Suppose our goals are to 1) effectively educate students and 2) support and retain good teachers.

A teaching position is unfilled for 3-4 weeks, with a variety of substitutes taking over. Understandably, the classes get more and more chaotic, develop a pack mentality and become a teacher’s worst nightmare.

Enter newly hired teacher: young, inexperienced, fresh out of college and idealistic. Place young teacher in single-wide trailer with 32 students, roughly 20 desks and several tables.

Any guesses as to the outcome?

So we return to the age-old dilemma: If our primary purpose is to effectively educate students, why do we give the most challenging classes to the most ill-equipped teachers? Yes, I know, we all walked through the fire and no one wants to go back there. But really, philosophically, isn’t it a bit like handing over your most important and difficult client to the junior-junior associate?