The Demand for More Teachers

For the past two years, most schools have been using the online format during the portion of the outbreak of the coronavirus. The online format was difficult for everyone, especially the teachers who had to deal with students not joining the meets or not knowing whether their students were paying attention or taking notes on what they were learning in class. After the school year of 2020-2021, it has been found that a significant amount of teachers have quit or taken early retirement. The reasons range from worrying about the health of their families to their mental health over the amount of stress and burn-out that quarantine reveals.

Through transcending out of the online format, it has been found that more teachers have taken early retirement or have resigned. Many have resigned due to the less constant protocols to the coronavirus and fear for their loved ones. One elementary school teacher from Collier County, Florida, Amanda Tower spoke to The Guardian, stating that the struggling factors that caused her to resign for the upcoming school year of 2021-2022 after eleven years of teaching. She explained, “I needed a change for my physical and mental health and that of my family, some of whom have conditions that make them vulnerable to Covid. There was a lack of transparency in the reported numbers and the push to do business as normal. It was far too much.”

Teachers have a greater risk of getting COVID-19 due to their close proximity to many students and other staff. Many teachers had to make a choice to come back this year due to the many risks it comes with.

Another factor is mental retention and burnout while working. Teachers do more than what they paid for, and that pay may not be worth the effort for some. Teachers that have resigned or taken early retirement express that they felt unsatisfied that they had to leave that work environment knowing it affects the children in the schools. Peggy McAloon, a former elementary school teacher in Lexington Park, Md, told the Washington Post Magazine how “[They were] feeling like [they] ditched [their]whole career.” Another teacher, Lenee Higgins told Washington Post Magazine “There is a lot of trauma in teaching. It's rewarding but also takes an emotional toll…. [they were] already dealing with that, and the pandemic broke [them].”

Though the pandemic plays a significant part in the realization that teachers handle many obstacles in order to teach the future generations of students, some teachers felt undervalued prior to the pandemic beginning. From US News, they recorded in 2019, high school teachers make anywhere from $49,060-79,820 per year, which does not include paying for supplies or other necessary items that are needed for helping the students' education. Even before the pandemic started the shortage of teachers was beginning to show. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers commented, “Before the pandemic, teachers were facing lack of respect on the job, routinely taking money out of their pockets for children’s supplies while at the same time paying student loans and cobbling together multiple jobs to make ends meet. Now, they¨re facing all of that plus the exhaustion and burnout of the last few years.”

As the United States moves forward through pandemic times, there becomes a need more than ever for educators to teach the generations to come in a safe working and learning environment. Although many feel sad to leave the profession, they also recognize that their well-being is important for them to provide a great learning environment.