I’ve often observed that teaching is the easiest job in the world to do badly and the hardest to do well. But it’s harder than ever for even the most fiercely committed teacher to stay true to his or her core mission—raising student achievement—given the spiraling demands on teachers to serve as curriculum developers, mental health professionals, after-school chaperones, or simply trying to run safe, orderly, distraction-free classrooms.
AEI Education hosted a webinar that posed the question, “Have we made teaching too hard for mere mortals?” The occasion for our discussion was a recent paper authored by more than two dozen teachers in the state and published by the state department of education. Titled “Let Teachers Teach,” it recommends a number of classroom-focused reforms including limiting student cell phone use, addressing the challenges of chronic absenteeism, paying teachers for non-academic work, and giving teachers relief from extreme disruptive student behaviors that make teaching and learning impossible.
