The Greatest Job in the World

and How America Treats Teachers as Compared to Other Developed Nations

CaleLee C. Stevenson

Global Connections

Instructor: Gregory Falls

14 December 2016
ABSTRACT

Public Education has been a staple in modern developed society for all of modern history

and has been shown to affect the economic and social success of a nation as it participates in

global affairs. Without a doubt education is and will continue to be a critical aspect of the world

and the figureheads of education are all of the teachers around the world whom have chosen to

teach the next generation. In most developed nations of the world today, teachers are held in high

regard and respected by many fellow citizens. In America, however, teachers are not respected,

taken care of, or paid similarly to the rest of the world. Due to public views on education

teachers are often ridiculed for their line of work, paid less than is economically viable to sustain

a life and family, and often treated poorly by pupils and pupils parents for doing the job they are

required to do. Many studies have shown links between factors such as teacher pay, teacher

autonomy, overall respect for the profession and professionals and how well students perform on

international tests for student competency; beyond the correlation of just random chance.

America should therefore take strides to meet the levels of respect, economic compensation and

social recognition that other countries employ, in order to; a) draw more and increasingly

competent graduates to the field and, b) provide better basis for students in public schools to

improve American scores on international examinations. This can be done through increased

political efficacy in the fields of education, careful study and application of effective techniques,

and the widespread campaign to bring teachers to a higher standard in the American publics eye.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

LITERATURE REVIEW 4
Group 1 5
Group 2 5
Group 3 6

LIMITATIONS 6

INTRODUCTION 8

RESEARCH 8

CONCLUSION 13

BIBLIOGRAPHY 14

APPENDIX A 17
LITERATURE REVIEW

In my endeavours to write this paper, I have had to use multiple sources in order to compile

necessary evidence to support my main claim. These sources can be split up into three distinct

categories. One category pertains to analyzations of education without attaching it to any specific

nation in the world. The second category involves sources analyzing education in the United

States with comparison to other countries in the world. The third and final category follows

analyzations of education as it pertains to the current views of the United States. These three

viewpoints were critical to the completion of the research as the issue had to have been viewed

from many different angles in order to adequately organize research on the topic.

Group 1

The first viewpoint, that of education from within America, was most effectively

represented by the source from Education Next, authored by Hanushek and three of his

colleagues. The first paper is an analyzation of the correlations between educational success of a

nation and then similar economic success in the future of said nation. Miyamotos What are the

Social Benefits of Education was a informational short paper on the most popular advantages of

an effective source of both public and private education. Taylor Malis What Teachers Make

was used throughout this paper in order to show the more personal side of teaching and the

reasons why some teachers decide to remain with the profession for longer periods of time.

Myths and Facts about Educator Pay was used for a few statistical comparisons on teachers

paychecks. Khadaroos Teacher Status Around the World was used as a consolidated look on

how teachers are viewed in each country around the world.

Group 2

Amer wrote in Education for All about the importance of education for everybody, no

matter what their personal history might include. This was an important source for putting the

weight of the teaching profession and how it affects lives in an applicable context for easy

comparison at different points in the essay. I also used a brochure originally crafted by the

United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its information on

the more practical benefits of education on the lives of people. Teacher Pay Around the World

was used as a source of data for an argument in my essay. An article from Education by the

Numbers was used as another source of data of how students have scored on international

examinations, specifically the Programme for International Student Assessment, which is given

to countries around the globe. The purpose was then used to highlight a trend of high scoring

students and the level of respect given to teachers.

Group 3

In Valuing Teachers Hanushek undertakes an exploration of the importance of holding

teachers to a higher standard and therefore in higher regards. I used this source as an active

analyzation of the benefits of more respect for teachers. In Westerwelts, What are the Main

Reasons Teachers Call it Quits, there is a very detailed analysis on the many different reasons

teacher turnover rate is abnormally high in the United States. The source was supportive of one

of the main arguments I make in my essay regarding the result of high volumes of teachers who

leave the profession. In conjunction with the aforementioned, Why Do Teachers Leave is a
helpful infographic for visualizing many reasons and effects of high teacher turnover. I used an

article from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a source of data and analyzation on the

reasons and effects of cutting funding for public schools here in the United States. The cartoon

Teacher? I am the Teacher was used as a more common view on just some of the

responsibilities full time teachers have along with their normal jobs.

