By Sarah Adamo
Teachers rank among the heroes of America, but as myriad media outlets now lament, these dedicated public servants now find themselves on the endangered species list. New Jersey’s legislators, among many others, have labeled the growing teacher shortage in America a crisis.
This trend toward fewer people wanting to become teachers predates the pandemic by at least a decade and promises no easy resolution. In fact, to attribute this shortage solely to the pandemic is to dismiss the long-held concerns of the teachers who have committed their lives to educating generations of leaders and citizens. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated rather than initiated the steep reduction in the number of students interested in joining the profession.
This crisis is symptomatic of a routine devaluation of the teaching profession, a chronic disease often left unspoken but felt at some point in every educator’s career. As an aspiring educator myself, I have sometimes been made to feel that this essential position in our society is not what I know it to be in my heart. When I tell others that I want to be a teacher, there is perhaps no comment more disheartening than, “You are too smart to be a teacher.”
What does that response suggest about the value our friends and neighbors place on a career assigned the lofty task of inspiring and empowering students, regardless of their backgrounds and the adversities they may face? Should those entrusted with transmitting values of inclusion and self-efficacy, those who must cultivate critical thinking in today’s youth, and those who help select what our children are exposed to during their most formative years not be intelligent? To suggest such a thing is not only dangerous but demeaning to all of the educators who bring so much passion and wisdom to the classroom.
Many other deterrents to entering the teaching profession exist, such as costly assessments like the edTPA or knowing that public school teachers’ weekly wages continue to lag behind the earnings of comparable workers, even when taking the greater wage disparity for women overall into account. Sylvia A. Allegretto and Lawrence Mishel pointed this out in a report for the Economic Policy Institute titled “The Teacher Pay Gap is Wider Than Ever” long before the pandemic.
Regardless of these added variables, the sense of being underappreciated in this profession alone can take its toll, dissuading potential teachers from entering this important career. According to a 2019 article by Lauren Camera titled “International Survey: U.S. Teachers are Overworked, Feel Underappreciated,” American educators work longer hours than their counterparts abroad but largely share the sentiment that society does not appreciate their efforts.
Meanwhile, the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) by the National Center for Education Statistics, also in 2019, found that job satisfaction remained high among U.S. teachers, with 90% of participants affirming their satisfaction. But the study also found that only 36% of participants believe their society values what they do for a living. This warrants concern. Prospective educators, who have not yet experienced the joys and sense of purpose that come with teaching, will decide that what society deems unworthy of recognition is not the right fit for them.
All of this is why, as the secretary of NJEA Preservice and a proud aspiring educator, I hope to let students like myself know that their skills will be put to good use. I want them to realize that membership in this union ensures that future and current educators will not have to martyr themselves just to put food on the table for our own families or gain the respect befitting our work. I want aspiring educators to know in their bones that, in the words of Henry Adams, their impact as a teacher transcends the present and “affects eternity: [one] can never tell where [one’s] influence stops.”
Sarah Adamo is the secretary of NJEA Preservice and a student at The College of New Jersey.