Published: Dec 01, 2005 12:30 AM
Modified: Dec 01, 2005 07:33 AM

 

The worth of good teachers

Jim Jenkins, Staff Writer

Oh, many a politician has put hand to cheek to worry about school teachers. Half in North Carolina are leaving the profession within five years. They have too much paperwork. They need more parental support. They want respect. Yada, yada, yada.

Let's cut to it. That's right, let's just cut to it for once, OK? The pay of public school teachers, just one of whom can have a life-changing effect on one child or a thousand children, was and, despite some gains, remains a disgrace, and it's likely driving many of them right out of the profession.

We ought to be ashamed, really, that so many teachers have to hold second jobs just to make ends meet, particularly when they're in the first year of woeful wages, making "in the 20s," as they say. So for those who might have read Kenneth Dobyns' piece last Sunday in this newspaper's "Q" section, wherein the Johnston County high school teacher reckoned he likely wasn't going to make it a career because of money...well, don't judge him a complainer. Dobyns is a truth-teller, and when we talk about what we pay teachers, the truth hurts.

Dobyns, who moved to teaching in mid-career, not right out of college, makes $29,605.80 as a fourth-year teacher. (The N&O published a journal of his experiences during the 2002-03 academic year.) He's got a bubbling enthusiasm for his job, has been given some additional responsibilities indicating professional competence and then some, says he loves coming to work and is fond of his students and colleagues. "Oh, and one more thing," he wrote. "I am all but certain that come June I'll leave teaching for good."

Here's the hard truth: As much as Dobyns likes teaching, he can't afford it. He works four jobs on the side to make it, and rightly dismisses those who say teachers have the summer off. They don't, he said. They're working. To pay the rent. To eat.

And they could use a little time to recuperate from 10 months in the pressure cooker of coping not just with students' academic work, but with their family problems, with their growing pains, with all the social pressures kids of all ages have to deal with. Oh, and then there's that matter of bureaucracy and paperwork. In addition -- sorry, there can be a few difficulties with parents, you know, just for a little extra worry.

We're quick to criticize teachers, of course. And one supposes that in the profession, there are some who don't belong. But the fact that a huge percentage of teachers are passionately dedicated to the kids and to their line of work is more a testament to their character than it is to us, the public, the taxpayers, all those who take the teachers for granted. And to the politicians who, by their inaction, continue to encourage us to believe we can get by on the cheap.

It's a perplexing attitude, given that most folks can recall one or two great teachers in their lives who really made a difference. Would they not want the same for their kids, or for all kids, for that matter? Or do we all just assume the exceptional teachers will always be there?

A suggestion: Let those who aren't worried about the ranks of good teachers thinning, or who think it's no problem that nearly half of new teachers in North Carolina bail out after five years, or that teaching isn't all that hard, spend a day in a classroom, any classroom. In fact, spend just a morning.

I spent one day as a public school teacher. It was for a column many years ago, and I picked a kindergarten class. When it was over, I went home, collapsed in the bed, woke up about 10 hours later. Like some veterans of combat, I don't like to talk about it.

The astonishing thing about all this is that teachers are entrusted with the education, health and safety of this planet's most precious and vulnerable beings, children.

I can't blame Kenneth Dobyns for wanting to make a decent living, but I hope he stays in the profession. He sounds like exactly the kind of teacher who'll be remembered 10, 20, 30 years hence. Those scientists or doctors or astronauts or musicians will reflect on school days and remember Dobyns as the one who set a sail that helped to guide them where they are. And that's not bad.

For many of us who were schooled in Raleigh, the names and memories are fresh and fond. The great Bettie Vann Sharpe of Aldert Root Elementary, who still sees the boys and girls she calls "my third graders" 40 and almost 50 years afterward. The incomparable Lou Rosser of Broughton High, who raised up some writers and doctors and lawyers with a love of good words and great books.

If we want their kind to multiply, and we should, we have to do better. Public education shouldn't have to count on a bargain, or good fortune, in the employ of teachers. If we want the children to have the best, we should expect, happily, to pay for the best.

Deputy editorial page editor Jim Jenkins can be reached at 829-4513 or at jjenkins@newsobserver.com