We asked teachers how their year went. They warned of an exodus to come

> remain passionate about their vocation

Important choice of words. This is a universe away from "satisfied about their job remuneration".

The motivational psychology around some professions like nursing, teaching and policing is utterly different from, and incompatible with, the dominant commercial ideology.

In most industries you can pay people enough to suck up more of your stress and bullshit. Vocations don't work like that. You actually have to treat people with respect and listen to what they say. You, as a servant manager, are there to support them. And they in turn are there to serve their charges (patients, students, citizens). The power structure is upside down.

I had some great teachers (and horrible ones) and I remember one explaining how he liked his job because it had a built-in two month sabbatical each year and it allowed him and his family to have a pretty unique travel plan. He had an option to be paid over 10 months while he taught (annual/10) or spread over the whole year (annual/12) and he got insurance either way. So he had a very regimented plan where he taught for 35 years, did cool travel each summer and retired at 55 or something with 75-100% income.

There aren’t many other jobs that offer that structure.

Of course the job is demanding, but most jobs are. I’m not sure how to reconcile the job difficulty Olympics so I usually just nod and agree when people go on about their job is hard.

For comparison, I’ve always had to spend $500-2000/year on supplies and equipment. It’s not right and my employer should, but they never had in 30 years. And I work in programming. So it seems like all employers are lame about not paying for all supplies so I don’t quite think this is a unique negative factor. For comparison, my six grader had a list of supplies that cost $200 for the year and included 25% going to a common pool. So the school system not paying for supplies dings parents in addition to teachers.

IMHO, it's worth keeping in mind that this about more than the stress of the pandemic. The increasing costs of student loans (and the cost of servicing them after graduation) may also make teaching positions less attractive and, perhaps, unsustainable.

Here is a random article from before the pandemic.

+ 2018: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/06/teacher-shor...

And one that is more recent.

+ 2022: https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/us/teacher-prep-student-short...

* Friend’s husband is quitting this upcoming year and is going into grad school to reboot his career in an unrelated maths field.

* Woman I graduated with went back to work at my HS, super cute story, but left two years ago after only a few years teaching and is a mother / housewife now.

* Another woman, close friend, just up and quit with no notice no plan because the stress put her on medical leave and her school offered no accommodation. She moved to Colorado and works in a dispensary now.

* Another woman I’ve known since kindergarten who’s life dream was to be an elementary school teacher quit this year with no plan other than moving to Atlanta and looking at grad schools.

* Yet another friend who taught elementary school English quit this year and now works two part time jobs as a copy editor and cheese maker. He’s way less stressed now and I actually get to hang out with him.

* I can keep going, an older family friend who’s been teaching for 20 years quit last year because she was so burnt out and demoralized. She now does 3D modeling remotely and does woodworking as a side hustle.

* Bosses wife, also older, taught around 10 years I think also quit this year for an IT admin job.

Look I work in a quaint little tech shop completely unrelated to education. There’s no way I somehow self-selected for teachers who are exiting the field. Maybe this is somehow the normal level of turnover but damn.

The professions are related in that both nurses and teachers tend to be overworked and exposed to health risks (especially during the pandemic).

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31180646

[2] - https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/report-90-nurses-consi...

For example, my <1 year old daughter's generation is only 80% of what it should be due to COVID. Thus, we'd have to fire 20% of teachers.

My home district of Portland, OR is already starting to see enrollment cuts as people have already started their kids in the always-open private schools or opted for homeschooling as well.

So you have the combined forces of people choosing non-public options and simply having less kids. We won't need as many teachers.

Source: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/02/16/portland-public-schoo...

I realize my perspective is probably warped by never having sat in a public school classroom, but from where I sit, it seems like the main thing the public school system really does from an economic perspective is provide childcare so both parents can work.

I had to be taught how to read, and the basics of mathematics, but from that point on I mostly taught myself and asked my parents (or siblings) for occasional help with things I got stuck on. Make no mistake, they put tons of time and effort into teaching us, but it wasn't anything close to eight hours a day per kid, especially by the time I reached high school.

I wonder if a high school system where teachers were more like room monitors / advisors might work better.

We admit that they're mostly there to keep teens out of trouble, and relieve them of the crippling responsibility for educating thirty humans every year.

Instead, they give advice and help to the students who ask for it, manage fights and interpersonal conflicts, and at the end of the year give each student up to a day to convince them they actually learned the material. So May's finals month, I guess.

That, I think, puts responsibility for the education where it belongs - in the student's hands.

It might even allow for a more distributed approach that works - if a student's parents trust the student to not be in class every day, they can give the teacher (mentor might be a better title) the schedule they approve, and the student can do their work where and when they like.

Decreasing student density would decrease the damage a shooter can do, presumably also decreasing desirability as a target. That's a debatable fringe benefit, though, not the main point.

...I guess I'm describing something closer to the college model, but with a bit more parental oversight than college usually involves.

I do think that puberty is the time to start having kids take ownership of their own lives, education included.

It may be my outsider perspective being completely wrong about what happens in a public school, but it seems to me the current US system really doesn't do that.

Passion for teaching only takes you so far when you can't afford anything.

Where are they going to all go?

I think teacher's would do more to evaluate how much money the school is getting and where that money is actually going.

Somewhere in my post history is a link to a school district in Georgia who had dozens of faculty/staff die from covid over a few short weeks last summer. The median age of deceased faculty was 40 something. Teachers live this reality, but if they request PPE and vaccination standards they are called satanist traitors to America and get death threats.

This doesn’t even touch upon the moral panic currently sweeping certain parts of the country, where they are looking to criminalize teachers if they say the wrong thing to the wrong student. Literally they are calling teachers “groomers”. Do you have that straight? We teachers are unpatriotic, satanist, groomers who should simultaneously be armed to protect ourselves from gunmen, while our words are policed by the state. Oh and we are also expected to die for our classroom in case of a shooting.

Teachers are looking over their shoulders from every direction, so it really won’t surprise me if this exodus comes.

edit to the dead comment: my perspective comes from my own experience and that of my fellow teachers. And also that link I mentioned that I can't be bothered to dig up right now.

edit2: here's that link I mentioned: https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/60-georgia-teachers...

This kind of event went basically unnoticed in the larger scheme of things. But this kind of situation happened all across the country, without any time to grieve or even reflect on what was happening. Teachers were expected to be back to work, and worse we were told that it was perfectly fine and safe. Meanwhile many school districts were running short on substitute teachers to fill in for the covid deaths and hospitalizations within their ranks. GA had it worse than most -- average age of dead faculty that summer was just 46.