Pay teachers more — a lot more
Re “Teacher shortage forces staffing stopgap,” April 21
As a retired education professor, I read this article with a combination of anxiety and dismay. I asked myself what I would do to fix this (if indeed it is fixable at all), and this is what I came up with. First, teachers need support, support, support. Students with emotional and behavioral problems can be a daunting challenge, even for experienced teachers. A possible solution is team teaching, where two instructors are in every classroom, and no one is left alone to cope. Classroom management is a challenge even in “easy” schools, and in other schools it can be unbearable.
Second, increase teachers’ salaries so much that they would be willing to deal with all the problems of teaching. Pay them so much that school districts attract the best and most gifted teachers who could work elsewhere and get paid what they are worth.
Third, don’t provide just workshops; instead, provide skilled teachers who will work for at least one hour a day with every new or beginning teacher, as well as with any teacher, regardless of experience, who needs help.
Before any superintendent ignores these suggestions or says they won’t work, I say try them. What have they got to lose?