The State of Virginia is known for having a very great public school system, however the teachers union is admitting that the attrition rate is nearly 50% in three years. In other words when a new teacher comes to teach in the State of Virginia public school system there is a 50% chance that they will be gone before the end of three years. But why are the teachers quitting? The answer will probably not shocked you but it is of great concern to those residents living in Virginia.

Many of the teachers after they get their teaching credentials join the public school system to make a difference and then they find out that they are merely glorified babysitters. This is quite unfortunate because these young individuals have come to teach and they care, but they are not allowed to discipline in the classroom and without discipline there can be no meaningful teaching.

Our society and civilization needs to trust our teachers and give them the benefit of the doubt over a student who is messing around the classroom day in and day out. Many of the school systems have strong leadership, which support the teachers but not all. In fact the biggest complaint is that the school staff will not back up the teachers when a parent complains about discipline in the classroom for their child. If the child is breaking the rules the teacher must provide discipline otherwise it hurts the learning ability of the other students.

Apparently this issue is happening all over the country and in the State of Virginia it is happening to. Some teachers complain that certain male-dominated societies and cultures send their kids to the Virginia public school system and their male students harassed the teacher because she is female. You can understand the problems with this. Likewise as a society we need to teachers to enforce discipline on the students so that they can learn right and wrong and what is acceptable in our civilization.

If the Virginia public school system and the parents of these little monsters cannot come together then everyone loses. Teachers will have less tenure and experience, the classrooms will be bigger and the kids will learn less. Is that what we want? We need to support our teachers in the public school system in all states including The Great State of Virginia. Please consider this in 2006.