When I was a high school student, I had some weak teachers, especially in math. I remember needing to supplement my high school calculus curriculum because although my math teacher knew calculus, he did not know how to teach! My entire calculus class scrambled for support before the AP exam. In some ways, today’s issues securing strong teachers, math teachers in particular, are not new, but our children seem to be contending with many more significant teacher issues, and the world is a much different place.
Education has changed dramatically, especially in the past five years. With COVID came the upswing of online education, as students learned primarily through technological tools and videos. When students returned to the physical classroom a few years ago, education seemed forever changed. No longer did teachers engage primarily in the traditional lecture and seminar approach. Instead, they were encouraged to evolve and to recognize that students needed more individualized instruction and more project-based learning.
Professional development for teachers, however, was often underfunded and largely failed to provide sufficient guidance to teachers on how to effectively implement such instruction. The teachers were also understandably weary, which resulted, from my observation, in a sustained increased use of technology in the classroom. Teachers today turn to online tools and videos more than ever and assign more group projects, both of which alleviate some of the stress that the teachers carry but which also result in a compromised educational product.
Now, with the growing use of AI in the mainstream, personal instruction has eroded further, with teachers turning to AI for lessons plans and more. For example, UNC now uses AI to evaluate application essays, and teachers are often using AI to help them grade student essays. This AI dependency does not inspire students’ creativity or writing enthusiasm.
Couple these technological changes with (1) the failure of our political system to support teachers with adequate pay and benefits and (2) teacher shortages, and the result is a weakened faculty pool. Our children are seeing these effects in real time.
As parents, what can we do to optimize this situation for our children? In just a month, I feel certain that most of our children will have a subpar teacher. It is just that common today.
What I tell my students is that in high school, with access to the world at their fingertips, they must now take responsibility for their own learning. I know that sounds harsh, but it isn’t so far-fetched. Part of learning is recognizing when you, as a student, do not fully understand the material and asking for help. When our children go to college, they need to know when to seek out the professor or teaching assistant and how to find their way to the tutoring center. They also need to take advantage of online materials and websites to supplement their learning. One of the first steps to being college-ready is to develop autodidactic skills. Students need to display curiosity to understand better the world that they live in as well as the subject matters that they have chosen to study. They also need to be self-aware, to realize when they do not understand the requisite material. Finally, they need to have the resolve to dig deeply, to work hard, and to gain that understanding.
Our students are resourceful when they want to be. They are exceptionally good at accessing the food that they want through Grubhub, Door Dash, or Uber Eats. They track teachers through Rate My Professor, Reddit, or by word of mouth (although these sources usually guide them to an easy teacher, not necessarily a good one). And they can navigate anywhere using Waze or Google Maps. Moreover, they can quickly toggle between Uber, Lyft, and Curb to find the least expensive ride. Why in the world would we think that they are incapable, therefore, of preparing for a test on Newton’s First Law of Motion or of understanding logarithms? The research and problem-solving skills involved in each are nearly identical.
Let’s make sure that we are not babying our children in this moment by demanding that the teacher award them an A because of their failure to teach when their grade comes in at an 89.4. Instead, let’s put the power and responsibility in our children and make them aware of our expectations.