•September 12, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The agriculture teacher at my local high school recently up and left, days before the school year started, heading for greener pastures in the private sector, leaving the school district in the lurch. He’s not alone.
School leaders in low-paying rural districts as well as in the good-paying but challenging Chicago public schools are scrambling to fill teacher vacancies. Many will do with marginal staff, substitutes, online and distance learning (over internet) course offerings. Not fair to the students.
When I was a boy post-WWII, talented women were steered into teaching, because they had few other career choices than nursing and secretarial work. Not today. They go to law and medical school, where they now outnumber men, and are beseeched to go into computers and the sciences, where their numbers are still low.
Today, teachers and parents often steer youngsters away from teaching. In this space a couple of years ago, I reported on responses, from a group of excellent teachers I know, to the question: Would you recommend teaching as a career?
Most said No, even though they mostly found their teaching careers rewarding. The lament I heard most often was that of “the pressure to teach to the standardized tests.” It takes the zest out of teaching, the teachers said.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.