As a college student in America in 2018, there is no way I would study education. It's not because I hate school or working with kids, it's because of how poorly educators are treated in this country. Now, in addition to their regular duties, teachers are expected to become EMTs and doctors too. In addition to learning how to teach reading and math, they have to learn how to use a tourniquet and stop a person from bleeding to death. Time and time again they are put in situations where they have to sacrifice their life at work, and the government still does not want to give them a raise.

The United States just does not seem to want to catch up to the rest of the West when it comes to education. In other developed nations such as the U.K. or Canada, being a teacher is considered to be an extremely prestigious position, as it should be. In America, a lot of people think of teachers are no more than glorified babysitters, who get paid too much as it is. School buildings as well as school supplies are literally falling apart, as seen in Oklahoma, where teachers recently went on strike due to the lack of state funding for their schools.

So, not only are teachers given terrible working conditions and a lack of funding for their work, but they now have to deal with the grim reality that school shootings are common and could happen at any time. Teachers as well as students have to be trained on what to do in the event of a school shooting, and they have to be prepared for the worst. Since it can be a long time before medics arrive at the scene, teachers have to learn how to keep wounded students alive. A large focus of this training is on stopping blood loss, with the use of tools such as gauze and tourniquets.

There has also been some talk about teachers learning how to carry guns themselves to stop school shooters. Some schools in districts across the country are already having their teachers carry, with strongly mixed responses from the public. It seems like teachers are having to take on multiple jobs now, in education as well as medicine and law enforcement.

Is this really how we want to treat our educators? Is this really what we want their job to entail? Being a teacher as well as a soldier and a medic? To burden them with these responsibilities while refusing to fund their workplaces seems absolutely ridiculous to me. I have no idea how a teacher could give their full time and energy to their students when they have to worry about things like this.

Being a teacher is a hard job. They are entrusted with making sure the next generation of Americans have the knowledge they need to go into the world and hopefully make a positive difference. As a college student, I can look back at all of my years in public schools growing up and remember the teachers that had a huge impact on me, even as a small child. My love of writing began when I was in third grade when I had a teacher who helped me fall in love with stories and books. Teachers need to be celebrated and thanked for their work, not turned into soldiers whose classroom is now a battlefield.