Oklahoma says all public schools must place the Bible in every grade 5-12 class and every teacher must teach from the Bible. Not sure how that’s going to work in Calculus. But that’s not their point. Their point is pushing an agenda of Christian Nationalism. Which is antithetical to the religion freedoms on which our country was founded.

Our unwillingness to adequately fund teachers and school for children across the US is one of our most shortsighted policies.

If we really appreciated teachers we’d remove the barriers to effective education.

Today is Constitution Day, commemorating the day our US Constitution was signed in 1787.

But many won’t know that. Because US knowledge is sorely lacking.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s annual, nationally representative survey showed that less than half of US adults could name all three branches of the US government.

Less than 1/4 of people could cite Freedom of Religion as one of the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment. While over half incorrectly believed that the First Amendment requires Facebook to allow them to express themselves freely on its platform.

https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-civics-knowledge-drops-on-first-amendment-and-branches-of-government/

Education, knowledge, and expertise are under attack in our country. Whether it’s untrained parents who feel they should decide school curriculum over trained educators. Or the Michigan town threatening to defund the library because they don’t like certain books there. Don’t even start on the pushes to ban books across several states and towns.

Many people have long said that America would not be defeated by outside enemies, but rather threatened from internal strife and divisions.

Unfortunately, I fear America is just going to dumb itself to death.

America’s schools are facing a huge shortage of qualified teachers. There’s no clear data on how many teacher shortages we have nationally, but it’s massive.

The Nevada State Education Association estimated that roughly 3,000 teaching jobs remain unfilled across the state. Illinois reported in January >2,040 teacher openings were either empty or filled with a “less than qualified” hire. And in the Houston area, the largest five school districts are all reporting 200-1,000 open teaching positions.

To combat this, counties and states are trying different approaches. Rural school districts in Texas are switching to four-day weeks this fall due to lack of staff. Florida is asking veterans with no teaching background to enter classrooms. Arizona is allowing college students to step in and instruct children.

And who loses in all this? Obviously the kids, who won’t benefit from experienced and skilled teachers.

Teaching is hard. And under immense scrutiny these days. Few other professions have so many people who seem to think they know how to do the job better than those who’ve studied and gained hands on experience. Because teaching isn’t just about subject knowledge, but how to help others learn, how to build curriculum, how to adapt learning styles, how to engage different students, and a huge amount of empathy.

But it’s not just the kids who will suffer.

To compete in the economy of tomorrow, we need educated citizens. Education has long been one of the things that attracts people to the US. And yet again we are failing our kids and ourselves.

It’s time we learn to invest more in ourselves and our communities to build better for tomorrow. Starting with investing more in our teachers and our schools.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Maybe someday we’ll actually appreciate teachers for what they really give society, instead of the constant pressure, under-resourcing, criticism, and the latest accusations of “grooming.”

Thanks to Omicron, many schools have been struggling to fill their classes with substitute teachers. Hopefully this improves as the Omicron wave subsides.