[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5628]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               THE REALITY OF A MODERN DAY SCHOOL TEACHER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, when the question is asked, other 
than a family member, name one person who has made a difference in your 
life, the most often answered response is that of a favorite teacher. 
This simple response speaks volumes about the influence that an 
educator has on the lives of a young person and the future of our 
Nation.
  The education profession has long been known for inadequate pay but a 
high job satisfaction. Teachers have been willing to forfeit material 
gain for the joy of seeing the eyes of their students light up when 
they discover a difficult concept or when they grasp a new idea. We 
have long understood that teachers truly shape the world by their work, 
and their greatest product is an educated child.
  Lately, though, the job satisfaction that brought so many teachers 
into the profession seems to have left the classroom. Unfortunately, 
much of this development can be attributed to No Child Left Behind. The 
joy of teaching has been replaced by the pressure-filled staff meetings 
where educators spend their time talking, not about how to help a child 
learn but, rather, their school's test scores.

                              {time}  1810

  Morale in the education world has diminished, and more teachers are 
at wits end.
  Recently, Holly Lindsay, a teacher in Lindsborg, Kansas, told me of 
her frustration with her profession. She writes, ``I am a first-year 
teacher, and I am beginning to get very discouraged. I went into the 
teaching profession to help students learn and to encourage them to 
follow their dreams. However, I am finding that more and more of my 
time is spent preparing students for standardized tests. These tests do 
not prepare students for any career. They only teach students how to 
take a test. I am very disappointed with the education system right 
now. With all these tests, we don't have time to teach. It is also very 
frustrating when we have to prove our abilities with countless hours to 
show that we are highly qualified. In no other profession are there 
such lofty goals for their employees with such little benefit. I truly 
feel that the time and effort I put into teaching is not worth my 
while. No Child Left Behind is wonderful in theory, but impossible to 
carry out. Not every child is equal in ability, and no teacher should 
be expected to make it so.''
  The number of teachers leaving the profession is exceeding the number 
of teachers entering the profession by 23 percent. With over 25 percent 
of our teaching force eligible to retire within the next 10 years, this 
young educator's thoughts should be a warning. Teachers that have been 
career educators are bailing out as soon as they can because they do 
not want to deal with the unnecessary red tape and the growing 
pressures that are being placed upon them.
  Another staggering fact is that one-third of new teachers quit the 
education profession within the first 3 years of teaching. In my rural 
Kansas district, if we have to shut the doors on rural schools it will 
not be because of lack of students, it will be because we cannot find 
the teachers to fill the teaching vacancies.
  Congress must be sensitive to the responsibility we hold in making 
educators want to walk out of the classroom and never look back. 
Congress needs to look closely at our role and the trends and make sure 
that we are not encouraging this situation by continuing to 
overregulate the classroom. We need to strive for improvements in our 
education system, but we must make sure that we are not legislating 
accountability simply for the sake of a sound bite. We must not take 
the joy and passion out of this noble profession by requiring things 
that are simply not possible.
  This year, Congress is set to examine No Child Left Behind and 
potentially reauthorize it. While I voted against this law, I voted 
against No Child Left Behind, I look forward to being involved in the 
upcoming discussions about how we reform and change the education 
system. My hope is that we will look closely at the unintended 
realities that so many of our teachers face and will be willing to make 
the changes necessary to provide the policies that will help them 
succeed as they go about the business of educating our greatest asset, 
our young people, and fulfilling the jobs they so love.

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