LIMITATIONS

Of course every measure has been taken to ensure that the author has removed all personal bias

from the paper, however the author is human and therefore imperfect. The author implores those

who do look to this essay as a voice to be recognized, to take whatever the author writes on the

topics and hold them to the same standards of bias you would hold any other article.

The author would like to note that he had access to limited resources to conduct his own

research and therefore had to rely on the research of others for most data pieces.

The author does intend to pursue a career in teaching after he graduates high school and

college. Therefore the author may be unnecessarily critical of any source that dismisses

education, or public education specifically, as a trivial idea.

Mostly all parts of the paper were written and typed after 10:00 pm. The paper has been

carefully reviewed at other times of the day to ensure accuracy, however, most original ideas

were coming from a tired author.

The author does also spend most of his time in a school building with outspoken teachers.

He has made attempts to verify the statistics that have been shared during classes. However, it
should be noted some of my own opinions may have been influenced by less than fully satisfied

teachers.

The book What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the WOrld has been

cited many times in this paper. The author is an outspoken fan of Taylor Mali and may have

inadvertently led him to sensationalize some of his quotes.

The final thing the author would like to note is the interviews. The author does not intend

to imply that anything in the interviews are indisputable fact and he does not intend to present

them as such. All of the teachers in the interviews are residents of Hampton Roads and teach at

Tallwood High School unless otherwise specifically noted.

INTRODUCTION

RESEARCH

There is not a country out there that would not benefit from a better economic standing.

While there are more than a few that are doing quite well for themselves, not a single one is

absolutely perfect. The economy of a nation is built off of the backs of the people and the people

need to be taught somehow. Therefore it would make sense that those countries that do a better

job educating their students would in turn grow economically down the road. Of course it does.

In an essay written by researchers at Education Next, it is reported that nations whose schools do

a better job of cognitively preparing their students do in fact produce greater economic presence

and higher GDP down the road. In layman's terms, countries with higher test scores do better

economically. (Hanushek, Jamison, Jamison, & Woessmann, 2016) To put that into perspective,
if the United States were to [close] just half of the performance gap with Finland we would be

able to boost our own GDP by upwards of 50 trillion dollars. (Hanushek, 2016) In order to

remain economically viable in the coming decades, the United States needs to learn how to help

students learn. This is not an issue we can turn our backs on, or just throw money at and hope it

goes away. (Hanushek, Jamison, Jamison, & Woessmann, 2016)

The social ramifications of a good education are very powerful not only in an individuals

day to day interactions, but also in how countries look upon and respect one another. It has been

shown time and time again that the more educated citizens of a nation are more active in civil

engagement, such as voting or volunteer work. (Miyamoto, 2013) The more educated citizens of

nations also tend to be happier overall than their less educated neighbors, with gaps in percentage

points resting at about eighteen percent. (Miyamoto, 2013) It should also be noted that the World

Bank is currently undertaking an attempt to achieve global education for all. (Amer, 2016) If an

organization so globally prominent is speaking out for education, that has got to mean

something.

Education is not something you can force into the population's head by some strange

cognitive osmosis; rather, you need carefully selected professionals who are trained throughout

life to facilitate the learning process. Which finally brings me to the main point of this entire

essay. America needs more and more effective teachers, and right now we do not know how to

properly treat them. If you take America and size it up against the rest of the world, we are

nowhere near the top of the list, barely a competitor for the best when it comes to education.

And the american pull yourself up by your bootstraps ideology is doing nothing to help.

America will not be able to start moving up lists until we start looking at teachers like humans
and treating them as more than such. So many countries out there know how treating teachers

better leads to more educated people, such as Finland, Singapore, Germany, and South Korea.

