Uncategorized | Mar 14, 2011
Why Great Teachers Quit (book review)
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Why Great Teachers Quit (book review)
By Angela Watson
Teacher attrition is a topic that’s constantly on my mind. The primary reason I maintain my website and write books is because I’m passionate about helping teachers overcome energy-draining setbacks and actually enjoy the profession. So, when I read this post, I was immediately intrigued by the book’s title and asked the representatives at Corwin Press for two copies: one for me and one for a blog reader. I rarely do that because there’s no guarantee the book will be any good, and I don’t want to give away something I wouldn’t recommend. However, I could tell from the online reviews that this book was going to be a worthwhile read…and I wasn’t disappointed.
Why Great Teachers Quit And How We Might Stop the Exodus is written by Katy Farber, a classroom teacher currently grappling with this subject on a daily basis. She interviewed dozens of teachers and includes their experiences as she explains the various issues faced in the classroom. I found it simultaneously comforting and distressing to know that teachers all across the country are dealing with the same problems. In nearly every quote from classroom teachers (and there are hundreds), I found myself nodding along and thinking, Yes! Thank you! Yes! That’s it, exactly! The problems described in this book will undoubtedly ring true.
Farber organizes the book into eight primary reasons why great teachers quit:
- Standardized Testing (including effects on students and the school climate)
- Working Conditions in Today’s Schools (i.e. violence and small problems that add up, like not being able to use the bathroom)
- Ever-Higher Expectations (including useless professional development on new mandates)
- Bureaucracy (committees, closed budgets, and scheduling constraints)
- Respect and Compensation (the martyr system and paying for supplies)
- Parents (unrealistic demands and no limits)
- Administrators (the pressure cooker of principalship)
- School Boards (uses and abuses of power)
There was one reason I expected to see and did not: there is no section on students. As much as I’d like to assert that children are the reason why we teach, they’re also frequently the reason why we quit. Is Farber pretending that “it’s all about the kids” and that our little darlings are never a source of stress? Nope. Instead, she accurately assesses the root problem: teachers quit over their powerlessness to place students in an appropriate academic setting and enforce appropriate consequences. These problems fall under the categories of Respect and Compensation and Working Conditions (as well as Parents, to an extent.) The underlying assumption is that it’s NOT the students, it’s the system that has given teachers too little power to meet the needs of the students and maintain order in the learning environment.
After explaining each overarching reason why teachers quit, Farber includes Recommendations for Teacher Leaders and Administrators (practical, proven suggestions), Words of Wisdom From Veteran Teachers (advice from teachers to teachers), Success Stories and/or a Silver Lining (which keep the problems from seeming hopeless) and Additional Resources you can read online and in print to address the issues of that section.
I wish this was required reading for school board members and legislators…parents would benefit, too. Often educators complain that no one really knows what’s it’s really like to be a teacher, and this book does an excellent job summarizing the main challenges of the job and the type of solutions that are needed. Katy Farber has written a powerful resource for everyone who cares about education. It’s my hope, as well as hers, that this book will make a difference in teacher retention and help great teachers maintain their efficacy and enthusiasm.
WIN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK! Simply leave a comment to this post that briefly shares your experience: why do you think great teachers quit, and/or what can be done to encourage them to stay in the classroom? On Sunday, March 20th, I’ll choose a comment randomly to win a free copy of the book, courtesy of Corwin Press.
3/20/11 Edited to add: CONTEST CLOSED.
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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Hi angella, wanted to know if you have any questionnaire for teachers self evaluation/reflection on how good am i as a teacher..
thanks.
Hi, Reena! I think it’s great you want to self-reflect. Here are a few forms for teacher reflection that you can use:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:g33ZZYJF-xMJ:leap.dpsk12.org/LEAP/media/Main/word/Teacher-Reflection-Form-9-2011.docx+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi9eQO48kv5Qd3PHCkX7k3j9rMwpW5SDHm4o7wO8LrZ6FBlO0EarEAk97rin1_hYJGUK2ZFlwkNGnjW9l6tFY-jeM5jEKyQdJiIkeA7cjmpv0M53KPZ5GmoxvB1AHIl6xR80vhP&sig=AHIEtbT5oo78chv6AAoN_z7LjpeuURKNPw
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ybVdanGfLAAJ:www.fyreandlightning.org/jsc/SampleLessonPlans/Lesson%2520Plan%2520Self%2520reflection%2520and%2520Assessment.doc+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShyw6xUkl7bLVIp2tuOFdVkRVeC0ofTP4KOLe-q4v_tnlEKIe9N9UegQImxAC1r07fvgakPNVVZ12JCDjpSvyL3n8VR_kfaP-iXLqC4EgtwgPbp2N4wkHhetxezZDx2zsx8Wpp1&sig=AHIEtbRBwpqXeDmt99Q_SY3SCTBPIgVe9Q
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:QecSTmYGrcUJ:www.alabamapepe.com/teacher/tchselfasmnt.doc+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiUB7rnI66OvcWYLHzikOiRtt_uYHT98zdIq4CEOlUg27WgQylPdiSf2BM2rbEh2V9nM5K-QaPsiJVCBcaP9I8RhKG76bOjM5PElXS30rha-OoxAfeSmtqg6LvEhe_4ikEY32hw&sig=AHIEtbTiUcegxHkwjGoa3Npcj9kF70IIZg
This book looks very intriguing to me, being a career status teacher with a Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction K-6. I have been teaching for six years and am applying for non-classroom positions left and right. My dilemma is that I have loved every minute spent teaching my students and watching them learn and grow, but I am not given time, resources, or support to do it to the best of my ability. I came home sobbing about a month ago and my fiance was able to shed light on the situation for me. He said, “You are a perfectionist, you are always trying to teach better than you did the year before, the week before, the day before…but right now, you are like a man with no legs trying to run a race. The way in which you see yourself teaching is impossible given the time and resources afforded to you.” It was true…I am the man with no legs trying to run, however I am expected to win first place in the race, running with no legs.
