Will the Teacher Bonus Help Attract New Teachers?
Why the Academic Elite Are No Longer The Smartest People in the Room
“The Toxic culture is so evil and onerous that any new teacher that signed on to teach because of the Teaching Signing bonuses will quit by October.”
There are approximately 500,000 teacher openings this September. Can you imagine that? That means school districts are scrambling to find “people” to stand in front of a classroom and pretend to teach.
I said it, “pretend” to teach.
How did we get to this point?
If you want to find out the truth and how we got here, don’t go to the New York Times, the Washington Post or the mainstream media — they don’t have a clue.
Don’t ask University Professors who sit in Ivory Towers and hypothesize scenarios that aren’t remotely close to reality.
How America lost 500,000 teachers last year is really simple to answer. We have a Toxic K12 Culture that runs and controls our schools.
What is the Toxic K12 Culture?
The Toxic K12 Culture is the byproduct of highly intelligent people losing focus and ethics over two generations. Yes, this has been going on for quite some time and unless we fight back and put a stop to it — it’s just going to get worse.
Back in the 20th century, teaching was much simpler. Not because there was less technology, not because life was simpler back then. No, teaching was simpler because there was no toxic K12 culture giving teachers HORRIBLE advice and masking it as “self-care.”
The Purpose of Teaching
In the 20th Century, the purpose of teaching was to help students learn and grow in the classroom.
That’s not the purpose of teaching today. The Toxic K12 culture wants teachers to get inside the minds of your kids and mess around with it. The Toxic culture wants teachers to ask about your home life, how you parent, what you watch on TV and if you are surfing inappropriate sites online.
Your kids are supposed to REPORT everything to their teacher and then your teacher is supposed to “PRETEND” to do pseudo-therapy in class in front of everyone else. Teachers are NOT TRAINED to do SEL (social and emotional learning) or Self-Care for students.
Teachers Need to Become Experts
Back in the 20th century, every single teacher’s goal was to become an expert teacher. That’s because the minute a teacher graduates from college they are considered an average teacher.
The Toxic K12 Culture has taken away teacher’s ability to become experts in teaching. Instead they have developed annual professional development programs to show teachers everything, BUT expert teaching strategies, research and tips.
Only approximately 1% of teachers know expert teaching research, such as how to write expert lesson plans, how to create a safe and conducive learning environment, what the difference between 19th and 21st century skills are and how to help students learn and grow in the classroom.
The Classroom of Today
If you haven’t been inside a classroom in a while, this is what it looks like. The teacher tells the students they will be doing a learning activity in class, since the toxic culture doesn’t want the teacher to be expert — the teacher doesn’t ask WHAT’S THE POINT OF THE ACTIVITY?
The students are expected to listen and follow the teacher. The students are being trained to complete these lesson activities that don’t TEACH anything. It’s just rote-learning.
Expert teachers HATE this type of rote-teaching. It’s low-level, it does not promote higher order critical thinking skills and it’s REALLY boring for both teacher and student.
New Teachers Are Going to Quit
This isn’t really a prediction. The Toxic culture is so evil and onerous that any new teacher that signed on to teach because of the Teaching Signing bonuses will quit by October.
Is There Anything People Can Do?
The answer is yes, but it’s not much.
The only way to save our schools, our teachers and our kids is to BEAT the Toxic Culture. But that won’t be easy. The toxic culture has a 25 year head start on all of us. Don’t underestimate their power and reach.
This a battle that will be won on social media.
I have tried conventional ways to defeat the toxic culture, but it’s dodged all of my solutions. In 2017, I was recognized by the NJ Legislature as an expert in the field of education because I showed NJ regulators how to solve three major issues plaguing the K12 system.
But the Toxic Culture killed all three solutions before they could help hundreds of thousands of kids in NJ.
But they couldn’t stop everything. I was able to reach approximately 10,000 teachers, parents and politicians over the last 5 years.
Do You Want to Learn More?
If you’re a teacher, consider joining the small underground group of teachers who help other teachers:
If you’re a parent, I strongly recommend you learn Leadership skills to teach your kids. Leadership is one of the essential 21st century skills your child needs to know, otherwise they will be left behind in life (forget about school). You can register for this FREE Webinar here:
You will learn The 6 Objectives of Leadership, the secret to leadership and a special BONUS activity that will help you with your parent/child relationship. This can help teachers too, but they have too much else to do deal with. Remember, it’s 100% FREE, so click the link to register today.
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About the Author:
D.Scott Schwartz, M.Ed. also known as “The School Doc” on social media was a journalist on radio, TV and in print before becoming a recognized expert in the field of education. “The School Doc” does consulting work now for schools and businesses that are looking to solve difficult problems. He also developed Leaf Academy, the first online school to learn 21st century skills. If you want to make more money, advance your career or fix K12 education, go to the Leaf Academy website (link in bio.)