Now is the time for America to learn. Now is the time for teachers to stand up and claim their

rightful throne as the keystone of future generations.

If there was one piece of evidence highlighting the lack of respect for the teaching

profession, it would be the the teacher turnover rate. Eight percent of all teachers that enter the

profession end up searching for another job within a year. This rate is twice that of what you

would find in chart topping countries like Singapore and Finland. (Westerwelt, 2016) The eternal

positivity and unwavering confidence of teachers is cut short too quickly for a host of reasons,

ranging from money all the way down to personal affairs.

Teachers are underpaid, with some reports stating a 20 percent gap between teachers and

college graduates who pursued different careers. (Westerwelt, 2016) The average american

teachers salary rests somewhere around $56,310, which might not seem like too little, but when

you compare it to the salaries of other teachers around the world, it puts America into

perspective. Finland, everyones favorite model for education, pays teachers around thirty

percent more than the United States. Switzerland tops the United States with a whopping fifty

percent. (Startz, 2016) Both of these nations blew America out of the water when it came to

PISA test scores. (Barshay, 2013) In no way am I saying that in order to make students perform

better, we need to pay teachers more than any other job in the country. However, it should be

noted that increasing how much teachers are paid could in turn bring people willing to work

harder and more effectively to the field of education. (Walker, 2012)

 The class sizes are growing exponentially larger and decreasing the ability for teachers to

effectively instruct students. American schools have been cutting back education budgets

recently, which in turn has taken away hundreds of jobs from teachers. (Masterson, 2016) Yet

even though the number of employed teachers is falling, the number of students is only

continuing to grow. Due to the lack of available professionals to teach, many students are being

placed into classes with some twenty-five other students. (NEA, 2014) This ratio is not ideal for

students to learn, but it is especially not ideal for teachers to teach. For a teacher, the number one

job is to prepare a pupil to be the best they can be and when you force a teacher to instruct a class

of twenty-six students, you leave some teachers in a tough position. Either they can take the time

to ensure each student knows exactly what is required of them to a proficient level and lose the

time to cover all the material; or you can make sure to cover all the material yet leave some

students behind and unclear on the objective of the class. It is a tough decision that should not

have to be made, yet teachers are forced to make it day after day.

Teachers are often put into many more roles than just that of a teacher: they are a lesson

planner and instructor of course, but there are more responsibilities that teachers take on that they

are not necessarily trained for. In this cartoon here (appendix A) we see a woman at the front of a

classroom of students, juggling quite a few different tasks. We see that she has a computer cart

with information on a library, she has a broom and a mop in one hand, and even in the back we

see a chair usually used for psychological patients accompanied by a sign saying The Counselor

is IN. It is apparent that the woman is attempting to do a few too many things at once. Coming

in through the door is a man who is presumably asking for the teacher. The woman, somewhat

annoyed, informs the man that she is in fact the teacher. (Winter, 2014) The carton was meant to
highlight the many teachers who end up being and giving so much more to the students whom

are being taught. In his book What Teachers Make, Taylor Mali recounts how he spent many

hours a day, five days a week, seeing and communicating with students who might not even see

their own parents as much, making it easy for students to confuse the two different roles. (Mali,

2013) It is good to have teachers who are flexible and are able to help out with a lot more than

just schoolwork, but if we are going to enforce a social expectation of teachers to be able to

perform such tasks, we need to also give them the respect they deserve along with it.