I met with my former administrator last week to discuss potential directions in which I could take my career (out of the classroom, but still in education in some capacity given that it is my passion). He has recenetly taken a job at the county office and told me that he feels guilty. Of course this surprised me a little and when I asked why his response was, “I have a nice desk job where I get to work at 8am and leave every day at 5:30pm. I can leave and go to lunch whenever I want, I have no one to answer to, I don’t have to worry about what is happening when I’m away from the school, and I don’t do nearly the amount of work that I did as a principal and am making quite a lot more money for doing far less work.” He was able to confirm what everyone in education already knows. Teachers are compensated on a top down scale…Superintendents make gracious six figure salaries, along with other county workers (associate superintendents, curriculum developers, etc) while teachers are working far longer hours, and doing much, MUCH more work than they ever dreamed of and living paycheck to paycheck. Far worse than a sad little paycheck, but there is no respect from administrators or parents and we are being told from people in the state department how to teach, when the majority of them have never even stepped foot inside of a classroom.
I could write for days on this topic, but won’t because I have about three hours worth of lesson plans to write in order to prepare to teach my 23 little friends tomorrow morning at 7:40am.
I’m nodding along to everything you wrote, Jane! Teaching is exhausting and all-consuming at times. (Did you see my latest blog post, How to Work a 40 Hour Week as a Teacher? It might help a bit.)
I can relate to the story about the man who works at your county’s ed office. I, too, feel guilty at times for doing less work and making more money now that I am out of the classroom. However, I know this is best for me and my family, and I feel like I am impacting education on a larger scale, and that makes me feel good about what I’m doing.
That said, I hope you can find work that gives you the satisfaction of feeling like you are making a difference, but that still allows you to have a personal life. Maybe it will be a classroom position–some are MUCH lower stress than others. Maybe it will be outside the classroom. There are a lot of possibilities. All the best to you!
I don’t have a comment. Just the first thing that popped up on my facebook after I just got home at 10 pm after another 12 hours at school. Again.
It seems that with each passing year, there are more unimaginable issues facing us in the classrooms. I am at a Title 1 public school and more so every year, there just aren’t enough corners in my room to separate the behaviors just so the class can get ready to learn. Just today, I had to call a parent who responded, ” Who are you? the Substitute? You don’t know my ‘kid’. They don’t do that.” Funny, I’m the one who greeted the class and their parents on the first day of school, and most every morning unless I have parking lot duty, and they still don’t know who I am? Parents constantly say we aren’t doing enough… eventhough I spend my own money on classroom supplies consumed by my students because they don’t even come to school with a pencil box or backpack. I pay for my own classroom library, hand soap and sanitizer, registration for conferences and trainings, clean my own room (janitorial duties) AND teach 31 second graders of which most have little idea of how to be at school because they never went to kindergarten and parents provide little structure at home. Who is getting the short end of the stick? The kids at school or the child I pick up at 4:30 from daycare because her mother is busy working with other children whose parents don’t bother to teach them manners. Give me an illiterate, well behaved child and I can/want to do wonders – if they want to throw things and yell … that’s another story. My desire to teach diminishes greatly.
I am very interested in this book, because I’m on my third year of wanting to quit. I keep looking for a compelling argument to get me to stay, because I know I am a talented teacher and am not sure where else to place my efforts. I read your blog on creating a 40-hour workweek; I have had that goal for the last seven years, have implemented all of the tips you suggested during that time, but I still work at least 50 hours a week.
Why do I want to quit? Because this year is just as hard as my first year. I have worked in other professions; you get better at what you do because of consistency and the building of routines. My district is constantly changing their policies and curriculum materials, adding to our workload, and no one in charge ever gives you a straight answer about “real” problems. The things I mastered in years past are all useless now because I am expected to make fresh investments in time, energy, money, and materials every year. I am given support for all of these changes in the form of numerous, mostly unpaid trainings, and I am supposed to be grateful for this because other districts hand out changes without any guidance whatsoever.
I do love being with kiddos. I can’t stand working for the public school system. I got into this profession because I wanted to make a difference for poor kids. I can’t even tell if I’m making a difference anymore. In the current climate, doing what you know is best for kids is a subversive act. I approach each day grateful that I have a job. I try to have compassion for administrators who feel overburdened, such that they can’t interact with us as people anymore. I know most parents these days are more stressed and busier than ever, and it’s just not possible to get them as involved as it once was.
Still, I can’t accept martyrdom as a profession. I know teaching has been changed to be less sustainable, so that governments can successfully cut budgets and avoid paying those of us with years in and advanced degrees. I am sad that what has brought me so much joy has become so frustrating.