Finding and developing teachers isn’t rocket science. Here’s a plan to get it done

The Star Editorial Board recently sounded the alarm about the urgent need for teachers to staff America’s schools. Having served for nearly 50 years as a history teacher, principal and professor, I applaud the board’s insights and commitment to the public good. As they wrote, “It’s imperative we all care about this. … It will determine the kind of society we have.”

Exactly. If we want a society built on the principles of the Enlightenment as the founders designed, it requires rational and informed citizens, and they require rational and informed teachers who are passionate about making America — indeed, the world — a better place. It’s a job for idealists willing to work hard to make their ideals come true for themselves and for their students.

The challenge is how to attract talented people to a teaching career. Pay on a par with other work requiring similar levels of education will be a start — President Joe Biden has said that $60,000 is a reasonable minimum — but other improvements will be necessary, as well. A career ladder is needed so that master teachers can earn more money and have more influence in school policies without leaving the classroom for administration or leaving altogether.

The cavalcade of distracting fads that have bedeviled teachers throughout my career — assertive discipline, open classrooms and countless others — should be avoided. The support of principals and district leaders who maintain positive school environments with a sharp focus on academic excellence will be essential.

Identifying and developing potential teachers isn’t rocket science. Schools do a masterful job of developing athletes and musicians, so surely we can pull off a talent search for teachers. Here’s a plan.

Every high school, and maybe middle school, would form a committee of master teachers and perceptive students to identify students with teaching potential, taking care to ignore tattoos, green hair, poverty, wealth and other irrelevancies. What is relevant is having the respect of peers, being articulate as well as a good listener, respecting others, having a sense of humor, critical thinking and having a positive outlook on life. A teacher-student committee might well add other characteristics.

Identified students would be offered frequent, carefully planned opportunities to sample the teaching experience: tutoring others, helping design lessons, summer camps with others interested in teaching, advanced study in subjects of personal interest and leading small groups in collaboration with a teacher coach. In addition, identified students would be scheduled into classes taught by the school’s most effective teachers, because good teachers consistently cite their good K-12 teachers as their models.

Some of these students will conclude that teaching isn’t for them; others will thrive and seriously consider a career in education. For the latter, college scholarships should be available as well as interest-free loans to be written off after several years of classroom service.

Attracting talented young people to teaching will cost money, but, in Thomas Jefferson’s oft-quoted words, it is the price of freedom: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

The pandemic has made this an unusually challenging time to promote teaching. Last year was an ordeal for students, parents and teachers, but we learned valuable lessons, chiefly that there is no substitute for a live teacher in a classroom of eager students. Schools will eventually return to normal, and teachers will continue doing what they have always done: inform and inspire and change lives for the better. For those who want to do something important with their lives, teaching is a satisfying opportunity to contribute to the common good.