Baby Boomers - Let's Bring 'Em Back

It’s 2008. Do you know where your teachers are?

Over 1.7 million teachers – 53 % of our workforce – are Baby Boomers, rapidly approaching retirement. They will take decades of experience and expertise with them, leaving a growing number of inexperienced, highly mobile teachers to fend for themselves. This demographic shift has the potential to cause a school staffing collapse in some districts and states.

The stand-alone teaching model, which assumes a lifetime commitment to teaching, is no longer viable. We need to replace that model with cross-generational learning teams that create new roles for veterans and novices: coaches, mentors, lead teacher, and apprentices, interns or adjuncts for example. This new model would also create attractive opportunities for non-teaching Boomers who are eager to pursue an Encore career in education.

Imagine a project in which a team of teachers and students take on the challenge of designing a state-of-the-art high school for 2050. The students must create a site plan, design architectural drawings, construct a physical model, develop a plan for community approval, draw up a budget and write a narrative report. Think about the wealth of knowledge students could acquire if we engaged retired architects, engineers, accountants, lawyers and community leaders in learning teams with these students.

To meet the needs of today’s students and teachers we need to transform our schools from teaching organizations into learning organizations.

How will your manage the Baby Boom retirement. Is your school, district, or state ready to embrace cross-generational teaching and
learning?