The Importance of Teachers

by Vishaal Kuruvanka
September 19th, 2022

In an education system, we have covered the overarching political structure that governs the education system, the private vehicles that can come up with technologies to aid with learning but we have seldom spoken of the most important actor within the classroom, the teacher. It is quite impossible to overstate the importance of teachers to the education system. But in today's day, they have been overlooked and not been given the same respect as some of the competing professions of the day. Teachers are leaders that employ a unique mix of sternness, empathy, analytical thinking and perseverance to carry out their role of educating students. Their role is not only important to the students within the classroom but to the wider society, as their job is to develop and mold the minds of their students and get them to believe in themselves to build a better future for all of us. 

It will be useful here if we engage in another theoretical scenario to underscore the importance of high quality teachers.

One of the things that a company strives to do in a free market is to attract and retain top talent. Leaders of companies understand that if they can bring the sharpest and most creative people in a room, great things will inevitably follow. They normally attract the best talent through financial incentives like high salary and stock options along with good working conditions and work life balance that does not overly strain the employee. They also allow measures that give time for the employee to work on their ideas outside of the work assigned to them. These perks can be seen through many of the largest and successful companies that exist today. Learning from this model, why can we not design a system that allows for teachers to receive the same benefits? After all they are performing work of the highest order which directly impacts the economic health and defense measures for our country.

Teachers by and far do not receive these measures today and as a result of the grueling work are moving to different sectors. As reported by WSJ, teachers quit in droves, in 2021, to use their skills in more profitable ways with a better work life balance. In drawing a parallel to our company example, we must attract the best talent to teach our students about the wonders of the world and the possibilities of tomorrow. Studies have consistently shown that lowering class size has no real effect on learning outcomes within classrooms. But an argument can be made for paying teachers better to attract better talent. Raising the attractiveness of the job, with a higher salary and better benefits, will automatically allow for better quality applicants (with more education and skills) to be selected in jobs because there will be a limited number of them. In other countries, we have routinely seen that higher quality teachers raise learning outcomes for students across the board. Understanding this, we must revitalize the profession to attract the best and brightest that are interested in teaching to come to the profession. Raising the pay, reducing workload, and building a strong public admiration for teachers will not only aid existing teachers within the system that do their best every single day to provide a superb education, but bring new minds into the field to maintain and expand the workforce of teachers.

Raising the Pay

The pay for teachers is deeply out of touch with the amount of work that they do. Teachers often spend much of their time outside of work developing lessons, grading papers and buying materials for class. On average teachers work 60 hours a week just on campus (not including grading, lesson planning and student family communication outside of school). The pay of teachers, here in the US, is insanely low compared to other countries. Undeniably it is accepted that in countries where performance of students is high, the salary of teachers is also high.The job market is highly competitive for top graduates so an increase in the pay rate for teachers will allow these graduates to consider teaching as a viable profession. If we increase the pay of the teachers then the number of teachers may decrease (slightly) but the overall quality of teachers will increase. On average, the starting salary for teachers across the nation is around 19% lower than individuals in other careers with similar education and experiences. This is absurd, as the importance of the job to national prosperity is higher, then similar professions. While professionals in other industries such as consulting, investment banking, technology get paid in six figure salaries, should the individual that is charged with developing the framework with which our children will depend on for the rest of their lives not be at least paid on par? If we are paying personal trainers and event planners more than the starting salary of a professional who is tasked with cultivating the scientists, entrepreneurs, leaders, writers, and historians of tomorrow then we are failing greatly in building our country. Compensation of our teachers must be changed quickly if we are to compete on a world scale against our rivals. Education is the improvement of human capital and we must build and invest in a well oiled machine to make sure that we can produce people capable of critical thinking and leadership.

While the way schools get funded varies from state to state, roughly around 85 percent of it comes from state or local funding. The other 15% comes from the federal government. Stating this, I believe that an increase in the starting salary for teachers is possible through an investment from the federal government. For us to lift the whole nation, all schools must have high quality teachers committed to their profession. If the salaries of teachers increase, then this will automatically attract higher quality applicants for these jobs with livable wages. One of the main reasons teachers leave the profession is because they feel like supporting a family with the type of lifestyles that teachers endure is crazy. While the technology of computers, iPads and smart boards are all necessary, none should take precedence in making sure teachers are adequately paid. Ideally if we have the best minds teaching our students, then this may increase the success of our students and a nation. 

While here in the United States we boast about the amount of money we spend per pupil, it is not necessary for actual learning or achievement. But there is an area where the money could work. Having smaller class sizes makes it easier for teachers to spend more individual time with the student. When I was teaching classes of 30 students, it was extremely hard for me to go around the classroom and make sure that each student that needed help got it. But if that size was cut in half, it would have aided me much to not only get to each and every student but also allow for the human interaction and relationship building which is so important to teaching.  Making more schools and lowering class sizes or just hiring more high quality teachers is an area where our money and resources should be flowing towards.

Reducing the Workload

The life of a teacher is crazy, as there are so many things that they are responsible for. From grading papers, to parent teacher conferences, the profession requires you to give every single part of yourself everyday. With the already gargantuan demand of imparting knowledge, it is difficult to complete the other tasks and plays a part in teacher turnover within schools. To stabilize struggling schools (especially in areas of low socioeconomic status), teachers should receive teacher assistants to help with classroom duties. This again plays on the funding that the school receives but if we review the roles of a teacher and rethink how we can hire teachers, then this problem can be solved. 

To begin, if students are given more control over the type of education they would like to receive beginning in high school, then those teachers will have to be well versed within their fields (they will have PhD). This means that due to the higher level of education, they will be serving as professors but within the highschool level. Within this system, there can be an apprentice structure where university students that would like to become teachers, can be TAs while also learning the nuances of the profession from the head teacher. These TAs will not be paid on the same level as the head teachers but through time and experience, they will receive a large boost when becoming a teacher. The TAs also work to reduce the workload given to the teachers. This system is actually used currently within Finland and has shown a considerable boost in student success and teacher retention rates. 

As seen in countries with the highest student success rates, teachers should be given more say over what they want to teach and allow them to broadly design the curriculum and lessons. To broadly step back and really ask what do students need to succeed in the 21st century is a question that must be answered. 

Revitalizing Public Admiration

If both of the aforementioned aspects are implemented then the profession itself will begin to change. But in the minds of the people it is extremely important that they look to teachers as leaders in our society. Annual awards given both on a state and federal level, will be extremely important in stamping the government’s keen interest in the profession. Programs that also allow for teachers to work within different parts of the country will allow them to learn how different schools work and in this sense Teach for America (TFA) has excelled. While there has been much discussion on the effectiveness of its teachers, bringing in our country’s brightest students to work within public education will have network effects not only within the profession but outside of it. As these individuals disperse and work in other sectors their teaching experiences will always inform decisions that they make allowing for a more civic minded society.