Every year, for the past four years, I see a plea from public school systems for teachers. Apparently the number of newly available teachers is shrinking faster than existing teachers are leaving the field and retiring.
I can't even pretend to know what is happening in this field. I was a revolutionary activist in education in the 1960’s. I made significant changes in classroom teaching in a few schools in San Francisco. All the good parts washed away in a few years. The bad part, black integration, still remains and has done immeasurable damage.
I have several teachers in my immediate family.
Still, I can only speculate on what is happening in the teaching field. I suggest the following:
Young people see a more interesting world where they can work in other areas that are rewarding. The digital world opens new realms of interesting work.
Internet education and Wikipedia have changed the role of teacher and learner significantly and the role of teacher has been greatly diminished at every grade level.
The public school system is such an abysmal failure in every educational regard that young people rarely see heroes in the form of teachers.
The idea of a future driven by unions, incompetent teachers as your peers, and no rewards for excellence only appeals to a dwindling segment of the population.
That is what I see from my desk. What do you see?