Don't become a teacher. Really?
It's burn out time in many educational spaces. Teachers are flaming out and taking the future with them by imploring them not to choose the field. Teachers in positions of power to influence the next teaching generation vividly express their frustration in multiple ways.
One way is social media where concentrations of teachers are finding ways to use social media to elaborate on "what a joke" teaching is or sharing their angst with that new teacher who just started in the classroom next to them or the student teacher interning in their classrooms.
Where do future teachers gain inspiration in a world that shuns the profession that makes all other professions possible?
The inspiration for future teachers occurs in classrooms everyday, those teachers that still have that magic, that spark that ignites the teaching gift inside. You'll hear many teachers proclaim that an educator inspired them.
Through all of it, the bureaucracy, the school politics, the stress, the difficulties, the disrespect, the hardship, and the low pay, I choose to leave the field better than I found it.
As educators, if we don't consciously choose to leave the field better than how we found it, then who will teach our children?
Schools are impressions of society that we create with our narratives about our educational system.
Even amid "burnout season," let us intentionally encourage bright minds to CHOOSE to be teachers. They will pick the baton up and ensure that the conditions we leave them are much better when they leave. We have a responsibility to extend them that chance. Our collective lives depend on it.