Beat me to it!
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Way to easy. I mean why would we do that. 
itās almost likeā¦. If they were paid for the work that they do likeā¦. idk like educate the future of our county it might turn into ok thing.
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The thing is, there is a teacher shortage nationwide, even in states that pay significantly better. A lot of states are going to have to get more creative to fill classrooms. Unfortunately, we donāt value educators as a nation, so a lot of younger people are not getting education degrees anymore. Countries like Norway highly value their teachers. Also, teachers are tired. Kids are worse behaviorally, and it makes each day more difficult. A lot of teachers are just in survival mode. My sister is in a tough middle school and has almost 40 kids in some classes. You donāt accomplish much with that many students.
Thereās also a ton of pressure and expectations put on teachers with state testing and such, and teachers get the majority of the blame when students are struggling. No one at the state or federal level seems to want to address our archaic education structure or get to the root of why kids in America are struggling and so many teachers want out.
Iām certified in secondary math and English, and I donāt see myself ever going back to a classroom, and itās not because of the pay. I made more as a teacher than many people with degrees do in other fields. I think many teachers would be okay with the pay if there was less government micromanaging and involvement and they could cut class sizes in half.
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Why would you? My MIL is a retired calc teacher and she charges $50 an hour to tutor kids from Crossings/Casady/Heritage/McGuiness. Cash money. Of course she only works a few hours a day, but make this a 40 hour per week job, 48 weeks a year, gross up for taxes (assuming 25%), and you are looking at a $128k/y job.
The average math teacher in Oklahoma makes $57k. Assume 39 weeks/year, 10 hours per day (lots of late nights and after school responsibilities), it comes out to ~$29/hour before taxes, or $22 after.
No thanks.
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Well said. There is much more to this than soundbites.
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I think the thing teachers want most is adequate pay, appropriate class sizes, & enough planning time to do all their work at work. 
This would solve a lot of the issues that I hear about. That and getting rid of Lucy Calkins reading theory (guessing instead of sounding) & left over expensive NCLB testing. 
. Grew up in a 2 parent teacher family.
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Education and healthcare. The two careers that have a very large impact on society as a whole, yet get sh-t on the most by the majority of lawmakers and typically the general public.
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Where are they paying 57k??? All the teachers I know make less than $50k
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You can change literally anything you want in America. There might be barriers but anything is possible. Just moving is the best option in a lot of situations.
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They probably pay more in the cities, but pay in Stillwater is less. Itās only going to get worse with the shortages. My company pays college grad admin assistants more than most teachers make. Until the state begins valuing education we will have problems.
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All of that would help a ton. Better pay for sure, but smaller class sizes and more time at work to actually do your work would be a huge step in the right direction. My last year of teaching in the classroom was 8th grade English, and I feel like all I ever did was grade. I went home every night and kept working. I was sick of it. And yes. They need to get rid of many of the weird teaching theories and styles and get back to basics. You can still change up teaching methods and strategies while sticking to basics. The amount of middle school students who canāt do basic multiplication facts or even college students who struggle to write a coherent paragraph is really sad.
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Thatās on Stillwater then. Most college towns are deep with options.
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Also throwing money at the problem wonāt fix it. You need to make the job desirable and we need to make education more adaptable.
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This is so true. Iām pretty sure America spends more money per student than any other country, yet we are falling behind.
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School sucks. If youāre intelligent as a student then you know itās a joke and just do well as a means to an end.
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Teaching is an f-ed job in OK. You get no pay, no help from your administration or district, and youāre expected to deal with huge class sizes, at least in Lawton.
Teachers can make a ā 45 minute commute to Burkburnet Texas and make more and get a better retirement
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How do I like this more than once? Even now as a PhD student my classes are all about āgetting the driverās licenseā if you will, everything useful I learn is in the lab or in the field.
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Exactly! No textbook will ever teach you quite like the actual experience!
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A lot of that goes into the hands of McGraw Hill and Pearson and not into local school systems. We spend billions on testing that doesnāt improve educational outcomes.
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