The loss of experienced teachers does hurt students and younger teachers as well.
I do not agree with this statement. Some of the best teachers I had were younger teachers who had a real passion for what they did. Many of my friends who went into teaching (middle and high school) have told me their biggest fights are with the older teachers who are reluctant to change and even more reluctant to listen to young faculty who may have very good ideas.
Something like 40% of teachers don’t make it to five years in the profession. For all the belief that once you’re in, you’ve got tenure and a job for life and all, there’s a fair amount of weeding out that happens in the first three years or so, frequently because people discover they’re just not good at the job. (or their principal decides they’re not up to snuff.) If you were lucky enough to get one of the good newer teachers, great, but there is a fair amount of suck that has to get itself removed from the system, and unfortunately, that often only happens after 2-3 years of inadequate teaching (ie. tenure point) and you just hope the inadequate teacher didn’t screw up the kid too much .
The loss of experienced teachers does hurt students and younger teachers as well.
I do not agree with this statement. Some of the best teachers I had were younger teachers who had a real passion for what they did. Many of my friends who went into teaching (middle and high school) have told me their biggest fights are with the older teachers who are reluctant to change and even more reluctant to listen to young faculty who may have very good ideas.
Something like 40% of teachers don’t make it to five years in the profession. For all the belief that once you’re in, you’ve got tenure and a job for life and all, there’s a fair amount of weeding out that happens in the first three years or so, frequently because people discover they’re just not good at the job. (or their principal decides they’re not up to snuff.) If you were lucky enough to get one of the good newer teachers, great, but there is a fair amount of suck that has to get itself removed from the system, and unfortunately, that often only happens after 2-3 years of inadequate teaching (ie. tenure point) and you just hope the inadequate teacher didn’t screw up the kid too much .
I am confused by your post. Are you claiming that nearly 40% of new teachers do not make it b/c they decide to pull out of the profession or because they are termed by the District.
If it is the former, then voluntary resignation has nothing to do with lazy teachers getting tenure.
If it is the latter, I can tell you that after over a dozen years representing school districts, that simply is not true.
[quote slowbern…aren’t valuable and that you shouldn’t be adequately compensated for them.
Bernie
And there is the debate in all the stories…Define adequately compensated?
Around that at least here in Mi. each school district sets its own pay scale. Within a few miles you can have a pretty good disparity of Salary’s for teachers.
“I do not agree with this statement. Some of the best teachers I had were younger teachers who had a real passion for what they did. Many of my friends who went into teaching (middle and high school) have told me their biggest fights are with the older teachers who are reluctant to change and even more reluctant to listen to young faculty who may have very good ideas.”
The existence of good young teachers and poor old teachers doesn’t invalidate the value of experienced teachers as mentors for new teachers and for children.
There is negative value in maintaining poor performing older teachers. They contribute to a culture that poisons the entire system. Institutional memory is a a scarey thing. Get a group of dedicated, hardworking individuals and you will be amazed how dedicated and hardworking new hires will be. Maintain a group of checked-out, here-for-the-paycheck, bare minimum individuals and that is what you will most likely see in your new hires.
Keeping around poor teachers just because they are experienced is a bad idea.
“I do not agree with this statement. Some of the best teachers I had were younger teachers who had a real passion for what they did. Many of my friends who went into teaching (middle and high school) have told me their biggest fights are with the older teachers who are reluctant to change and even more reluctant to listen to young faculty who may have very good ideas.”
The existence of good young teachers and poor old teachers doesn’t invalidate the value of experienced teachers as mentors for new teachers and for children.
From the bolded part, it sounds (to me) that you are advocating for the value of poor older teachers. If what you meant to say was that there is value in keeping around good quality older teachers (not the poor ones), then we agree.
“From the bolded part, it sounds (to me) that you are advocating for the value of poor older teachers.”
No. That posts simply meant that; just because there exist examples of good young teachers and examples of poor older teachers, that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in the experience and mentorship of quality experienced teachers.
The loss of experienced teachers does hurt students and younger teachers as well.
I do not agree with this statement. Some of the best teachers I had were younger teachers who had a real passion for what they did. Many of my friends who went into teaching (middle and high school) have told me their biggest fights are with the older teachers who are reluctant to change and even more reluctant to listen to young faculty who may have very good ideas.
Something like 40% of teachers don’t make it to five years in the profession. For all the belief that once you’re in, you’ve got tenure and a job for life and all, there’s a fair amount of weeding out that happens in the first three years or so, frequently because people discover they’re just not good at the job. (or their principal decides they’re not up to snuff.) If you were lucky enough to get one of the good newer teachers, great, but there is a fair amount of suck that has to get itself removed from the system, and unfortunately, that often only happens after 2-3 years of inadequate teaching (ie. tenure point) and you just hope the inadequate teacher didn’t screw up the kid too much .
The profession self selects people that are union stooges that are content to become pawns for the massive teacher union machine.
These people lack critical thinking skills.
The ones that don’t make it to five years are the ones that can’t see themselves being part of a corrupt mechanism of the progressive left.
“From the bolded part, it sounds (to me) that you are advocating for the value of poor older teachers.”
No. That posts simply meant that; just because there exist examples of good young teachers and examples of poor older teachers, that doesn’t mean there isn’t value in the experience and mentorship of quality experienced teachers.
I misread that post then.
I completely agree with you, there is a lot of value in the experience and mentorship of quality teachers.
I do wonder though if, percentage-wise, more of the good, older teachers will stay on then the bad? I suspect that more of the bad will jump ship when the financial incentive isn’t there.