The Cost of Undervaluing

 I'm a huge fan of the Smartless podcast because it is great entertainment for me as I am taking long walks and it usually inspires me to write my blog. Recently, I listened to an episode featuring Michael Lewis (author of books such as Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game and The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine). As I was listening to his rationale for writing Moneyball, I began thinking how the concept was so applicable to the field of education. If you aren't familiar with the book, you may know the movie, starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, a little bit better. The Reader's Digest version of the plot is how Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) took a different approach to signing professional baseball players to the Oakland Athletics based on an analytics approach to the game and in the process, took a small market team like the A's and made them a powerhouse team without spending a lot of money. As Lewis was talking about why he wrote the book, I immediately began to think about the field of education and the exodus of teachers who are leaving the profession in record numbers. No, this is not a blog about paying educators more. That certainly needs to happen, but that is a blog/book in and of itself. Instead, this is a short-ish manifesto about the cost of undervaluing our educators and what is to come if something doesn't change.

As someone who has been in education for 20+ years, the last few as a high school principal, I feel like I have a good vantage point of what needs to change in order to keep people in the profession and also recruit new teachers to take on this important role. I could spend days writing about teacher pay and recruitment, but that will fall upon deaf ears. Instead, I would like to take a different angle and write about value. For those of you reading this that are in education, I know that I am preaching to the choir, but it is my hope that you will share this with others who don't know what is going on in our schools or are basing their thoughts/opinions solely on their own school experiences.

Teaching is an art and a science. Anyone who has ever been in a classroom understands that while it is critical to have content knowledge, it is equally important to be able to impart that knowledge to human beings who may be less than enthused about actually learning it. Throw in social/emotional issues and trauma that may be part of the equation, and you have a completely different ballgame of how to actually teach kids. For those that have kids of their own, picture trying to get your own children to do something they don't want to do and take that times 25 or more. It's a monumental task and undervaluing the educators who try to tackle that challenge is a huge mistake. Unfortunately, our current system is taking the Moneyball approach to education, but is getting much different results than the Oakland A's did.

Education is a long-term investment and the mantra of "you get what you pay for" is certainly at play here. Even more important is treating people the way that you want to be treated. This is a biblical teaching that many outside of the field of education have seemed to have forgotten. Instead, educators have been made out as the villain and accused of indoctrinating students into a certain line of thinking so it fits a specific political narrative. Do we have bad apples in the profession that may do these things? Yes, but the vast majority of educators don't do this and to undervalue and belittle them is driving them out of the profession altogether. I would challenge anyone to take the criticism and heat that educators do for the amount of money they make and still stick around. Teachers do it because they love working with kids and don't necessarily care too much about the money. The tables are now turning and many educators are realizing that the juice isn't worth the squeeze any more.

The call to action here is simple. Instead of casting stones at educators and telling them that they should just be thankful that they have a job, how about giving them a pat on the back and telling them they are important and that you appreciate them. Show them a little empathy and tell them that you support them and want them to be successful. Understand that they do a job that not many people want to do because it is hard and they put the needs of others ahead of their own. Show them the respect they deserve serving the needs of students and parents even though it sometimes seems impossible. Don't undervalue the role they serve in your community because they might not stick around and there aren't people lining up to take their spot. We all had a front row seat during the pandemic of what happens when schools aren't open and teachers aren't necessarily directly available to serve students. That was the reality of the pandemic, but it could become our new reality if we don't start valuing our educators more. It starts and ends with RESPECT and each of us plays a role in our commitment to giving it. If we all don't collectively do something now, we are going to have a huge issue on our hands. As an educator, I would prefer to be proactive rather than reactive and address the situation now.

#OwnYourEpic #Connect