Most teachers aren't adequately or realistically trained for teaching. Theories on education start from the point of view that the student wants to learn, and that's where they go wrong. Many students don't want to be in school and they make that perfectly clear by their behavior in the classroom.

Take a look at this scenario. A student was talking on their cell phone during class. The teacher asked for the cell phone. The student refused and became loud and disrespectful. The teacher called for security to escort the student to the principal's office. When security finally arrived to escort the student, the cell phone was not confiscated. The principal was not available because he or she was handling several other emergencies that had priority. End result? The student returns to class with cell phone and attitude intact.

Incidents like this take place every day, and the end result is that many new teachers decide to leave the profession. Teachers are disheartened because when students fail to meet expectations, the expectations are lowered. These teachers aren't wimps who had an idealized vision of their profession. They are professionals who were not supported and trained correctly to deal with the modern classroom.

The example I used actually happened to me. Unfortunately, when I went to enter a "0" for that student, I found several other teachers had already done the same thing. By rights, he should not have been in class at all--he should have been suspended.

Let me cite some statistics based on a survey from The National Center for Education Statistics-

Twenty percent of new public school teachers left teaching in 2005. The attrition rate for teachers in general that year was only 8 percent, meaning new teachers left at more than double the rate of their counterparts. Even private schools lost 16 percent of their staff in 2005. Of those who left the profession that year, only 30 percent can be attributed to retiring teachers--70 percent left for other reasons.

I suspect that a large part of the dissatisfaction new teachers feel is the result of not having control http://remember.your-first-time.com/classroom-discipline over their classroom. That's a shame because having control over your class is something that is completely achievable. Like most anything else, it requires a skill set that can be learned. Perhaps when enough teachers have left the field, there will be a more concerted effort to ensure new teachers have these skills when they enter the classroom.

© 2009 - present, Magali Rincon. Are you a young person looking for information about all the firsts in your life? Stop by www.Your-First-Time.com for advice from a millennial perspective.