9. EDUCATION: Teaching in the US vs. the rest of the world.

 

Hello everyone and welcome to a new post related to education around the world. Ready?

Today, we want to talk you about a video that we have seen in class this week. This video, focuses its attention on explaining the differences between a teacher in the US and another in Finland or anywhere else in the world. After having seen the video, we found it very interesting to summarize the most important ideas. We will organize them into point so that it is better to understand.

Before starting, we leave you the link to the video. NO SPOILERS!

ASPECTS THAT MAKE TEACHERS LEAVE THE CLASSROOMS IN EEUU:

1. TEACHERS SHORTAGE

The offer to hire new teachers is decreasing as the number of students in public schools continues increasing. This difference results in a worrying shortage of teachers in America's high school classrooms. 

2. HOURS OF WORK

In the US, teachers work an average of 9 hours and a quarter per day, one hour more than the average in other countries in the world. This causes more tired teachers and with less free time to dedicate to their family, friends, hobbies...

3. SALARY

As we said before, if we compare the working hours of teachers in the United States with the hours teachers work in other countries, the difference is striking. Someone might think that all these extra hours of work in the classrooms, should translate into better results of the students and a salary that is proportional to this effort. Well I have to tell you that this is noy true. US high school teachers cover much less than teachers in Finland, Australia, Singapore or New Zealand.

4. MONEY FOR EDUCATION

In the United States they boast of spending a lot of money on education. The reality is that EEUU is among the countries in the world taht spend the least money on education.

5. HUGE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN STATES

It is true that in the US there are large differences between the money used for education in one state or in another. For instance, New York destinates 22.000 dolars and California 11.000 dolars.

6. VALUE THE FACT OF BEING A TEACHER

Last but not least, there is another important difference between USA and Finland. The profession of being a teacher is not valued as deserved.

ALL THESE ASPECTS TOGETHER, CREATE A BIG SNOWBALL THAT MAKES TEACHERS IN EEUU LEAVE THE CLASSROOMS.