It happened.
The SC Education Department spent half-a-million dollars on an ad campaign to attract teachers that launched just days before the latest scores from national testing of fourth and eighth graders showed the state in free fall towards the bottom, bested even by Mississippi!
Well, you can't blame them for trying.
Some of you may be asking yourselves why it is that teacher shortages are appearing in South Carolina as well as across the rest of the country. Time for a history lesson.
Once upon a time (that's the twentieth century to you) virtually all female college graduates got teaching degrees, even when they weren't planning to teach.
Yes, children, you read that correctly.
What caused this universal desire to get a teaching certificate? The desire for employment. Most jobs requiring a college education traditionally were not open to women. Teaching was a natural fit for many who saw it as a stepping stone to marriage and children. Salaries could be lower because those who were married with children had another paycheck to rely on. Districts took advantage of the free market.
What happened? Demographics and changing attitudes towards female employment. Things were already changing by mid-twentieth century, but a strong cadre of female teachers had entered the profession and stayed. Then, as other avenues opened for college graduates, these teachers started retiring.
It was a perfect storm.
Now many top students shy away from the low pay and sometimes dismal working conditions in our schools. Can you blame them?
The market will adjust. Salaries must rise. Working conditions must improve. When that happens, college graduates will again seriously consider teaching careers as a commitment instead of a fall-back position.
I give it twenty years. Meanwhile, fasten your seat belts.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment