According to the Washington Post, the education of the most vulnerable students in the United States is left up to the teachers who have most recently graduated. These recent graduates are quickly challenged into taking very difficult jobs in low income core areas of major cities, such as Washington, D.C., just to get their foot in the door.
There are two arguments two this premise. First of all, it is suggesting that first year teachers are incompetent and incapable to deliver the curriculum to its needy classroom charges. Nothing could be further from the truth. Young teachers know that they are not going to be paid a lucrative salary and they are not going to be able to pay back their student loans right away, if at all. So why bother!
Young teachers come to the job with a great deal of enthusiasm and joy. For what they may lack in experience and behavioral control of a group of struggling children, young and refreshing teachers bring new ideas to the classroom. They are not older teachers who are counting the years and months until their pension commences. They bring to the teaching profession what is lacking in fresh new talent.
Secondly, the young, vulnerable children are not all located in the downtown core sections of the cities of America. Many more are located in the suburbs and the small towns of the United States. There is no one area in any one city or state which has a higher concentration of needy, vulnerable children who require experienced teachers. Teachers become experienced by teaching in all sorts of scenarios and they only get that chance by setting their foot in the door in the neediest classrooms.
I am very happy to hear that the children of America are receiving the best teachers that they can. No matter where or who but now we should make sure that these teachers receive the salary they deserve and an improvement in the work conditions that they deserve.