Why is noble profession of teaching treated so ignobly?

I dreaded the moment when I had to tell my parents that I was dropping out of medical school and wanted to be a teacher. They were stunned and saddened.

Over the ensuing years they repeatedly told new friends of mine “You know he could have been a doctor.” Now I can laugh at this. But what it reflects is no laughing matter.

Our culture venerates medicine and law as prestigious and potentially lucrative professions. My personal experience reflects the American cultural perception of teaching as considerably less than a high-status profession. We expect a great deal from teachers but give the profession relatively low respect. This angers me. It reflects something fundamentally wrong with our dominant values. Our children pay the highest price.

Here's a short list of all the reasons why someone who is highly intelligent, creative and has personality characteristics fitting the profile of an excellent teacher, would choose a different profession. The pay is low, rarely enough for a comfortable lifestyle. The status is unbelievably low considering the importance of what they do. One national study lists teaching as No. 16 in status. Other surveys rank it even lower.

In Finland teacher status is ranked as No. 2, just behind medicine. You don't have to be a genius to figure out how this affects prospective teachers.

Then there is the stress level coming from parental expectations, pressures from accrediting agencies and daily schedules that leave far too few breaks. The working conditions, including the schedule and continual paperwork demands, are often poor.

Most school buildings have third-rate architecture that does not support either students or teachers. I read a Finnish publication displaying one exceptional school building after another. Our buildings reflect cultural values in this country that don't prioritize hiring the best architects and designing humanly friendly environments. More than the low pay, poor working conditions and stress are the two major reasons given by those who leave the profession.

There is also the increasing challenge of changes in the student population. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were more students whose behavior reflected the increased pressures on families. Add to this anxiety related to climate change and school shootings. There are also more linguistic and cultural differences in the student population, a trend that poses a challenge to teachers who have rarely been trained to effectively respond.

Changing our national attitudes and priorities will take years, but we can at least address this in our own county.

What is required is a significant increase in funding for salaries, building improvements, and, most of all, leadership from school boards, administrators, and parents. Yes, higher taxes could help. But we also know that increased funding by itself won't do it.

The quality of teaching depends on recruiting more excellent young teachers. Ideally teacher education would demand more rigor, as it does in Finland. But we can't wait for that to happen. We need incentives to induce excellent prospects to apply for positions. These incentives include salaries, but also creative scheduling that builds in more time for teachers to work on curriculum development, team teaching, and their own creative instructional approaches. It also includes less expensive housing. We are taking steps to do the latter but providing low interest loans for home purchasing would also help.

We can't renovate all school buildings, but I witnessed a school physical environment in a far less wealthy district improved by obtaining donations from paint companies and carpet remnants from carpet companies, to help to make an emotionally cold building warmer. We can do far more.

Additionally, I've both experienced and heard numerous stories about parents who treat educators as hired help, a spillover of the sense of entitlement that, while not characterizing Marin, is too prevalent.

Both parents and teachers can help create a nurturing relationship. This means joint work beyond PTAs and teacher unions. And parent groups can take responsibility for dealing with parents who treat educators as their servants.

It also means recruiting the best principals and supporting them. This position is critical in establishing supportive school environments. It's a high stress job with a very high and fast turnover rate.

Motivation, ingenuity and joint work can make a difference. A far higher valuing of teaching, however, comes first.

Mark Phillips of Woodacre is a professor emeritus of education at San Francisco State University. He is a regular contributor to Marin Voice.