“It is the coupling of low pay with the workload and stress that cause them (new teachers) to leave. My suggestion would be to give new teachers a reduced workload for two years.

Unless you have taught today, you don’t understand the extraordinary amount of requirements that are placed on teachers. There is a constant stream of paperwork involving meeting the needs of children with an infinite variety of learning or physical difficulties — not only the paperwork but the meetings involved to set up the appropriate accommodations and weekly reports that must be filled out for most of these children.

There are also team meetings and grade level meetings that occur weekly. There are also meetings about testing (Quarterly Evaluations, End of Grade and End of Course Tests) and meetings about evaluating test results.

A planning period is given to each teacher, but it’s usually used for meetings or conferences with parents. Telephone calls are always there for poor performing students, poor behaving students or just responding to varied parental concerns.

Your lunch periods are not totally yours. You must monitor the behavior and table clean-up.

Lesson plans, correcting papers, creating tests, and duplicating tests and handouts require considerable time to do a good job. A seasoned teacher has knowledge of the material, a “feel” for what each lesson requires, and a stockpile of books and handouts from which to draw. A new teacher must spend more time getting organized and planning each day.

Also, new teachers should receive extraordinary support from their administrators in handling discipline problems. Student behavior can be a very crucial part of the new teacher’s decision to continue teaching or not. There has been a breakdown of discipline for many children, but nevertheless the teacher has the problem to face. Some of my administrators have been wonderful in assisting teachers. Others have taken every effort to avoid any unpleasantness or paperwork.”

Note: This response was originally printed Creative Loafing in Charlotte, N.C.