Graduate School of Education Professor Annie George-Puskar and students James Smythe and Mary Olivette Bookman spoke to CBS News about the implications of a changing world on the teaching profession.
“One of the issues we’re seeing in education is retention rates for teachers,” said George-Puskar. “Enrollment numbers for schools of education are down because of the already challenging demands of being a teacher, coupling that with concerns about safety.”
“I find future teachers to be extremely brave,” she added. “The world we live in today can be really scary, and there are fears about safety in schools. Instead of shying away from that, they are running straight to it, so many of them. It’s because of wanting to make a change within our schools and within our world.”
James Smythe, a student teacher in the Fordham five-year accelerated program, said, “Being a teacher is hard enough. I’ve got a lot on my plate, and I’m only a student teacher. There’s real, actual teachers out there that I work with, and I see them put in everything they have every single day, and there’s still more they have to do. And now they’ve got to learn how to fight a gunman?”
“I would hope that teachers and schools would get the attention they deserve,” Smythe added. “They need support. They are not going to walk away from this, because they love it. … We’re going to have to do well on behalf of these teachers. And I would hope that lawmakers would see that, and there would be an American cultural shift that would see that, to a point where we would see that [being]an educator is one of the most noble things you can do, and to be honored as such.”
Mary Olivette Bookman, another Fordham student teacher, said, “We learned that the best way to prevent a potential school shooting is to create that positive classroom environment where students feel supported and loved. If they know that there are other ways to express themselves … so the alternative never comes to their mind, all they think of is, ‘I have support. I have love. I am important, and my classmates are important.'”
“If anything, it strengthens my resolve on the importance of teachers and the role we can have in students’ lives to be a source of positive guidance and support,” she added. “Regardless of what happens, I at least know that I did what I could to try to make a difference in a student’s life. … That makes me feel that … what I do as a teacher matters.”