There is not one profession out there that personally touches so many lives as the

teaching profession. To be a teacher in America, you have to be willing to weather the constant

attacks on your profession claiming that teachers are lazy and greedy. (Mali, 2013) You

have to be prepared to put the same amount of time outside of school, as you do in class, because

teachers have to use time after school to attend meetings, grade papers and advise clubs. (NEA,

2015) Most teachers even have to get second jobs over the summers just to make ends meet, or

they spend their summers taking courses to be able to advance their careers. (NEA, 2015)

Teachers work harder, and longer, and better than anyone else and it is never because the

paycheck is cartoonishly large, or the benefits are the best in the world. Teachers work that hard

and long because they love teaching and all it does for the students. They work that hard and

long because they want nothing more than to watch the next generation grow and succeed. I had

the privilege to have a conversation with a professional at my own school, David Holland, the

AP Government teacher. If I had known it would have turned into an interview, I would have

had paper ready, however there is one thing that I did not, one thing that I could not, forget. On

the topic of students that have graduated, he said it is an honor seeing students [that I have
taught] and being able to say those kids are going to do some incredible things. He teaches to

prepare kids for the future. He told me that he loves getting messages from old students of his,

telling him how much help he was in preparing them for adulthood. This past year was an

election year and on election day, Holland received a handful of messages from former

students, thanking him for what he did for them in the classroom.

The entire focus has been on American society and the lack of respect for American

teachers. I have explored some other countries methods for tackling the education system and

how they treat their teachers, however there is only one thing that can really change how

Americans treat our teachers. There needs to be a change in the way we think and act. We need

to stop allowing teacher appreciation week to be a time for people to feel obligated to

awkwardly thank a teacher. Instead, we need to take action to make it about teachers again. We

can no longer stand by and allow politicians with the worst ideas for education get elected. Those

who stand up and promise budget cuts for education, those who stand up and push for false

information in our schools need not be elected. Instead we need to make sure the most

well-versed and experienced educators are put in charge of our schools.

If there is one person who can put into short and effective words what this entire paper is

about, it is Taylor Mali. He has written [Teachers] make kids understand that if you have

[knowledge], then you have [heart] and nothing will be able to sum teachers up so perfectly as a

whole lot of brains driven by a whole lot of heart. (Mali, 2013) Because teachers are the

strongest people you ever will meet. They will push you further than you ever thought possible.

They will, by the ways of love and respect, teach you how to effectively live the rest of your life.

(Mali, 2013)
CONCLUSION

America is currently one of the countries lacking advancement when it comes to treating teachers

in public schools with respect. And to be honest it does not look like that is going to change

anytime soon, unless we as a nation commit to making a change. Education is critical for the

economic standing of a nation and its presence in the world. Education also benefits countries by

putting them on the same social level of many other countries in the world. Teachers are severely

disrespected by many members of society. If America wants to see change in the way we see our

future generations grow and succeed we have to start at the base of the education system itself.

We need to promote, support, and enable teachers to do what they do best by showing them the

respect they deserve - in public, in the classroom, and in legislation. Teachers for sure have the

greatest job in the world, we need to make sure they know that.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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from http://educationnext.org/education-and-economic-growth/

Hanushek, E. A. (2016). Valuing Teachers - Education Next. Retrieved December 13, 2016,

from http://educationnext.org/valuing-teachers

Miyamoto, K. (2013, January). What are the Social Benefits of Education[PDF]. OECD.
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Towards the Millennium Development Goals[Brochure]. Author. Retrieved December 13, 2016,

from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001902/190214e.pdf

Westerwelt, E.What Are The Main Reasons Teachers Call It Quits? (2016, October 24).

Retrieved December 13, 2016, from

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/10/24/495186021/what-are-the-main-reasons-teachers-call-

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https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2016/06/20/teacher-pay-around-the-w

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Cutting. Retrieved December 13, 2016, from

http://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/most-states-have-cut-school-funding-and-so

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Mali, T. (2013). What teachers make: In praise of the greatest job in the world. New York:

Berkley Books.

NEA. (n.d.). Rankings of the States 2013 and Estimates of School Statistics 2014. Retrieved

December 13, 2016, from http://www.nea.org/home/rankings-and-estimates-2013-2014.html

Winter. (2014). The teacher? I am the teacher [Cartoon]. In Scholastic. Retrieved December 13,

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Khadaroo, S. T. (2013, October 02). Teacher status around the world: How the US stacks up.

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-US-stacks-up
APPENDIX A