Here’s the deal: the most powerful resource we have to teach all of the students to read is highly skilled and energetic teachers that don’t let the naysayers pull them off of their mission.
Teaching is not about a calling, it is about skill. The skill to manage, the skill to engage, the skill to prepare lessons, the skill to diagnose when a lesson isn’t going well, the skill to fix it, the skill to use the data to make the best instructional decisions for each child. These skills need to be learned, honed and perfected across a career in the education field.
Focusing on the things outside of our control (parents, pay, class size, etc.) keeps us from honing the one thing that really makes a difference: the TEACHING.