In the last year, I’ve visited four different classrooms, three of them within New York City. During my visits, I noticed similar trends: well-organized classrooms, bell schedules, students of varying dispositions (including behaviors), and lesson plans timed thoughtfully from beginning to end. Each of these classrooms was in a different school (and one was in a completely different state), but the job itself more or less felt familiar. We know from research that the American public generally trusts their local teacher. The American public also may believe in innovation, but generally want schools to look similar in form and function to their upbringing. We can debate the technology argument up and down, but whether virtually or in-person, the job on paper hasn’t changed much in the last two decades.
But doing the job has become that much harder for the intangibles. We can recognize that the intangibles have probably led to the mass exodus from one of our great professions. Some credible estimates show about 300K to 750K K-12 educators across the country no longer work in our schools.
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