A four-year national teacher shortage has revealed a small but dedicated group of students who continue to commit their professional lives to education.
Despite the overall decrease in educators since the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferris’ education program has had an increase of 11 students since the fall of 2019.
Associate professor in education Dr. David Alban thinks that the motivation teachers have for the profession is the same as any other major, and it’s important to have personal reasons to go into education rather than materialistic reasons like money.
“It’s the intrinsic features that are going to last a lot longer,” Alban said. “Teachers don’t get paid enough and while that would always be nice to have more put into these things, it doesn’t deter me from what I want to do, and that is to teach.”
According to the U.S. Census, the COVID-19 pandemic caused nearly 93% of school-aged children to participate in a socially distanced learning system, including a hybrid or fully online class.
Alban thinks that technology use has increased since having to do online classes and might be a reason for the decrease in educators due to many of the older teachers suddenly having to change their teaching styles.
“Teachers that are farther along in their careers are now faced with more techno[logical] demands that we have not had to deal with before,” Alban said. “For some individuals, it just overwhelms them.”
Alban teaches secondary and elementary education students. Many of his students also express their desire to teach.
Secondary education senior Ethan Hamilton started college as a nursing student. His mother encouraged him to switch to education since nursing wasn’t going well for him. To this day, he’s happy about the choice he made to switch majors.
“I love working with the kids,” Hamilton said. “You learn something new every day.”
After witnessing his peers teach in the classroom, Hamilton believes that they have the same passion he has for teaching.
“A lot of my classmates have a true love for helping people,” Hamilton said. “They’re always very motivated and you can see how much effort they put into teaching.”
Along with Hamilton, Delaney Ellicott is also pursuing a career in education. She was inspired by her parents to go into education because her mother is a teacher and her stepmom is a principal. Because of her connection to educators, Ellicott has always thought highly of her career choice. She is an elementary education senior.
“Educators are what shape society,” Ellicott said. “We’re giving them the education [students] need to go out into the real world.”
During her second semester as a freshman, she switched her psychology major to elementary education.
Ellicott is excited to go into student teaching in the fall. She also felt that her classmates are also excited about this experience.
“That’s when you go every day all day, so that will be fun,” Ellicott said.
The Ferris Aspiring Educators of Michigan is a student organization that will be having an education meet and greet on April 20. This event will give education students a chance to ask questions and win a student teaching gift.
For more information, visit the organization’s Instagram @ferrisstateaem.
C.E. EC / C.F.