James wolfsmith

When I retired from teaching four years ago, my principal was begging me to stay because we were already in the middle of a teacher shortage. That same year, at least 30 of us left teaching altogether. Thirty teachers gone. We were told there wasn’t enough money to give teachers a raise, but somehow there was enough money to hire more than 40 new people in central office—every one of those positions paying more than the teachers in the classroom. Make that make sense. Twice, at two different schools, I was encouraged to go back and get my master’s in educational leadership so I could become an assistant principal. I declined both times. My heart was never in climbing the administrative ladder. My heart was in the classroom with my students. That was where I belonged, and I knew it. The problem is not that good teachers don’t exist. The problem is that central offices have become bloated bureaucracies built around higher salaries, unnecessary positions and, far too often, the good ol’ boy system. They keep adding people at the top while taking more away from the teachers doing the actual work. Then they look around and ask why nobody wants to teach anymore. They know why. They just don’t want to admit it.