Since I have decided to make a career change from teaching to... as yet to be determined, I have heard the same response time and again. "But you're such a good teacher. We need good teachers."
Though I'm flattered by the compliment, good teachers are not what our education system and our children need. Sure, good teachers are instrumental, but in such a broken system, these teachers can hardly play a tune. When good teachers aren't allowed to teach the content they think is relevant, to assess the way they know best, and to teach more holistically than the standards would ever allow, their good ability is wasted. In our current system, good teachers' abilities are stifled. They aren't teaching the way they intuitively know to be best, the way they've seen work with even the toughest of students.
I've read letters written by retiring veteran teachers who can't understand this testing madness we currently practice. Veteran teachers have told me, many times over, that if they had the same decision to make in today's society, they wouldn't choose to be teachers. This is not because they don't enjoy teaching; on the contrary, teaching has been their livelihood. But the system has disintegrated to such a degree that getting started at this point is like jumping onto a sinking ship.
Good teachers won't solve our current problems. We need a fundamental systemic change, so that these good teachers are able to teach to the fullest of their potentials.
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