Tell your stories and make a difference

Leadership, Jan, 2001 by George Manthey

RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION IN THE EDUCATION PROFESSION ARE MORE THAN JUST A FUNCTION OF SALARY, VACATIONS OR WORK HOURS.

When I was in third grade my father died. My teacher held me in his arms, looked me in the eye, and told me that I was going to be OK. I believed him. These simple words changed my life. Because of him I'm a principal today."

That is the story of an elementary school principal responding to a request to share what had made her decide to become a school administrator. Answering the same question, a retired assistant superintendent told the story of her superintendent taking her aside and confiding that she had been "chosen" to be the first female administrator in the central office. His explanation that she was the best person to take on this responsibility changed her life as she began to believe in the confidence that he had placed in her.

The sharing of those stories and others at an ACSA region leadership retreat bonded the region leadership, and they became a cohesive, working team.

Remembering that experience, I decided that our elementary school year opening staff meeting would begin with a similar question.

Asking, "What were the influences in your life that made you become an educator?" I awaited, with eagerness, the conversation that would surely bind my staff together into a cohesive working team.

At the time this staff was all female, 25 percent between the ages of 24 and 30 and the remaining 75 percent between the ages of 45 and 60. The younger group and one or two of the older women did share poignant stories of a teacher who had made a great difference in their lives.

However, within the more seasoned group of teachers a common stow began to be told. It went something like this: "I knew I wanted to go to college and become a professional. It seemed to me that I had only two real choices. I could become a teacher or I could become a nurse. I didn't want to be a nurse."

Instead of bringing the staff together, it pointed out a huge difference in their generations. The younger teachers felt they had many choices and had selected education. The older teachers backed into it as the better of two limited options.

This difference has significant implications for the retention of both groups within the ranks of teachers. Those who are teachers because they did not believe they had other choices require affirmation that their teaching makes a difference in the lives of children and in the health of a school. Those who became teachers from a long list of choices need to have continuing opportunities for choice within their profession.

Recently I had a conversation with a man who could not understand why anyone would become a teacher today. His objection was based on the issue of salary -- and the impossibility of earning enough to become a homeowner. However, his wife, a teacher herself, intercepted before I could. "Your life has to have meaning," she said. "That's why I left Xyz Co. There was nothing I did there that had any lasting meaning."

Actress Sharon Leal told the Fresno Bee that upon learning she had the part of Marilyn Sudor, a music teacher on the new TV series "Boston Public," her first thoughts were of her sixth grade teacher, Nancy Engstrom. She wanted to bring to the role the passion that her sixth grade teacher taught her. This was the passion a teacher feels when he or she understands that helping young people navigate their lives is the most important job one can have.

Recruitment and retention in this profession are not a function of salary, vacations or work hours. Differentiation of the position of "teacher" into a variety of career choices and sharing the stories of educators who have made a difference are our best hopes. We all have these stories.

One of my favorites is of the young male teacher who taught first grade at the beginning of his career. Later, as a principal he learned that three of the boys in that class had become first-grade teachers. These boys had grown up believing that it was normal for a man to teach young children.

Your stories of the powerful influence of teachers could fill all the issues of Leadership ever published. Tell them -- in your newsletters, to a reporter, at assemblies. Any one of them could make all the difference.

George Manthey is a professional development executive for ACSA.