Survey Debunks Notion of Teaching as Profession of Last Resort
LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: Some folks regard teaching as a calling, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. CNN's Maria Hinojosa talks with some new teachers who are learning the ins and outs of their new career.</s>MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's well over an hour before students are expected, but math teacher Steven Brunnlehrman is already preparing. At Heritage High School in New York city, that means attending a morning session...</s>GREG HAMILTON, TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: How about June 26, 27?</s>HINOJOSA: ... with a professor from a teachers college whose weekly visits help the staff stay on track, especially new teachers like Brunnlehrman.</s>HAMILTON: Many new teachers haven't worked with kids before. When they hit the classroom all on their own, they feel very alone.</s>HINOJOSA: But even so, they're generally happy, according to a new study. The nationwide survey contradicts the conventional wisdom that teaching is a career of last resort: 96 percent of new teachers surveyed said they love what they do.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the most important work in the world, so it's not surprising.</s>HINOJOSA: But there are complaints.</s>SUSAN BARTONLONE, PRINCIPAL, HERITAGE HIGH SCHOOL: They come in with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm, well-prepared, I would say, academically in their disciplines, but the most difficult element is discipline.</s>HINOJOSA: The survey shows new teachers complained most not about low salaries, but about lack of classroom management preparation.</s>STEVE FARKAS, DIR. OF RESEARCH, PUBLIC AGENDA: They would much prefer to spend more time in the field while they were in a teacher preparation program rather than in the classroom studying theory.</s>HINOJOSA (on camera): This study says its findings challenge the stereotype that teachers aren't satisfied by what they do. In fact, only one-fifth of the new teachers surveyed said they plan on doing something else in the future.</s>FARKAS: So rather than having a vision of teaching as a kind of unmotivated, uninterested, uninspired teaching corps, actually, we get the exact opposite.</s>HINOJOSA (voice-over): Teachers like 10-year veteran Ron Saltz, who says to teach was a calling.</s>RON SALTZ, ENGLISH TEACHER: It's an incredibly romantic profession. It's filled with their own experiences of teachers who inspired us, and we want to be that person.</s>HINOJOSA: And Steven Brunnlehrman plans on being that well into the future.</s>STEVEN BRUNNLEHRMAN, TEACHER: I want to get involved in writing math textbooks that are maybe set more for the urban school system. I'm really here to stay.</s>HINOJOSA: Maria Hinojosa, CNN, New York.