It's not "early retirement" that's killing the profession, it's the lack of accountability, flexibility, love, and respect of the position. I know a lot of people say it's the parent's job, which is true, but the reality is that many kids will be failed in their education due to the type of parents they have. I was raised in a small town in Indiana that had pretty large schools due to rural kids being bused in and schools continually being combined. We had large classrooms and still dealt with issues that you'd find at any other in a larger city. The one thing that I am thankful for throughout my years in school is my teachers, because we had teachers that loved their jobs and did what they were paid to do...TEACH and in return the students succeeded.

Maybe it was a reflection of the times; kids who did poorly weren't passed or ignored, excessive truancy was followed up on and actually resulted in parents in jail(no joke), and, depending on the personality of the teacher, flexibility was allowed so that different methods of teaching were incorporated(English teacher turned her room into a lounge with pillows, history teacher found a way to turn his projector into a jeopardy game board and bought buzzers, science teacher(who happened to love reptiles) had a huge boa constrictor in his classroom and set up an outside classroom we could use depending on how grades turned out(if you were the one that caused the class to miss out...watch your back!!), and the one other class that I loved, was basically an extension on all the classes for those who were doing poorly; a retired teacher who didn't want to stay home decided to volunteer by campaigning and raising funds to add an extra class for students that had issues with grades, home life, and behavior so she could watch them get their diploma, irregardless of the obstacles that were in the way.

It may seem like a lot, but not all the teachers were like this. The ones that had done nothing to the appearance of their classrooms and stood and talked to the class offered something equally enjoyable...their passion for the subject they were teaching. Another history teacher worked tirelessly to find as many survivors of the USS Indianapolis and asked if they'd be willing to communicate with the class through letters and that was a huge impact on the school(grants were given to the history department) and students(first hand accounts from something you've read in a text book and continual pen pals for others).

The type of schooling that I had is rare nowadays mainly due to restrictions of teachers' abilities or the type of people who pursue the position. Of the teachers I have paid farewell to over the years...some were more exciting/flashy than others, but all of them left an impression on their students and paid tribute to the rest of the people in their communities...by TEACHING.

RIP Mrs.Neubauer

Not early retirement. Paperwork. The Powers that Be think more paperwork means higher scores and better accountability.

I think a start would be to pay teachers what they are worth and add more rigor to becoming a teacher. I considered the profession ONCE but the pay was so abysmally low for a beginner that I said screw that. Just like every other profession where the best and the brightest are expected and required, PAY means a lot.

Because teaching for so long was just woman's work (still is to a large degree) it was seen okay to pay a pittance and let passion make up for the rest. That's a bunch of BS. Teachers are just as important as lawyers and doctors. They train lawyers and doctors, our kids are with them for 12 freaking years. A good teacher can really inspire a kid and a bad one can break a kid's spirit and affect their whole future.

I say stop the BS and pay these teachers a professional wage. Period. End of story.

Here we have a 100 year old person who worked and we have many who chose not to and have nothing wrong with them. What a good example of a person to follow and strive to be.

Too soon. But I still laughed.

You started out somewhat intelligent by saying "far too many teacher" then you jumped to "all teachers" and lost that intelligent statement. Really not sure teachers are out to screw anybody. I guess maybe in Chicago, but ignorance like this is why teachers are looked down upon like they are.

pay my property taxes which go up 30% a year on average the last 2 years mainly because of greedy teachers who have a powerful union and they get away with just about anything.the union will not allow drug testing on our teachers or faculty.they tried to get the custodial union to get drug tests on all new and present employees and the custodians said only if the teachers ,faculty and principals agree.that got dropped faster than a rock out a 2 story window.high 5 figure salaries for 9 monthes of so-called work at a suburban elementary school with cush benefits and a pension.no problem ...but if you want me to help pay for it drug test teachers randomly and bring their pay in line with their performance.too many gravy train teachers nowadays.try living in crook county than you might not make ignorant statements like yours and get a taste of reality.go back to kansas and click your red shoes together 21vb12.

Pay for performance is over rated. How do you compare a teacher in one district who has all english speaking native Americans with other classes that have many that barely speak english? Also minorities don't do as well on standardized tests regardless of the teacher. Teachers in all white english speaking area's would soon be making twice as much as inner city teachers even though they weren't as effective.

its called performance guidelines.your comments are racist as a lot of minorities do very well on testing and a lot of nonminorities don't, the opposite is also true. it depends alot on their parents and teachers.pay needs to be averaged on what you are provided to work with. a teacher who can bring up very low scoring students to high levels should be paid more than a teacher who has a cush class of students and does average.

Do you know that the first year my wife was teaching, she was buying the kids snack using our food stamps?

(Because the district adopted a curriculum for the special ed pre-K classes that required a structured snack time, but refused to provide funding for the actual snack, and still required the teachers follow the curriculum to the letter.)

Yeah. Clearly the teachers are being paid too much. That's obviously the problem here.