The statistics are dire for teachers. Fewer people are entering the field, burnout is high, and current teachers are leaving the profession at an alarming rate.
The 2026 National Teacher of the Year has some brilliant ideas for how to fix things.
America’s new Teacher of the Year says nurturing new teachers is critical
Leon Smith has been teaching at Haverford High School in Havertown, Pennsylvania, for his entire career. That’s an astounding 25 years at the same school, which is rare in education. In 2025, he was named the Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, and in 2026, he earned the title of National Teacher of the Year.
His biggest task? Finding his own replacement.
Photo courtesy of the Council of Chief State School Officers (used with permission).
A little over a decade ago, Smith became aware of a decline in the number of local students in Pennsylvania attending college to study education. He told Upworthy that over the course of about 10 years, he saw the number dip by a staggering 70%. His observations match a national trend: undergraduate education programs are in trouble, and it’s directly leading to a teacher shortage.
“I really was taken aback by that because I love teaching so much,” Smith told Upworthy. “Throughout my whole life, people have always talked about how important teachers are. And so that was a real stark moment for me to say, ‘Wow, this is not something that people are believing anymore.”
He knew he was uniquely positioned to get involved. He began a policy fellowship to learn how major education decisions are made and to make his voice heard. He also joined his local Grow Your Own program, which helps create pathways for students to become teachers down the road.
Not just any teachers, however. Smith says we also need more diversity in teaching. About 80% of public school teachers are white, and for his part, he wouldn’t be where he is today if he’d never had a Black role model in the profession.
“When I was in high school, I never had a teacher that looked like me. I never had a Black male educator. And when I was in 10th grade, we had a [Black] student teacher who came into our classroom. And I remember when he walked in, how it just made me feel. I just was so excited to finally see someone that looked like me… like when I become a grown person, that is a possibility for me,” Smith said.
In his own career, he aims to be that difference for the kids he teaches. But he can’t do it alone.
His counterintuitive plan to recruit more teachers: Actually ask
Smith told Upworthy that hearing Sharif El-Mekki, CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, speak years back was a game-changer. El-Mekki shared the idea of actually inviting young people into the profession.
Per Smith, El-Mekki does it with just a single, blindingly simple question: “Have you ever thought about being a teacher?”
“We just automatically assume that everybody knows what a teacher does,” Smith said. “And that is just not true.”
Young kids and teenagers are rarely asked about becoming teachers. There are hardly any career fair booths or TV commercials about becoming an educator. STEM careers are the gold standard, and most young people hear only negative things about teaching in the media. Even teachers say a deluge of negative media coverage, or no coverage at all, affects how they feel about their job.
It’s hard work counteracting those narratives. But Smith’s secret weapon lies in giving young people a taste of what it’s like to actually make a difference.
“One of the things that we’ve done in our district is our seniors, particularly some of our senior boys that we’ve had, we’ve had them go to the elementary schools and they’ve almost become like recess referees. They go down [and] they get a chance to interact with some of the young students there,” Smith said.
Smith says working with younger kids as a teen was instrumental in his own process of falling in love with teaching.
“They’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re a teenager,’ you know? ‘You’re so cool.’ And I just really believe that if young people get that opportunity to really see how much you’re admired and how much of an impact that you can have, that is so powerful,” he said.
Somewhere along the way, we lost what made teaching a solid aspiration. Smith wants to find a way to get it back.
We’ve got Gen Z and Gen Alpha all wrong
Smith’s students belong to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and he’s aware of the reputation assigned to their generations. They’re routinely dismissed as being lazy, difficult, rude, or, worst of all, apathetic.
But online narratives don’t always match what teachers like Smith see inside the classroom.
He says what he sees in his classroom is that kids do care; they’re extremely emotionally intelligent, and they have the language to articulate what they’re feeling. And if they seem apathetic, it’s because they’re absolutely sick to death of hearing about all of the world’s problems.
As members of a generation that’s being bombarded with more dark and tragic news than any before, they’re ready to actually do something about all of it.
“These are students that realize that they have a tremendous amount of power,” he said. “I think a lot of times the students are hearing about topics and things that are happening in the community or things that are happening in the world and they’re kind of like, ‘OK, are we going to do something? What can be done?’”
Smith shows them that “being a teacher is a way that they can create change in their community and that they can be active. I think that students are very aware of what’s going on. I think they want to be included in making the change. And I think that they actually are more capable sometimes than I realized.”
As the reigning National Teacher of the Year, Smith has been featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and more.
But the bright spotlight won’t last forever. When asked what he wants people to take away from his story—what message he wants to get across while he has the microphone—he said:
“Education is really what allows people to unlock their potential. It allows people to achieve their dreams. I really appreciate all the teachers before me. I really stand on their shoulders. Educators have trained civil rights leaders, presidents, heroes in our country.
“Everybody has that teacher who has helped to change the trajectory of their lives. And so I just really want people to realize that this is a tremendously important profession. We really need to do whatever we can to encourage more people to become teachers, right?”
