Kaitlyn Piston

Virginia Teachers For Tomorrow II

The Values of Teaching Essay

Despite the numerous benefits that teachers get such as summer break and health care,

the rates of teachers leaving the profession has increased drastically. In an article written by ​The

Wall Street Journal​ called “​Teachers Quit Jobs At Highest Rate On Record​,” Michelle Hackman

and Erin Morath write more about the statistics and reasoning for those statistics. While that

article discusses the statistics, an article by Justin McClinton called “​It’s Not Money Causing

Teachers To Leave Their Jobs In Droves, It’s People,​ ” focuses more on how people they interact

with daily can affect them. After reading both of these articles, I believe the reason teachers

leave the profession is because of the people.

Going into teaching, mostly every person is aware of the pay. We have been around

teachers all of our lives. We hear them joke about the low pay, we hear them compare their job

pay to other jobs, and we hear all of the complaints they have about teaching. In reality, the

moment you chose teaching as your major, you are aware of the benefits and pay that come

along with the job. I believe if pay was the leading cause of teachers leaving the profession, they

wouldn’t have even came into the profession.

When it comes to teaching, these teachers are prepared for students. They are able to deal

with the ups and downs when it comes to the students, mainly because college prepares them for

this. What college doesn’t prepare teachers for is how to deal with the people and parents that
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they work with. Whether one thinks so or not, the way other people act can affect one greatly.

These teachers might be amazing at their jobs, but if they aren’t mentally happy because of

coworkers and parents, they aren’t going to want to keep their job. This might result in the

teachers who quit simply transferring to other schools or majorly leaving the profession overall.

“The money paid to teachers isn’t bad at all, but once one considers the burden of the job

then the imbalance can be explained,” McClinton says in his article “​It’s Not Money Causing

Teachers To Leave Their Jobs In Drove, It’s People.”​ This is a valid point because the article

“​Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate On Record,”​ argues that pay is the sweeping cause to the

effect of teachers leaving the profession. However, the article ​“It’s Not Money Causing Teachers

To Leave Their Jobs In Drove, It’s People,” ​ firmly states that teachers get paid fairly well

making an average salary of $59,050. McClinton advocates that teachers need support to stay in

the profession.

The title ​“It’s Not Money Causing Teachers To Leave Their Jobs In Drove, It’s People,”

shows us that people are the problem. After reading this article, the quote “The problem is their

job is not to support teachers, but to maintain pseudo-order imposed by out-of-touch

bureaucrats,” simply states that an administrators job is to not support teachers. This statement is

a very vague way to say your managers don’t support you, which is never a good feeling. While

this may not be true in all schools, it’s happening in some. Feeling untrusted or unsupported is a

good reason to leave a profession.

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Overall, a good way to approach this problem is by mental health checks. Hiding

emotions from others is a very easy thing to do. Teachers may be unhappy with their job, but you

never know until you ask. However, that’s inevitable. A good system may be for the principal

(their boss) to do mandatory weekly surveys on how things are going. This way principals and

administrators can at least try and help their teachers if they are going through problems. I

believe this will help teachers feel supported and relevant in the school systems which will result

in the outcome of less teachers leaving.

Pay is the least of teachers problems when it comes to leaving the profession. While the

article “​Teachers Quit Jobs at Highest Rate On Record,” s​ tates some valid facts and evidence, I

believe the article ​“It’s Not Money Causing Teachers To Leave Their Jobs In Drove, It’s

People,”​ hits important reasons that may be affecting the teachers more than pay. If teachers do

not feel supported, there aren’t going to be any teachers left.

Works Cited
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Education. “It's Not Money Causing Teachers To Leave Their Jobs In Droves.” ​The

Federalist,​ 8 Jan. 2019,

thefederalist.com/2019/01/08/not-money-causing-teachers-leave-jobs-droves-people/.

Hackman, Michelle, and Erin Morath. ​Teachers Quit Jobs At Highest Rate On Record​.