In case you haven’t heard, there is a nationwide teacher shortage going into the 2022–2023 school year. If it was not so tragic, it would be humorous. On my Facebook feed, approximately one out of every ten posts is a school or school district lamenting the shortage of teachers.

Some of the posts solicit applications, touting how great it is to work there. If that was the case, why are they so desperate for personnel? That dog doesn’t hunt.

The majority of the posts are based on the assumption the shortage occurred because of the notoriously low salaries teachers make. While money is a component, it is not the only component. For many teachers, it is not even the most important component. For this reason, increasing salaries or offering bribes disguised as “bonuses” are doomed to fail.

What is causing the teacher shortage? It is a complex set of issues, not a single issue. There is, of course, the problem of low salaries. But there are also a number of other factors that involve the demands others place on teachers.

The best way to understand the complex set of reasons teachers are leaving is to envision a pressure cooker. In a pressure cooker, the item inside has heat and pressure exerted on it from all sides. This heat and pressure cause the cooking to happen faster, and if applied at a reasonable level, the outcome is perfect. However, if the heat and pressure become too intense, there is the possibility of an explosion that would cause the cooker to be destroyed, and its contents to splatter everywhere.

This is where we are at.

Picture teachers in that pressure cooker. Let’s take a look at where the heat and pressure comes from that has caused this exodus.

The demands from the left

Coming from the left is a plethora of wishes, expectations, demands, and laws that mandate certain things from teachers in the classroom. Stemming from the Americans with Disabilities Act, the entire realm of special education was born, and with it a whole spectrum of students with disabilities that require accommodations by the teacher in the classroom.

Students who are evaluated for special education can receive labels such as “learning disabled” or “emotionally/behavioral disabled.” In each case, the student who is so labeled has an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that spells out in plain language what the teacher must do in the classroom to accommodate the student. The days of special education students being segregated from the mainstream classroom are largely over, making it more likely teachers will encounter one or more students with IEPs in their classrooms.

Sometimes there are special education teachers in the classroom to help. Sometimes there are not.

What exactly are some of these accommodations that are required for the student with the IEP? The type of accommodation depends largely on the type of disability. Some accommodations require the teacher to give more time for test taking, or more flexibility on due dates. Other accommodations might include giving the student a copy of the teacher’s notes or having the required reading done orally for the student. Hearing impaired students might have a sign language interpreter in the classroom with them. Students who have anxiety or ADHD issues might be able to leave class whenever they feel overwhelmed.

No one accommodation is overwhelming for the teacher, but if there are a number of special education students in a class, the teacher will be required to meet the demands of each IEP. It can be a lot to keep track of. Given that many special education students and their parents are not slow to advocate for themselves and bring in outside help to enforce the IEP, the classroom teacher can quickly find themselves in hot water if IEPs are not followed.

Besides the complex and sometimes-overwhelming demands of special education students, teachers are expected to present material and behave in a way that is sensitive to a student’s gender and sexual orientation. Teachers are also expected to watch out for students bullying other students and to report such behavior.

Teachers are also asked to ensure that assignments are made equitable, which means that some students may need certain accommodations outside of special education requirements to make sure every student has a fair shot at learning the material and passing the class. Equity and equality are not the same thing.

Throw into this mix the desire for teachers to conduct trauma-informed classrooms, wear masks, look out for students with mental health issues, create “relationships” with students, and provide opportunities for social/emotional learning. It’s a full plate, and then some.

This is a snapshot of the pressure coming at teachers from the left. While all of these endeavors are meant to help students, how realistic is it for one teacher to remember all this, let alone execute it each day in the classroom?

The demands from the right

The political right has been no wallflower in education either. Conservatives have been pushing for “performance pay” for as long as I have been teaching, though no one seems to be able to come up with a fair way to implement it. How exactly is a teacher’s “performance” measured? By student test scores? If that was the case, who would want to teach lower-performing students?

Conservatives have warned teachers not to bring up their own political beliefs in the classroom, but what exactly does that mean? Isn’t something as simple as saying the Pledge of Allegiance bringing up their political beliefs? What if the teacher took a knee during the Pledge instead? Both actions would tell the students something about the teacher’s political beliefs. I have always maintained that if I watch a teacher for one class period, I can tell you their political beliefs.

