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JESSICA MARRELLA FEATURES EDITOR JRM722@CABRINI EDU

John Doe graduates from Cabrini within the top 5 percent of his class with a degree in elementary education. In addition to his high ranking, Doe has a fabulous resume under his belt and the potential to be hired anywhere he applies. Does Doe apply to teach in the Philadelphia region where he’ll earn somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 a year or will he apply to work in the Radnor school district, one of the highest paying districts in the nation?

VUnfortunately, too many John Does are opting for higher pay over where their teaching skills are needed the most.

Urban school settings tend to be more challenging in terms of teaching than a suburban school for a number of reasons.

The first reason is discipline. Urban areas are more prone to violence, the use of weapons and drugs.

They also have a higher student to teacher ratio. Most classes have at least 35 students and teachers teach an average of six classes a day, taking away from the individual attention that the students need.

Another reason why urban schools are more challenging is language. Some teachers are forced to speak two languages in the classroom.

Now consider a suburban school setting. Violence, weapons and drugs are rarely a problem. Class sizes are small and often times teachers have assistants. For these reasons, the best teachers end up in suburban schools and teachers with fewer qualifications are being offered jobs in urban schools where no one else is applying.

Naturally, teachers want their salary to reflect their efforts urban school teachers. They are paid significantly less than teachers in suburban districts who do not face the extra challenges.

The reason why these teachers are not paid more is that the urban cities do not generate the money in taxes that would allow the city to raise the teacher salary. In the same respect, our government isn’t putting out that money.

Currently, I am tutoring eighth graders at the Julia de Burgos School in Kensington for my seminar 300 class. Only a portion of the eighth graders in the class are expected to go onto high school and only half of that portion is expected to graduate.

The first time that I walked into Julia de Burgos a teacher that was leaving approached my class and said, “Get out while you still can.” It seemed as though the teachers were rushing for the doors faster than the students.

No student should be subjected to teachers with such little passion and motivation to teach them and genuinely care for them.

The teacher in the classroom where I tutor is exceptional. I have never seen a teacher with such determination and commitment to her students. She stays after school everyday with her class and continues to teach them long after all of the other teachers have left. She fundraises within the school so that she has extra funds for her class. Every year she takes her students to Borders because the majority of them have never been inside a book store.

I can tell that her students respect her and appreciate what she does for them. I also feel that her students will greatly benefit because they had her as a teacher. Unfortunately, teachers like herself seem to be few and far between in urban schools.

I am not suggesting that all of the best teachers should be working in the city and the less qualifying teachers should work in the suburbs. What I am suggesting is that the high quality teachers should be equally throughout both inner city and suburban

From speaking with education majors, I feel that most of them want to be teachers so that they can make a positive difference in the lives of children. If this is the case then why are so many teachers staying away from the areas where the children are most in need?

Bottom line is teachers need to stop looking for the extra zeros in their paycheck and start looking at the children they are teaching and making a difference in.