Perhaps I shouldn’t comment on this as I am of the Gen-X generation (and the very top end, at that) and according to an article I read about a month ago we Gen-Xers are supposed to be the lost/jealous generation between those traditional Baby Boomers and those nonconformist Gen-Yers. (Who comes up with this stuff?) But comment I will.

I graduated college in 1995 which means Mac computers were square and beige and, like now, jobs were hard to come by upon graduation. I suppose there were those of us who worried about what they were going to do without direct access to entry-level jobs at Target, General Mills or Anderson Consulting, but I recall that many of us didn’t want to be trapped in the employment ways of our parents and were happy (eventually) to be spun out in the abyss of the employment unknown.

I recall an unprecedented number of people in my class joined the Peace Corps, or a stateside or faith-based version of it. Some took low-paying internships at social service agencies or dot-com start-ups. Some continued their schooling and some joined Teach for America. Being denied the traditional routes, we chose journeys that were guided by our passions and therefore ignited our energies and helped us develop a fuller understanding of the world.

Myself, I chose Lutheran Volunteer Corps. I spent my first year out of college working to shape welfare legislation. I attended Congressional hearings on Capitol Hill, met with public advocacy organizations, coordinated advocacy and lobbying efforts and wrote a weekly newsletter for the Coalition on Human Needs – all for about $70 a month (if I remember correctly) to spend on groceries and entertainment (rent was paid by LVC). Entertainment quickly became spending evenings at home talking with my housemates about issues that came up while they worked with the homeless, the hungry and the sick.

During those couple of years out of college I learned so many lessons that I continue to use every day —both real-world and workforce lessons. I believe I learned more about effective communication, technology, operations and about how the world, organizations and people work than I could have anywhere else. Not finding a traditional job after graduating college was the best thing that happened to me, as I learned to work effectively with people, on projects, and in environments I never would have encountered had I been welcomed into the warm and open arms of traditional employment. I am a much better employee and leader now because of it.

So never-fear, Baby-Boomers, I think our companies, agencies, organizations and governments will be okay—if not better—by allowing this latest group of graduates to gather their workforce experience by forging their own unique path through life.

Ironically, this is what new teachers experience on their first day.  They enter a classroom filled with our community’s most important clients: students.

After the Minnesota Meeting event on Closing the Opportunity Gap (see Raising Expectations: Strategies for Reform post), about 40 practitioners convened to continue the dialogue around teacher quality and raising expectations. Creating and retaining high quality teachers kept floating to the top, with professional development as a key strategy. Let’s compare teaching, for a moment, to the financial industry. Setting out on a career as a financial advisor, you wouldn’t begin with the largest or most challenging clients. You might shadow another advisor for a while. Or perhaps you’d start with a small client list, take training classes, and work your way up as you master skills and demonstrate progress. Not so for teachers.

Dr. Rudy Crew spoke passionately about the need to create a system to support first and second year teachers. There is an assumption that they will just catch on. Yet, according to Crew, emerging teachers don’t have the “repertoire” of teaching strategies necessary to reach the diversity of student needs in their classroom.  In addition, most teachers that early on in their career are also only given a one year contract; creating a short window of time to “figure it out.”

A quest for mentorship, a desire for professional development opportunities, a need to develop a depth of skills, are common topics of conversation among my peers, regardless of the specific profession or field.  It is important for all “young” professionals to have a support system to guide them on their career path.

This is particularly problematic given that in the next 10 years, 25,000 new teachers will be needed in this country to fill vacant positions due to retirement or those leaving the field.  Locally, the Itasca Project’s Minnesota’s Future: World-class Schools, World-class Jobs report states that “Due to aging population trends, Minnesota will need to replace about 40% of its current teachers over the next decade or two.”

Kati Haycock noted that 40 years ago, when teaching was one of few career options for women, the “best and the brightest” women were found in the classroom. Today, women can be anything and a teaching career path, for men or women, competes with a wide spectrum of job opportunities.

At the same time, there is a decline in individuals choosing to pursue a traditional education degree.  Instead, many who are becoming teachers are choosing alternative teacher prep programs. This year Teach for America received 35,000 applications drawing locally from 10% of Carleton and 10% of Macalester’s graduating classes.  There is a need to ensure that these teacher prep programs provide quality training and have the resources necessary to meet the demands of the field.  In addition, all of these new teachers will need opportunities for professional development to help them be more successful.

“Research is very clear: Good teachers make good schools. Students who get several effective teachers in a row will soar no matter what their family backgrounds, while students who have even two ineffective teachers in a row rarely recover.” — Education Trust’s Education Watch Minnesota Fall 2006

Kati Haycock said pointedly that we can’t leave anything to chance.  We need to mitigate the risk and ensure that teachers have excellent training and professional development support to excel at working with our most valuable clients.