Seventy-six percent of parents and guardians across our country approve of their child’s public education. But only 36% of American adults say they’re satisfied with America’s K-12 public school system.
What accounts for the gap? The answer is misinformation.
Too many American adults don’t know what happens in our nation’s public education system.
That’s why groups like Moms for Liberty can seize that misinformation and start movements like parental rights, even though our public schools have always been open to parents and guardians.
And that’s why they can build a movement based on lies about teachers indoctrinating, grooming, or sexualizing our students. That, of course, is not only offensive, it’s incredibly dangerous.
What Teachers Do
What about the rest of the American adults who don’t know what teachers do?
Some teachers teach 1,100 lessons in one school year.
Often, teachers teach six classes a day. In 48-minute lessons, They are supposed to engage students bell to bell. No pressure. Engaging their students while at the same time meeting the students’ human needs.
Teachers know it’s incredibly challenging to build a lesson that engages students for almost an hour when some students might be going through things the teacher doesn’t know about.
Over the last 20 years in this country, across the nation, almost 50% of all public school teachers don’t make it past their fifth year.
I think that a lot of American adults don’t understand what goes into teaching each and every day. Teachers are incredibly challenged. Even if they say, it’s incredibly rewarding.
Everyone Needs To Support Teachers
Americans need to be educated by teachers on what happens each and every day in our public schools.
We also need to attend a local school board meeting. Making it clear that we support not only our local public schools but also the teachers and the support professionals in schools that make it possible for our children to understand how it is to be a citizen and understand how our democracy works.