Ladies and gentlemen, citizens and residents of our beloved Federation. Let us for a moment consider the state of youth in our nation. The 2020/2021 school year has begun, and while much has changed, not the least of which is the reality of the covid-19 pandemic, much remains the same. Too much of this sameness is cause for concern and not cause for comfort.
Once again schools have opened with a shortfall of teachers and an uncertainty of the complement of teachers. Once again, we hear of initiatives to provide youth with a second chance. Delinquency initiatives. Youth initiatives. Gang initiatives. What do these initiatives look like? How much do they cost? Who funds them? Are we closing the proverbial gate after the horse has left the stable? Are we purchasing a pound of cure, and failing to budget for an ounce of prevention?
Are we investing in gangsters while under-investing in teachers? Is our nation paying for peace at the cost of a progressive agenda for our children? We pay for second chances in a resource scarce circumstance, while compromising and inhibiting the effective development of first chances. A well known saying advises us to bend the tree while it is young. Can we have a teacher initiative? Does a teacher initiative qualify as a delinquency initiative?; A youth initiative?; Can a teacher initiative be considered a gang initiative? Who will fund this teacher initiative?
Taking care of our teachers is taking care of our children. When our children’s schools have a deficit of teachers, schools don’t lose students. This means increases in class sizes. In some cases significant increases. Any teacher will tell you that as class size goes up, the class becomes less manageable. Once again, we hear the responses “Teachers can handle it”. “We all have hard jobs”. “That’s what they’re paid for.”
To place class sizes in perspective, understand that larger class sizes and greater student to teacher ratios lead to student discipline issues. Some of our students are struggling with learning disabilities or emotional challenges. Many of our students need accommodations like extra time or individual attention. A percentage of our students will not have slept well last night, need help with a skill, or are going through a personal emergency. Our students will have different reading and doing levels and need to be differentiated for every assignment. Class gets interrupted, needs get unmet, there are too many questions to answer, too many distractions. A tragedy of a different kind manifests if a student is one of those that does not fall into multiple of the categories above. Your hard-working and polite student will be left unchallenged, as the teacher spends the time dealing with the varied and urgent, immediate demands of the class. This is harmful to both teacher and student. The result of the unintended neglect is often guilt and apathy. Teaching, with its close proximity to the nation’s children, is once again overburdened and underfunded.
We teachers will once again react to an unsupportive environment by double-down on our efforts. Once again start running after-school programs. Once again teachers will take pride in our ability to creatively manage a classroom with half the resources. Once again we will show the world the indomitable spirit of our students. Unfortunately, these practices don’t tend to be sustainable. Everyone has a breaking point. Teachers and students in classrooms across the nation will reach their breaking point, term by term, class by class, and student by student.
Once again, neglect of our teachers will tragically result in neglect of our nation.