{"id":5389,"date":"2014-02-21T17:59:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T22:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/?p=5389"},"modified":"2014-02-27T13:04:19","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T18:04:19","slug":"the-plight-of-the-american-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/2014\/02\/the-plight-of-the-american-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plight of The American Teacher"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The American Teacher” is a documentary that explains the struggles of teachers in the United States today. \u00a0It\u00a0was directed and produced by Vanessa Roth, written by Dave Eggers, and narrated by Matt Damon.\u00a0 The difficulties of the teaching career are told through interviews with educational policy experts and by chronicling a year of the lives of four teachers. \u00a0The documentary is funded by the Teacher Salary Project, “a nonpartisan organization dedicated to raising awareness about the impact of our national policy of underpaying and under-valuing educators” (“About The Project”). \u00a0\u00a0The film conveys the idea that \u00a0the American educational system \u00a0struggles \u00a0because of the disrespect shown the teaching profession.<\/p>\n

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Bill Gates discussing education reform
“The American Teacher”
0:01:20<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“American Teacher” suggests that even though teaching is a difficult, laborious job, it is often low-paying and disrespected. \u00a0Also, despite the fact that it serves a vital role in shaping students’ futures, graduates from most selective colleges do not consider it for a career because it is not as prestigious as becoming a doctor or a lawyer. \u00a0According to the film, this results in students underperforming in schools. \u00a0A clip of Bill Gates, whose foundation has donated heftily to education reform, shows Mr. Gates asking, “how do you make education better? \u00a0The more we looked at it the more we realized that having great teachers was the very key thing” (Roth 0:01:21-0:01:30). \u00a0For the American education system to improve, we need distinguished, prepared, intelligent teachers for our students.\u00a0 The film offers a solution to this problem: Given the problem of underperforming students in schools, the reform goal is to transform the nature of teaching by making it a more prestigious and well-paid occupation. \u00a0This can be accomplished by the capacity-building of the rigor of the teaching career, and designing programs to increase teachers’ salaries to entice professionals toward the career.<\/p>\n

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0:29:48
The American Teacher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To express the difficulties inherent in the teaching profession, the film follows four teachers, Erik Benner from Texas, Jonathan Dearman from California, Jamie Fidler from New York, and Rhena Jasey from New Jersey for one year. \u00a0By filming class sessions and telling the story of the teachers’ lives at home, it is made clear that teachers work long hours both inside and outside of the classroom. \u00a0Fidler says, “I leave the house at seven o’clock in the morning\u2026and I get home at 6:30” (Roth 0:04:45-0:05:00). \u00a0The film notes that the average teacher who does their job correctly works at least a 65 hour work week. \u00a0So why then, the film questions, is teaching regarded by society as an easy, attainable career?<\/p>\n

To further illustrate the struggle of the American teacher, the film describes how low salaries affect a teacher’s personal life. \u00a0Erik Benner, a history teacher and middle school football coach in Texas, was forced to pick up a second job at Circuit City in order to support his family. \u00a0He justified this decision by saying that as a man, society views his as the “provider” of the family (Roth 0:39:40). \u00a0Between teaching and shifts at Circuit City, worked seven days a week, which put severe strain on his marriage and ultimately led to divorce. \u00a0It is clear his starting salary of $27,000 \u00a0was not reflective of the amount of work he put into his job, and was not enough money to support a family. \u00a0Due to situations such as this, not only are fewer people interested in becoming teachers, but current teachers are being driven out of the classroom.<\/p>\n

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The American Teacher
1:00:20<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Money is a powerful incentive especially for recent college graduates. \u00a0It can have a profound influence on choosing certain professions. \u00a0It is no surprise that many of the best students want to become doctors or lawyers, \u00a0professions with the possibility of hefty salaries. \u00a0There is little motivation to become a teacher when there are many other professions with better salaries held in higher esteem. \u00a0The Vice President for educator quality at American institutes for research, Sabrina Laine said, “If you want somebody to stay in education\u2026and you want them to feel like they can make a decent living\u2026we gotta be more creative in the kinds of alternatives we provide for how we pay our teachers” (Roth 1:00:53-1:00:10). \u00a0Money is a possible incentive for attracting professionals towards the classroom.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Zeke Vanderhoek, founder and principal of The Equality Project School (TEP), has designed a program in which the best teachers are brought to students who need them the most (Roth 1:01:50). \u00a0TEP is designed to solve the problem of the nature of teaching and to hopefully inspire other schools to redistribute funds so that teachers earn a salary they deserve. \u00a0The teachers hired at TEP receive a competitive starting salary of $125,000 which is publicly funded(Roth 1:02:13). \u00a0Vanderhoek says, “if you increase teachers’ salaries, you change the perception of what it means to be a teacher” (Roth 1:03:00-1:03:18). \u00a0The film does not however, offer any indication of how TEP “redistributes funds.” \u00a0For example, it does not discuss if any programs have been cut in order to pay teachers more money. \u00a0Schools around the country who have adopted similar programs have reported rising graduation rates, lower drop-out rates and higher teacher retention rates. \u00a0The ultimate goal is to fix the American education system, and “The American Teacher” argues that through programs such as TEP, which allows teachers to be regarded as high-ranking, well-paid professionals, our schools will improve.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The New York Times<\/em> identifies gaps in the documentary. \u00a0The article, “What’s a Teacher Worth” by Neil Genzlinger suggests that teacher pay is not the only factor for improving schools, and the film should have expressed other major issues. \u00a0“The film…never addresses specifically how higher salaries would be financed\u2026and it treats pay as if it\u2019s the only factor in educational dysfunction; not a word is said about no-show students, uninvolved parents or other issues” (Genzlinger). \u00a0This is a legitimate claim, however, the documentary correctly expresses how teaching and specifically teacher quality affects schooling. \u00a0By highlighting the adversities teachers face, the film succeeds in offering a compelling argument that by making education a distinguished, prestigious career choice, we will improve the education system.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

“About the Project .”\u00a0Teacher Salary Project<\/i>. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb 2014. <http:\/\/www.theteachersalaryproject.org\/about-the-project.php>.<\/p>\n

American Teacher<\/em>. Dir. Vanessa Roth. Prod. Ninive Calegari and Dave Eggers. 2011.<\/p>\n

Genzlinger, Neil. “What’s a Teacher Worth.”\u00a0The New York Times<\/i>. N.p., 27 09 2011. Web. 21 Feb 2014. <http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/09\/30\/movies\/vanessa-roths-american-teacher-review.html?_r=1&>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The American Teacher” is a documentary that explains the struggles of teachers in the United States today. \u00a0It\u00a0was directed and produced by Vanessa Roth, written by Dave Eggers, and narrated by Matt Damon.\u00a0 The difficulties of the teaching career are told through interviews with educational policy experts and by chronicling a year of the lives … Continue reading The Plight of The American Teacher<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":609,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1,63],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/609"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5389"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5409,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5389\/revisions\/5409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/edreform\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}