Then and Now

What we’ve gained (no more dittos!) and lost (respect) in a generation.

By Cynthia Kopkowski

It was a tumultuous year outside and inside the classroom, says Pamela Lenk. Thousands continued the slow effort to rebuild their lives years after a powerful hurricane that had ravaged the Gulf Coast. An already protracted war stretched into another year, killing hundreds more soldiers and civilians. Third-graders at Lenk’s poor, largely minority school struggled to master reading skills and keep pace with their peers at more affluent White schools.

The year was 1972. Then, Lenk was a first-year teacher in Gulfport, Mississippi. Now, she is a classroom veteran teaching special education students in Camarillo, California. Then, the hurricane was Camille, the war, Vietnam. And closing the achievement gap was—and still is—a pressing priority.

But as she prepared for the 2006–07 school year, Lenk reflected on victories large and small that educators have earned throughout her 34-year career. “NEA and CTA have helped teachers win the right to wear pants, teach while pregnant, and have smoke-free schools,” she says. “We have new reading books, integrated schools, and special education programs.” In other words, some of the history may seem cyclical, but we’ve come a long way.

To be sure, trends and fads have come and gone during the generation educators like Lenk have worked in the classroom. Richard Siegelman, a retired elementary school teacher in Plainview, New York, ticks off the buzzwords he encountered over 37 years of teaching—”New Math, Assertive Discipline, Whole Language....”

But real changes lurk beyond the catchphrases. Electives have fallen by the wayside as core subjects and testing have become the priority. This year’s triumph may be getting all your students over NCLB testing hurdles so the school makes AYP—acronyms not even in the lexicon a decade ago. Getting students to turn off their MP3 players and stop taking pictures with camera phones certainly wasn’t an issue in the 1970s and 1980s. (Although plenty of things still competed with academics for their attention then, like pet rocks and Garbage Pail Kids cards.)

While schools are now more diverse and served by a more professional, experienced workforce, teachers and education support professionals have lost ground on salary and other benefits over the past generation. Classrooms today are more crowded and represent a wide swath of languages and abilities. According to NEA research, this year will find you and your peers spending about 50 hours each week on all teaching duties, including noncompensated school activities, such as grading papers, bus duty, and extracurriculars. That includes 12 hours per week for the noncompensated stuff (up from eight in 1971). You’ll get about 32 minutes to scarf down a lunch. (Down from 40 in the 1960s!)

If you’re an elementary teacher, you’ll have about 21 kids in your class, while secondary teachers will have roughly 28. Classroom expenses will likely lighten your wallet by about $443 as you try to meet students’ needs for everything from tissues to learning tools. If it’s your first year teaching, you’ll make, on average, about $31,704.

Just like last year, there will be obstacles in your path: the No Child Left Behind law and everything that comes with it, crowded classrooms, and too little funding come to mind. But in NEA’s most recent polls, educators say they’re entering the teaching profession undaunted by the drawbacks. Nearly three out of four entered teaching because of a desire to work with young people. And nearly 7 out of 10 veteran teachers cited the same motivation as their reason for remaining in the profession.

So that’s you, today, as you take the first steps of the 2006–07 school year. But how does that stack up to past years? Read on! 

Then and Now
 Previous | 1 of 8| Next

Click here for a printer friendly version of this story in its entirety