Mr. Jake Miller

Published: Nov. 08, 2021, 11:43 a.m. – Harrisburg Patriot-News

By Jake Miller

Like many other industries, public schools are reeling from the consequences of being understaffed. A lack of aides, custodians, security, bus drivers, lunch staff (the school’s backbone who can make much more doing other lines of work) coupled with a lack of substitute teachers – where 60% of our vacancies go unfilled – makes last school year, aka “the toughest ever,” seem like recess.

The responsibility of ensuring a certified educator is at the front of every classroom falls upon our current educators. And it is unsustainable.

This comes at the heavy cost of educators’ planning and lunchtimes. These are crucial lifelines after interacting with 100s of students. It’s a time when the behind-the-scenes work of grading, creating lessons, cooperating with colleagues, communicating home, and catching up with absent students is fully engaged. It’s pivotal to providing our most meaningful instruction – and all its fixings – for our students.

And this detriment has two faces:

1. Professionally, it’s wearing down our educators. Trolls like to say, “Teachers have all the time in the world,” but after interacting with 30 school-age children for an hour, most adults need a break. For educators this year, there have been no breaks. As a result, they are breaking.
2. Financially, it’s more expensive to pay teachers to cover classes than it is to pay for a substitute for the day. Districts pay $100-150 for substitute teachers for the day; the cost to cover my classes if I’m absent is roughly twice that if the staff is forced to pick up the coverage.

How can we fix the substitute problem?

On a personal level, reach out to neighbors who are good with kids and who could use a few dollars in their pocket, but want to sustain their flexibility. Encourage them to approach their closest district and enroll in the guest teacher program through each of the county’s intermediate units (IUs).

As for local school boards, there are several ideas that could be implemented. First, start by increasing accessibility and pay. “It should not be easier for my child to drive to Target and apply for a job and make more money,” said one parent considering substitute teaching, “than it should for someone with a 4-year degree to be at the front of a classroom.” There could be bonuses for staff members who help recruit substitutes, and bonuses for substitutes who work a certain number of days.

On the state level, legislatures should target resources to specific groups to encourage them to fill this gap. The first is to help student-teachers and possibly even college-deemed student observes to help provide some coverage. There can also be plans in place for people to leave their line of work and enter what we do, which educators (myself include) really, truly do love to do. To get them in the education pipeline, pay them a support staff wage and give them health care as student teachers.

The second and most important group to target is retirees. In Pennsylvania, they are currently relegated to “emergency status.” To quote one of my retired friends, “If this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is.” Retirees are our most reliable, veteran leaders who are needed now more than ever.

On a national level, it is time to start fully funding schools, especially those in struggling communities where tax bases are stretched. It is time to stop passing mandates like strenuous testing guidelines and time to focus on what drives quality education forward. It is time to make public education – and skills-based education to rectify the responsibility, resilience, and readiness of our future citizens.

And for all stakeholders, it is time to stop demeaning this profession and start valuing it as a cornerstone of our democratic republic and economy. Decades of disparaging and denying the influence of a great teacher had drastically decreased those seeking to be one. Coupled with the roller coaster onset by COVID-19 these last 31 months have forced far more out of the profession than encouraged others to enter it.

This year is one in which we can possibly re-invent the wheel for education. It is one where we can reignite the passion in our students. It is one where they so desperately are yearning to be in school and to not only “catch up,” but to launch ahead. To do that, educators all across Pennsylvania and our nation need your help to do what they do best – teach them up.

I teach American history most days to an engaged, amazing group of students. But this week, they didn’t want to engage in history; instead, they want to engage in the present.

These 8th-grade students have plenty of questions, as many of us do. There are some who shared they have family members with COVID-19 – one in Chester County, PA, one in Italy – and want to know what happens next. A few have family members traveling in Europe and are now working their way home. Some who relate the suspension of professional sports and the shutdown of Broadway to the clearing of their own extracurricular schedules. They see their older siblings’ college classes convene online and close only to watch many of their own schools join them. Most selflessly worry about their grandparents.

Some join me in watching the Wall St. rollercoaster ride, astounded the Dow Jones could have its 4th-worst day in history only to be followed by its best. These students, usually eager and jovial, are simply in a common consensus of confusion – asking “what’s next?”

But I’m not sure we’re all that different from them. I’m struggling as a 37-year-old to make sense of it all. But as I looked out into the sea of desks and saw 14-year-olds struggling much more, I shared three lessons I wanted to implore for both them and myself:

1. Be factual, not hysterical. There are so many stories that have been perpetuated by misinformation and a lack of credibility. “I heard this is happening” isn’t credibly corroborated by science or sources. Just as when I taught in a classroom with no window and students would say “there’s an early dismissal,” the first thing I would do is look out the window for snow. And, much like a snow day, many folks seem to have a criticism for those making the decision.

In a world where some feel “facts are in the eye of the beholder,” we need to dig to learn and be critical before fanning the flames of false narratives. We also need to value and support trusted, investigative journalism – including your local news sources. Otherwise, we’re dealing with the wrong thing going “viral.”

Otherwise, we’re dealing with the wrong thing going “viral.”

2. Control what you can control. On a small scale, the simple solution to regulate personal health is simply washing our hands and disinfecting surfaces regularly, avoiding people who are sick, and staying home if we’re ill. Every company and campaign has informed you of these not-so-radical measures, and we need to assume personal responsibility.

On a larger scale, there are many difficult decisions that are being made for us, with pretty much every public gathering shuttering its doors. Work schedules are cleared, and people fear not just the spreading COVID-19 but keeping the lights on. Push your elected officials to learn your story and to dedicate our resources in ways that will really help. Support those in your community who are sick or just worried sick. Be a smile that can last a while through this struggle.

3. This has happened before, and we will overcome it. I teach about the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-20, which is probably the most difficult problem that most of us have never heard of. While World War I took the lives of approximately 40 million people, that strain of H1N1 following the war took the lives of at least 10 million more, maybe twice that number. The worst-hit city in the United States was Philadelphia, and that’s largely because the mayor refused to cancel a bond fundraising parade and later nearly 3,000 people died in a week. Remember that when every decision to delay or dissolve an event seems draconian. It’s hard to tell if this amount of devastation would be replicated with COVID-19, but this is where smart decisions now provide plenty of positive dividends later. Those same smart decisions helped quickly curb the most recent strain of H1N1 (swine flu), as well as SARS, Zika, and Ebola outbreaks that have all occurred in these 14-year-olds’ lives.

Smart decisions now provide plenty of positive dividends later.

The American way is to build community in times of trial. We historically have not retreated and scrambled for every 24-pack of toilet paper on the shelves. Instead, our history teaches us we have cautiously walked hand-in-hand through struggle, even if saying this today is more metaphorical than literal.

Americans don’t just take photos of what we don’t have on the shelves, we are thankful for what we have. If we make these things our priority, we will persevere. And sometimes we need to just pause and regroup to remind ourselves – and teach our children – that America is filled lessons of endurance.

Jake Miller is a middle school history teacher in Central Pennsylvania. His work appears in a variety of local and national periodicals. You can contact him at [email protected].