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Teacher of the year explains why he's leaving his district in landmark 3-minute speech

"I'm leaving in hopes that I can regain the ability to do the job that I love."

Image via YouTube

Former teacher of the year Lee Allen

For all of our disagreements in modern American life, there are at least a few things most of us can agree on. One of those is the need for reform in public education. We don't all agree on the solutions but many of the challenges are undeniable: retaining great teachers, reducing classroom size and updating the focus of student curriculums to reflect the ever-changing needs of a globalized workforce.

And while parents, politicians and activists debate those remedies, one voice is all-too-often ignored: that of teachers themselves. This is why a short video testimony from a teacher in the Atlanta suburb of Gwinnett County went viral. After all, it's hard to deny the points made by someone who was just named teacher of the year and used the occasion to announce why he will be leaving the very school district that just honored him with that distinction.

In a video carried by Fox5 Atlanta, 2022 Gwinnett County Public Schools Teacher of the Year Lee Allen breaks down what he sees as the overriding problems in the county's school system. While his comments are specific to that of Gwinnett County, it's virtually impossible to not see the overlap across all of America and how the problems have become exponentially more challenging as students have migrated back to in-person learning.


- YouTubewww.youtube.com



"At the end of this year, I will be leaving Gwinnett County Schools, leaving behind the opportunity to submit for state teacher of the year, roughly $10,000 in salary, and most importantly, the students and colleagues I've built strong relationships with," Allen, a math teacher at Lawrenceville's Archer High School, says at the beginning of his remarks. "I'm leaving in hopes that I can regain the ability to do the job that I love."

Normally, one might assume teacher pay is the overriding issue for educators like Allen. But he makes it clear that he is, in fact, leaving money on the table to avoid what he deems as unacceptable changes to the student body and how the district manages its teachers and the learning environment. Here are his main grievances, in order:

  • "First issue at hand is student apathy and disrespect for school rules and norms. … We have an alarming number of students that simply do not care about learning and refuse to even try."
  • "We are also experiencing incredible disrespect and refusal to follow basic school rules. There is little to no accountability or expectation for grades or behavior placed on students or parents. Rather than being asked what the student can do to improve their understanding, teachers are expected to somehow do more with less student effort."
  • Cell phone use. Teachers simply cannot compete with the billions of dollars tech companies pour into addicting people to their devices. Phones allow constant communication, often being the spark that fuels fights, drug use and other inappropriate meetups throughout the day. We need a comprehensive district plan with support behind it in order to combat this epidemic and protect the learning environment."
  • "Lastly, there is a huge disconnect between administrators and teachers. The classroom in 2022 is drastically different from just three years ago. Most administrators have not been in a classroom full-time in years or even decades. Many teachers do not feel understood, valued or trusted as professionals from administrators and the decisions that they make."

teachers, teacher pay, education, education funding, education reform, classroomsA teacher speaks to students in a classroomImage via Canva

While Allen points fingers at administrators and student behavior, he also says that the pressures put on both students and teachers alike by COVID-19 had a catastrophic impact on learning. "The pandemic has acted as a catalyst and turned a slow negative trend into an exponential crisis," he says.

But he also offers some solutions, stating, "I won't list complaints without offering ideas for improvement."

  • All administrators should spend at least one week in a high needs classroom, "without a suit, without people knowing your title and in the same room, all day, for an entire week."
  • Prioritizing smaller class sizes.
  • Greater transparency from the district in terms of needs and expectations and goals.

"We all want the same thing and we cannot accomplish this without supporting one another," he says near the end of his remarks.

teachers, teacher pay, education, education reform, education funding, school funding, schools Lee Allen in his resignation remarksImage via YouTube

With more than 400,000 views already, it's clear his remarks resonated with people not just inside his school district.

There's almost nothing more important than how we educate our children. And while the national political debate centers on areas of far less importance generated to gin up controversy and campaign fundraising, it's families and local leaders who will need to do the heavy lifting of reprioritizing the fundamental principles of learning and leadership if we want an American educational system that can compete on the global stage in 2022 and beyond. After all, when literal award-winning educators like Allen are walking away, it's clear something more needs to be done.

This article originally appeared four years ago.

Joy

Pre-K teacher stays in character while pretending someone is robbing his home and it's perfect

"Honey, I don't see your getaway car, are you sure they're coming to pick you up?"

