The State of US Teachers
-We will need over 2 million new teachers in the next 10 years. -Twenty percent of teachers quit within the first 3 years of their teaching careers. -33 percent of teachers quite within the first 5 years of their teaching careers. -The main reason teachers quit is because they feel they are not making enough money. Starting teachers can make as little as $20 000 per year, barely above the poverty line. -Other reasons to quit include: misbehaved students, disrespectful students, whining parents, angry parents, growing families, desire for change, and long hours in the classroom. Teachers feel that their profession is not fully appreciated or understood. Many will meet highschool friends and be laughed at when they tell them what their job is. -Teachers find it difficult to cope with the wide range of students in every classroom- different races, religions, and financial levels. -Students want to be teachers because they feel they can positively affect a child’s life and because they excel in a certain subject. They like being able to help their own communities. -Many of our long-lasting teachers were inspired by past teachers and other role models in the education system. -One top teacher wanted to be a movie-star, a missionary, and a mechanic as a child. She feels that as a teacher she can be all three of these things. -A teacher that does not have set expectations of her students or strong inner will power will likely leave the profession quickly. -Teachers are very stressed and they lose sleep and personal downtime because they worry about their students and they have so much marking to do. -Teachers generally think poorly of themselves and consider the jobs they do to be of a low quality. This is because they are so hurried in the day that they simply can’t do all the things that they want to do. -Teachers have to realize that they don’t have the power to make a student succeed and that, although they can try, they cannot make a student hand in an assignment. -The best teachers are the ones who can find something about every student that is good and love and appreciate each one equally. -The best teachers realize that teaching involves more than covering the curriculum with students . It involves counseling them about their futures. Many children really don’t know what to do in life and the teacher is the person who will put them on the right path

A look at the schools in Edmonton Alberta
Alberta has a unique and appealing school system that is worth looking into. It has a variety of schools that cater to special groups. The public school system was losing a lot of students before it came up with its new program.
Some of the new schools they have designed are already in place elsewhere in Canada, but never in the public school system. One of their hits is a native school, where students of native ancestry are not so likely to lose their heritage. They begin each day with the burning of incense and a sort of prayer. Another hit is the all-girls middle school. At a difficult time in their development, the girls do not have to worry about dressing up and looking pretty for their beau. Instead they can focus on their education. This is an exciting opportunity that many parents are taking advantage of.
Other schools include a military school for highschool aged boys. This school teaches them such things as military heritage. There is a kindergarten to grade 12 arts school for parents who want their children to have more exposure to the arts rather than the sciences. Of course, the majority of schools are just your typical public schools, but everyone has the option of attending the specialized schools if they wish.
After these new schools opened, the enrolment rate in the public school system skyrocketed. And why not? If a parent is paying big dollars for their child to attend a private school, and then the public schools offer the same sort of program free of charge, why not take advantage of it! It is a win-win situation. And the children are more eager to learn if they are in a program that interests them.
Perhaps this is the way to go for the rest of Canada. Obviously, by catering to the needs of individuals, you can satisfy an entire group of students. Some may argue, however, that this is not Canada. Everyone is equal and we should all bring our differences together into the same classroom. This is a nice idea but it just doesn’t work in the classroom. Students are frequently racist and inconsiderate when given the chance to be. If they are segregated into interests groups, perhaps they will be better able to see the similarities between each other. For example, all the students in the arts school will share a common interest in art whether they are Muslim and black or Catholic and white.