ASCD briefs this morning reported on the fact that there is a growing shortage of teachers in some school districts. Little was mentioned in terms of location. They pointed out that it was a repost from the AP news service and that the cited reason was lack of appropriate salary. I doubt that that is the true story in most cases. I was struck often by the fact that so many of my students, potential teachers hoping to get a job, indicated that they were already married and had a family and a home in Toronto or they were engaged and their partners had jobs in downtown Toronto or their family was in Toronto and they had personal care issues to deal with. There were therefore major issues aside from salary that would mean they could not travel to where the jobs are. That is such a huge problem. I used to tell all the candidates as they came to the end of their program that they had to think out-of-the-box and try and create a job for themselves by applying to museums or art galleries or looking for tutoring jobs with sports organizations or trying to find work overseas. There was a time when kids went to school and had no expectations of where they were going to work. They had hopes, for sure, but they knew they would have to go to where the jobs were. Not any more. Today, the kids often expect the jobs to be there for them and if they aren't there, then it is the fault of the market or society or whatever. I believe it is part of their dispositions to teach that they have to have the initiative to go looking for a job and not with any preconceived notions of where or what. If you are hungry enough, you will go looking. At the very least, don't go into teaching with preconceived notions of where the jobs will be found, because they won't be where you need them to be. That's for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment