Exhausted, Overworked, Unpaid: The Reality of Student Teaching

Adam Elwell

The Advocate

I’m tired. I’m taking 19 credits this term. I bartend on the weekends, and I work on the student newspaper, time permitting. I would like to see my family and my dog and clean my house and keep up with my friends, and not have to bump every doctor’s appointment because I double-booked it, time permitting.

In just a little while, though, I’ll be expected to put in more than 40 hours of labor every week. Is it paid? No. I’m actually paying for it. I’m talking about student teaching.

It is baffling to me that education, an industry that often touts its progressive ideals, still demands unpaid labor from some of its most financially vulnerable participants — students. This isn’t to single out any one college; their faculty went through student teaching too, and I’m sure they would change the system if they could. Rather, we need reform across the whole system. In no particular order, here’s why:

Equity. Every education class I’ve taken mentions that America’s teachers are 72% white women. Not white, or women — 72% white women. More power to them; I’m glad they’re in the field. But if the industry wants a workforce more representative of its students, it needs to pay student teachers. Of course the workforce will skew that way; there aren’t many other demographics for whom it’s socially acceptable to live at home without a job into your early 20s.

It’s the right thing to do. Student teachers work full contract hours, lesson plan, grade, referee middle school drama — everything a contracted teacher does — just unpaid. Labor deserves wages. End of story.

It creates a healthier workforce. We always hear that we need more teachers. Gee, I wonder why there aren’t more? Paying student teachers would not only increase the number of potential teachers, but over time, a more populated workforce would improve the quality of education. Districts would have more candidates to choose from, and student teachers wouldn’t be working 70 hours a week and lesson planning between serving drinks at the bar.

It reflects our values as a society. Beyond learning to read and do math, the K-12 system is where most people first learn basic societal values. It is tragically ironic that we don’t value the people entrusted with teaching those values.

I know this applies to a niche group of students, but I’m sure many others can sympathize. College is a hoop America makes the middle class jump through, and it gets tighter every year.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Take care. Keep on keeping on.