Hear Me Out: Teaching Should Be a Civic Responsibility
With the start of the school year, I’ve been seeing a flood of complaints about education, teachers, schools, systems, curriculum, you name it. And while I’ve pivoted to something new this year, (I’m loving it by the way!💃🏻) that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped caring deeply about education. If anything, I may be more passionate about it now than ever. So let me throw out an idea that’s been rattling around in my head:
What if substitute teaching or even just volunteering in schools was treated like jury duty?
You get summoned, you show up. No excuses.
Because here’s the truth: teachers are being shamed for being human, criticized by people who’ve never stood in their shoes. Everyone’s got an opinion about how education should look, but very few have spent a single day in front of 25 kids who all need different things at the same time.
Jury Duty for Schools
So yeah, jury duty for schools. Imagine it:
Parents walking away humbled.
Politicians walking away quieter.
The general public walking away with more grace.
Teachers already know what works and what doesn’t. We also know that what works for one student doesn’t always work for another just like what works for one teacher doesn’t always work for another teacher. Education is messy. It’s human. But instead of listening to teachers, we’ve got policies being made by people who haven’t set foot in a classroom since their own graduation…a graduation that likely happened sometime back in the 1900s, when chalkboards were still cutting-edge technology and overhead projectors were considered ‘fancy. Others only know school through the narrow lens of private education or homeschooling.
That’s the crux of it.
The Civic Responsibility Argument
In America, we accept certain civic responsibilities: jury duty, voting, paying taxes. These are things we do not because they’re convenient, but because they matter. They sustain our democracy.
So why not education?
Imagine if every citizen had to serve at least once in a classroom. The shift would be massive:
Understanding. People would see firsthand the complexity of teaching.
Empathy. More grace for educators when they stumble, because the public would finally grasp the weight of the role.
Better policy. Fewer shiny ideas that collapse in practice, more grounded solutions that actually work.
The Shift We Need
We’re facing shortages of teachers, substitutes, and respect. And while pay, training, and support all matter, maybe the deeper solution is this: pulling everyone into the room.
Jury duty makes us show up for justice. Maybe it’s time we showed up for education the same way.