He managed to get in ton of teacher-isms and also make it clear how little money he has.

Teachers deserve lots of kudos, but teachers who teach little kids deserve an extra measure of admiration.

I know this first hand, having been a middle and high school teacher who substitute taught a first-grade class once for two days. By noon on the first day, I found myself slumped over the teacher's desk in a daze while the kids were at lunch. Teaching tweens and teens isn't easy, but teaching little ones with their relentless needs and squirrel-like attention requires a whole other level of energy.

Pre-K? Can't even imagine. Give those teachers alllll the money. They deserve it.

Of course, preschool teachers do not get all the money, which is why a video from a Pre-K teacher pretending his house is getting robbed keeps going viral.


Mr. Williams, a teacher and therapist who goes by @mrwilliamsprek on Tiktok, created the video from the POV of a thief trying to rob his home. Williams leads the thief to his "valuables," and from the "You can use your words, I'll wait," to the "We're passing the potty, do you need to go?" to "Honey, I don't see your getaway car, are you sure they're coming to pick you up?" it's a non-stop parody of what Pre-K teachers actually say all day long.

The fact that he managed to get so many classic teacher-isms in while also making it clear how little he had to steal was brilliant, and his delivery is just delightful.

Watch:

@mrwilliamsprek

#teachersoftiktok #teacherlife #tiktokteachers #teachercomedy #HausLabsFoundation

People loved the skit, but it especially hit home for fellow teachers.

"My corporate coworkers forget that my masters is in education until I throw in an 'I'll wait' at them when I'm getting no participation in the team meeting," wrote one person.

"I was in K for 20 years and then did a career change. I work at a law firm now [and] when our clients from jail call with attitude, I go into teacher mode," wrote another.

"One of my old teacher coworkers actually made the two young men robbing her house sit on the couch and wait for the police," wrote another commenter.

"Another teacher I worked with came home to find men robbing her house and scolded them so hard they just apologized and left," shared another.

Don't try to rob teachers, man. They have no money AND they know how to get just about anybody to fall in line.

Find more of Mr. Williams' hilarity on Tiktok @mrwilliamsprek.

Photo by Adam Singer / Flickr

The easiest way to learn a person's true priorities is to find out how they spend their money. Does it go to worthwhile things such as investments or charity or does half of their annual income go to paying for a luxury car?

The same could be said for countries.

In the United States, the highest paid public employee in just about every state is a college football coach. Currently, the highest paid public employee is University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban who makes $11.1 million dollars a year.



Alabama ranks 40th in the United States in teacher pay with the average teacher earning $50,000 a year.

New York state pays its teachers best, an average of $86,000 a year. The highest paid state employee in the state of New York is Dr. Gary Green, a Clinical Associate Professor of Health Science at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse who makes around $750,000 a year.

It's safe to assume most taxpayers would prefer their state's highest paid employee be a doctor rather than a football coach.

The people of Bhutan, a tiny country with a population of about 750,000 between India and China, have put their priorities straight by announcing its highest paid civil servants will now be teachers and medical staff.

The pay raise will affect a huge percentage of the population. "The numbers of teachers involved in the hike are huge as there are 8,679 teachers, followed by the medical staff who number around 4,000," India Express reports.


Taktsang MonasteryPhoto by plb06 / Flickr

The move isn't surprising for the majority-Buddhist kingdom. In 1972, the 4th King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wang declared, "Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product."

The isolated country rejected radio until 1973 and didn't receive the internet until 1999.

Teachers will see a very significant raise after the new law goes into effect. Those with zero to 10 years of experience have been given a 35% raise. Teachers with 10 to 20 years of experience has been given a 45% increase in pay, and those with 20-plus year of experience will see a raise of 55%.

Further raises will also be distributed based on professional performance.

Tshering (L) with India's Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi (R) in 2018.via Wikimedia Commons

"If the pay revision comes through as proposed by the government, teaching becomes the highest paid profession in the country," a press release issued by the Bhutanese Prime Minister's Office stated.

The decision for the big raise was pushed by prime minister Lotay Tshering. Tshering was elected prime minster in 2018 and has developed the reputation of being a reformer and a man of many talents. During the week he helps run his country and on weekends he works as a surgeon.

"Some people play golf, some do archery, and I like to operate," Tshering said according to The Guardian, calling it a "de-stresser."

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