On this episode, I sit down with life long friend Douglas Smith. An educator, teacher, and Assistant Principle in Forsyth County, North Carolina, Doug sheds some light on the challenges that face our youth and their guardians. Teaching isn't easy. Parenting isn't easy. The pandemic and the post-pandemic societal adjustment have expedited the daily struggle of the generational gaps. As we discuss, it will become even more clear how hard it is to be a teacher in today's society.

Until March 2020, American schooling looked much like it had in 1920. Despite new technologies, ever-increasing outlays, and wave after wave of reform, the rhythms, and routines of America's schools were little changed. Students set out from their homes to school in the early morning, sat in front of a teacher in primary school or a series of teachers in secondary school, sporadically used the latest technologies, and then headed home. Dress codes, popular pedagogies, the number of adults in the building, and the technology may have changed, but what students and teachers actually do has not. Then came Covid-19. Schools shut down nationwide, forcing educators to think differently about educational delivery.

The sudden shift to remote learning spurred new practices, leading teachers to discover new skills and strategies. It also created unparalleled transparency for parents regarding what happens in the classroom and upended how tens of millions of parents interacted with their children's schools. The disruption born of this once-in-a-century pandemic could yield a once-in-a-century opportunity to reset K-12 schooling. Closures rattled public confidence in local schools. Familiar routines were shattered. Interest in homeschooling and other alternatives has exploded. This loosened the status quo's grip on school norms, parental expectations, and the public imagination.

Staffing American schools today is no easy task. Public schools must hire 300,000 teachers per year just to replace those lost to attrition. That's more than the total number of graduates produced by all of America's selective colleges annually — with the term "selective" used to mean any institution that accepts fewer than half of its applicants. Even if every single graduate from the nation's flagship universities, the Ivy League, and prestigious liberal arts colleges opted to teach, it wouldn't plug the gap left by departures each year. This makes it extraordinarily difficult for school systems to make prudent and strategic decisions about hiring, assigning staff, and developing training and preparation programs. The emphasis on quantity over quality is nothing new in American education.

Successful schools are inevitably the product of the relationships between adults and students. When technology ignores that, it's bound to disappoint. But when it's designed to offer more coaching, free up time for meaningful teacher-student interaction, or offer students more personalized feedback, technology can make a significant, positive difference. Unfortunately, education technology is too rarely designed with this kind of charge in mind. That's why education technology tends to be endlessly hyped — and just as endlessly disappointing. For the past century, reformers have promised that each new technological advance would transform schooling. In 1922, Thomas Edison proclaimed "the motion picture is destined to revolutionize our educational system," adding that "in a few years it will supplant largely, if not entirely, the use of textbooks." Soon afterward, radio was the hot new thing. In 1931, U.S. Commissioner of Education William Cooper established a radio division in the U.S. Office of Education and, by 1932, nine states were broadcasting regular educational programs. Benjamin Darrow, author of the 1932 book Radio: The Assistant Teacher, touted radio as the "vibrant and challenging textbook of the air." Similar stories can be told about television, desktop computer, laptops, tablets, and even whiteboards.