Ironically, it seems only teachers know why teachers are leaving the profession because every time I ask someone that question, they think it’s about money or lack thereof. That’s up there of course, but the real reason is stress and their mental health.
There are many layers to this problem, but the fact is teachers have been complaining about the pay for decades and they kept teaching. I know because my wife is a retired teacher. Many of her friends are teachers. But this time it’s different. Now it’s about their mental health. When parents scream at you because of their child falling behind, and principals not having your back or districts forcing constant testing of your students, and classrooms filling up with more special needs children without extra support, something had to give. And the big exodus is what we’re seeing. Who suffers? The children, because we are losing passionate teachers who love to teach.
Many of you reading this are educators, so we won’t beat a dead horse. However, I want you to know that there are some organizations out there who indeed do have your backs.
For elementary schools, K-3, the Max Rhymes Foundation has a program that is FREE for all the teachers and schools they adopt.
Why Free? Because, as I mentioned, my wife was a teacher, who spent a lot of her own money on her students. Teachers have been doing that for decades, and it needs to stop because they’re being abused by the districts who know teachers will continue to do this. We started a non-profit organization, so teachers won’t have to spend their own money and to help reverse this alarming exodus.
The Max Rhymes Foundation provides resources, and a lot of them, focusing on early literacy. This includes a 5-book set for every kindergarten, 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade student to take home and keep, additional sets for the classroom, a large Teacher Big Book for reading time which includes all 5 books inside, over 600 pages of activities, and the list goes on. Our website, MaxRhymesEducators.org, includes all these resources, in both English and Spanish, FREE with no sign in necessary. Anyone worldwide can use the resources.
Want to test out the books? On Roku TV, search for the Max Rhymes channel. All the books are interactive and narrated beautifully. Even on YouTube, “Max Rhymes Kids”.
And the best part…it all fits into SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) like a glove.
How can we do this? Because we created the products and we own the products. No “pay to play” buy in from districts or schools. For us, we have this down to .06 cents per day per student, so we raise the money from generous donors, and we supply the programs to our teachers FREE.
Currently we adopt schools in Oakland, CA, Silicon Valley/San Jose, CA, Sonoma/Napa region, Los Angeles, College Station/Bryan TX, Austin TX, Winston-Salem, NC, coming to Atlanta, GA, and other locations.
Go to www.MaxRhymesEducators.org and request for us to look into your school.
Todd Courtney is the co-author of the Max Rhymes series and co-founder of the Max Rhymes Foundation.