The teaching profession has a retention rate of less than 80% (I’ve heard) of new staff. In the next 10 years, half the teachers active today will retire. This is going to be a huge problem.
I’ve worked hard to get to the top in my career, but right now I’m not doing much that an untrained person couldn’t do with a couple of months practice. It’s therefore uncomfortable to talk to my customers who probably don’t earn anywhere near what I do. Sure, I’ll soon be putting all my experience to good use, but I can’t see that I’ll ever have the harder job or one as important to society.
In fact, the person that I’m filling in for now was a teacher, but changed to IT because it’s just too hard to live on a teacher’s salary. This isn’t really an Australian cultural issue, but the fact that it holds all around the world makes it all the more relevant for me.
I hear repeatedly that teachers don’t do what they do because of the money – they do it because of the satisfaction they get from giving the next generation the tools they’ll need to get through life and to improve on the world themselves. But I’ve lived with a wonderful woman who’s dedicating her life to helping the underdeveloped countries of the world feed themselves, and I’ve seen the pain such sacrifice involves. Marie gave more importance to satisfaction in her achievements than in money, but she will always have to be careful with her funds, never able to get home as often as she’d like or to live in nice accomodation because she’s chosen to work for satisfaction rather than money. Just the fact that the rest of the world counts a person’s worth by their salary made her feel undervalued. Teachers must feel the same.
The adage ‘those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’ may be true, but surely we’ve made it that way by undervaluing their work. If I earn more than any of my teachers, it’s not because I’m more intelligent (which might be true on average, but is certainly false in many cases). It’s because my work is valued more and that seems unfair.
If each person gave $100 each month to their teachers, and assuming that there are 20 students to each teacher, teachers could receive $24,000 extra per year. That must increase the feeling of being valued and in turn increase retention rates. Now, obviously students don’t have the money, so it would be more realistic to say that we give it from our salary once we start working and those of us who earn more (and have benefited more from the education) cover for those who earn little. But even at triple rates, I’d have no problem giving up an extra $3,600 each year while I’m earning my current salary if I knew it was going to make sure that my (future) children would have a good education from effective, passionate teachers.
It’s all hypothetical, but having run the idea through, I’d love to see it applied in the real world.