon as feasible. This stark conclusion comes in the face of universally low pay, low morale, and increased busy-work taking teachers away from their students.
Don’t get me started on higher education. It, too, suffers from a declining number of undergraduates while potential students weigh the economic costs of tuition and accompanying fees. To make matters worse, many colleges and universities have lost faculty even as a bloat of administrators has burdened operating costs. The highest paid employee of many colleges and universities is the football coach. Last spring, UCLA posted a job listing that sought an assistant adjunct professor in the Department of Chemistry, PhD required, for no pay—zero salary. Take it or leave it, chumps. Why complain now? Flimflammery has been a usual practice in higher education for decades. Consider how many undergraduate classes are taught by graduate students who get about fifteen dollars per hour on average, add the postdocs stuck from year to year with bare bone salaries, and top that with thousands of adjunct faculty who must cobble together teaching assignments from one campus to another just to pay rent and food bills.
In the past, it has been our unapparelled educational system that gave us advantages other societies did not enjoy. We are now in the process of losing whatever edge we had, if we haven’t already, because in some places teachers are being replaced with unqualified fill-ins who receive slap-dash training, if that. Does it make sense for America to have a workforce loaded with ill-prepared recruits who don’t know how to solve critical problems, people who don’t read books or know how to use a calculator? Our educational delivery systems are at a tipping point. Student scores on achievement tests have decreased markedly over the last few years. A large percentage of K-12 students come from families that fall under the poverty line, while funding for our schools has not kept abreast of need. Our education crisis is about to become a catastrophe.
After climate change and threatening signals from China and Russia, add our educational emergency to the list of hazards that confront us.
We are about to face a new pandemic called ignorance. And there is no vaccination that will save us from its devastating consequences.