Why We Are Failing Good Teachers
Last weekend, This American Life ran a story about an award winning teacher who is being forced to quit. It’s a really exasperating story if you care about the state of American education. Here is a description of the segment:
Science teacher Jason Pittman, who teaches pre-school through sixth grade at a school in Fairfax County, Virginia, won a big teaching award this week. In fact, during his ten years teaching, he’s won many, many awards. He loves his job. But this week, he explains to Ira why he’s quitting, even though he doesn’t want to. (6 minutes)
This was a great piece! I’d argue that there was actually too much focus on the money thing – I think the bigger issue is the uncertainty and the time and energy spent on begging for his job. Here’s what I wrote about it: http://michelletbrown.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/its-not-just-the-money-its-the-groveling/