Students are becoming more willing to tell their parents if a teacher says something that might be interpreted as “indoctrinating students to far left beliefs” or “socialism.” A routine lesson could easily land a teacher in the principal’s office if they say the wrong thing in the eyes of the student. Teachers, particularly in social studies and English classes, walk on eggshells around some students.

Parents on the political right are becoming more vocal about banning certain books and are not afraid to take their concerns directly to the school board. Textbook selection committees are increasingly finding their choices challenged by these politicized parents.

Closely related to banning books and forbidding teachers to address specific topics, the specter of “Critical Race Theory” has become a hot topic with parent groups demanding anything pertaining to Critical Race Theory be banned from classrooms.

Just exactly what constitutes Critical Race Theory is a bit of a mystery to many teachers, but it appears teachers would be forbidden to bring up any topic that makes white kids ashamed of their race. This includes topics like the treatment of the First Nations during the colonial period and in the westward expansion of the United States in the late 1800s. It includes most of what would be taught regarding slavery. Texas went so far as to suggest the word “slavery” be replaced with “involuntary relocation.”

Yes. It gets that stupid.

Teachers in public schools get to hear conservatives bashing their union, as if the union ran the school, determined the curriculum, and assigned generous compensation packages for teachers for doing nothing. When the topic of pay comes up, teachers are quickly reminded that they get “three months off” every year, even though that is not true. Teachers are blamed for everything from low test scores to poor student behavior.

If a teacher chooses to wear a mask because of COVID, there is some likelihood they will be questioned about it by the students of conservative parents.

The demands from above

If the heat and pressure from the left and right aren’t enough, there is also pressure from above. This pressure comes from building principals, school district superintendents, school boards, and the state departments of education.

At the building level, teachers may be required to answer parent phone calls or emails in a timely fashion. They can be required to attend endless “professional development” workshops as though they learned nothing in college about teaching. Lesson plans are required by many building principals even though few people actually read them and no one actually uses them.

Oops. Did I say that?

There is pressure from the administration to take on extra-curricular positions, to coach, or be involved in committee work. Principals sometimes require attendance at staff meetings before school or after school or both. Everyone wants a piece of the teacher’s day.

Teachers also must perform well under the pressure of observations and evaluations, even when the administrator is unsure of what they are observing or evaluating. Teachers will be asked by their administrators if they feel their courses are sufficiently rigorous and if they are teaching to the state standard. The importance of pleasing the bureaucrats cannot be understated. They hold the purse strings.

Teachers are also expected to know how to execute school shooter drills, fire drills, and tornado drills. They are expected to maintain their licensure by taking a certain number of college credits each licensing period for their entire career. And they are expected to conduct classes without adequate classroom supplies and make do with outdated technology. Finally, they are expected to put on a smile and pretend everything is OK.

The demands from below

To complete the pressure cooker, there is the heat and pressure from below, from the students. Today’s students often come to school with their cell phones, and woe unto he who tries to take the cell phone away from the student. More than one teacher has been assaulted by students for attempting to do so.

The students expect the teacher to be as entertaining as Comedy Central and as informative as PBS. Thrown into this mix is the ever-shortening attention span of students who are used to scrolling through their phones for a good portion of their day. They become agitated when they can’t scroll through a class to the end.

Students often come to school without the supplies they need. Some come without pens or paper with the expectation the teacher provides these items. Some students expect the teacher to have snacks available for them. Students too are quick to inform the teacher of their rights, but not so quick to talk about their responsibilities. In the case of a disagreement or a disciplinary incident, the students are quite confident their parent will take their side. And they are generally right.

Fixing the shortage

With the pressure coming from all sides, is it any surprise there is a teacher shortage? What is surprising is there is anyone willing to teach at all! One-time bonuses or modest salary increases will do little to alleviate the conditions of this pressure cooker.

Unless this country begins to take education seriously by treating the teachers as the professionals they are, and unless their expectations of them are brought in line with reality, there is little likelihood that teaching will ever be an attractive occupation for young people. If the current conditions continue unabated, the teacher shortage will worsen, not improve.