Nate Bowling (نيت بولينج)Feb 12, 2023

I sat down this week to write about the K-12 teacher shortage in the US. Halfway through, I realized calling it a shortage absolves policymakers of their role in creating poor working conditions in classrooms and driving people out of the profession.

The way we treat practitioners is fundamentally at odds with the values we collectively espouse and a ton of folks are seeing that and looking for the exits.

https://natebowling.substack.com/p/the-canaries-are-dead-and-no-one

The Canaries are Dead and No One Wants to Go into the Mine

Yet another colleague from back home reached out to let me know they're listing me as a reference this week. We're losing great teachers at a distressing rate.

Takes & Typos: A (Nominally) Weekly Newsletter
Show threadDavid Senk

@natebowling just like many other “shortages”

It’s less “labor shortage” more… “wage shortage”

There’s plenty of people willing to do the work, just not for the pay given for it.

Whats that? The invisible hand of the market?

Nope, that’s only for businesses… /s

You’re 100% right, calling it a “teacher” shortage totally absolves those responsible.

The way an issue is presented can totally change how it is perceived, absolutely. It’s all about the “optics”…

Feb 12, 2023 at 5:11pmWeb