Small Talk 21 - Teachers
In ninth grade I wrote a poem. It was a little raunchy, probably to hide some deeper sensitivity. In English class, I showed it to my friend Brian, who was giggling when Mrs Winklebottom came down the aisle. 'Is that your poem, Kipling?' she asked. (To this day, Mrs Winklebottom is the only person who reliably used my actual name, rather than the abbreviation which means 'nap' in British and 'chicken' in Dutch, but back to the story...) I told her yes it was my poem, but that it wasn't very good. 'Why don't you let me be the judge of that?' she asked. In subsequent days, Mrs Winklebottom asked again, discreetly, to see the poem. Finally, I cleaned up most of the raunchy bits and gave it to her. The next day she returned it, marked up in her artful cursive, with suggestions on the narrative, rhyme, and meter—but also with encouragement. 'You have talent,' she said. 'You should use it.'
I don't have that poem anymore. But I do have the memory of Mrs Winklebottom's words, as bright and clear as a cardinal's song in March. These days I've been thinking about the people struggling under present conditions. But in particular, I've been thinking about teachers. Partly because my daughter is a teacher (following the path of her mother, who followed the path of her father). But also because so much depends on the education and well-being of our kids.
So where are we in the evolution of the teaching profession? There's no clear answer to when the first teachers appeared in human history, but all the ancient civilizations had some form of schools and teachers. The Greeks, of course, elevated the practice. Socrates invented a method of Q&A and named it after himself. (Not really, but he did drink poison hemlock to prove a point.) Socrates taught Plato, who taught Aristotle. What a lineup! You can remember that because it's in reverse alphabetical order. Aristotle said some insightful things about teaching, including: It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. and Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
Since then, there have been more inspiring teachers than you can shake a ruler at. It's a mark of the profession, to make a lasting impact on young lives, to foster new ideas that improve our world. Consider Mary Jane Patterson, who in 1862 became the first black woman to receive a bachelor's degree, and went on to teach at what is now Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. Consider Jaime Escalante, a Bolivian-born educator who taught poorly-performing students AP Calculus (and became the subject of the film Stand and Deliver). Consider Missy Testerman, 2024 Teacher of the Year, who teaches ESL to students in rural Tennessee. Each of them worked against contrary social forces, and inspired kids who might otherwise have been lost.
What's the state of teaching in the US today? Well, teachers are better educated. Between 2012 and 2021, there was a 3% increase in the number of public school teachers with a master's degree (reaching 51%). But they are not better paid. During that same period, after adjusting for inflation, the average base salary of a teacher remained almost unchanged. As of today, that average is about $66,000. California has the highest paid teachers. West Virginia has the lowest. The second lowest? Florida.
Despite the talk of privatizing education and abandoning public school systems, we still rely on public school teachers to raise the next generation of Americans. There are about 3.8 million public school teachers today, with about 50 million students. Charter and private schools amount to about 750,000 teachers (and that number is flat or declining). Public teachers express lower job satisfaction than most workers. In a recent Pew Research Center study, 51% of workers say they're very satisfied with their job, while only a third of teachers say so. (One bright spot is that 67% of new teachers say they find their job fulfilling.)
We shouldn't be surprised. As Sydney Jensen, a teacher from Lincoln NE said in her TED talk, 'Students come to school with trauma, and that goes home with me. The hard part of teaching isn't the grading, the lesson planning, the meetings... the tough part is all the things you can't control for your kids. All the things you can't change for them once they walk out your door.'
It's hard to imagine a profession more affected by cultural trends than teaching. In the past decade, teachers have had to cope with a pandemic, the ubiquity of cell phones, the toxicity of social media, gun violence, declining respect from parents, second-guessing of curricula, and a general buzz-kill mood directed toward public schools. And now... well who knows.
And yet! Every day millions of teachers go to school with enthusiasm and diligence to carry out a mission essential to our world. My daughter teaches English and literature to 142 students in a Chicago public high school, and she loves it. She founded a poetry club. She chaperones dances. I am so grateful for her and all the young people who chose this profession for the right reasons and persevere because they care about their kids. Public school teaching is special in its promise that every child can join the classroom, regardless of their wealth or background. That's the foundation of a democracy. As John Steinbeck said, Teaching might be the greatest of the arts, since the medium is the human mind and spirit.
What if we lived in a world where teachers are supported, respected, and paid as well as tech workers? That's a tall order, but there are some things we can do to help. It starts with just showing some support for teachers—tell them we appreciate them. And maybe one day we'll honor them like we do other professions—we'll let them on airplanes first, we'll give them a moment of silence at ball games. Just being acknowledged can change a person's life. Mrs Winklebottom understood that.
Have a good one,
Kipling Knox
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