I’m a bit puzzled by this trend in some American charter schools. While I think it’s a shame many teachers leave the job in the very first years of teaching, this now seems to be the normal thing to do as The New York Times reports that at charter schools short careers by choice are starting to be the new normal. This seems not to be unrelated to programs such as Teach for America.

I do think it’s a wrong direction. I could write a lot of stuff about this, but the parody news site The Onion did the best job writing an adequate response with 2 letters, one of such a novice teacher, one by one of her pupils. Don’t get me wrong, I like to welcome all new young teachers, I’m a teacher trainer, but I think it’s even better that we can keep the great ones in education!

Just 2 quotes from The Onion:

From the teacher: “After this past year, I believe I did just that. Working as a volunteer teacher helped me reach out to a new generation of underprivileged children in dire need of real guidance and care. Most of these kids had been abandoned by the system and, in some cases, even by their families, making me the only person who could really lead them through the turmoil.”

From the pupil: “I fully understand that our nation is currently facing an extreme shortage of teachers and that we all have to make do with what we can get. But does that really mean we have to be stuck with some privileged college grad who completed a five-week training program and now wants to document every single moment of her life-changing year on a Tumblr?

For crying out loud, we’re not adopted puppies you can show off to your friends.”