Want Education Reform? Support Teachers.

This weekend I attended a gathering of recent UNC Chapel Hill graduates. The conversation naturally meandered towards what each of us was doing professionally. One member of the group offered that she was a high school teacher. When asked if she enjoyed teaching her reply was telling, “Yes, but it gets tougher every single year.”

Why has it become more difficult?

Teaching has not become more difficult for her because of students or lesson planning as skeptics might suggest. It is a lack of support from the North Carolina government and from other leaders that has contributed to a lack of morale throughout her school. When the General Assembly eliminates Teaching Fellows, fails to increase wages against inflation, and leads us to 48th in the country in teacher pay is it any wonder? Our conversation reminded me of the teacher’s resignation letter featured in the Washington Post I had read a few days before.

I applaud anyone who focuses on the need for improving our education system, but I think that many of the education “reformers” in Raleigh and elsewhere are missing the point. True education reform must begin with our teachers.

Finland is the current world leader in education. Many reasons exist for the Finnish success story, but one of the core reasons is that they treasure members of the teaching profession, and North Carolina can learn from that. We can increase the morale of teachers by turning them into heroes, investing in scholarships and professional development, creating more selective programs in teaching colleges, and stop the charade that anyone can be a teacher.

Oh, and we can increase their morale by ending the misguided rhetoric around the “need to get rid of the bad teachers” as if an army of bad teachers exist.

If we want “good” teaching, real education reform, and better results for our students then it starts with respect and empathy for our teachers. Any first grader would recognize that. I hope that the General Assembly will.