VOICE FOR EVERYONE | Share your voice with KSHB 41’s Abby Dodge
A new Ray-Pec dual-credit course could be a long-term solution for the nationwide teacher shortage.
A few weeks ago, I asked the district’s Superintendent how they are addressing the teacher shortage and he pointed to the Teacher Academy as a starting point.
“I think that we have been recruiting teachers the wrong way for a very long time. Teaching is hard,” said Teacher Academy instructor Carma Richey. “It’s the most rewarding thing in the world in my opinion, but it is very difficult.”
The Raymore-Peculiar Teacher Academy has grown from 6 to 21 students in just one year.
“It’s going to take a little bit for us to see the effect of it, but I do think we will eventually see the effect,” Richey said.
One of the advantages of this program is students spend more than 50 percent of their time in a classroom with their teaching mentor.
Darrius Bradley is a junior at Ray-Pec. He said he’s an unlikely candidate for the program, failing some classes early on in high school.
“I really had it made up in my mind that school wasn’t for me,” Bradley said.
Now, Bradley is responsible for creating lesson plans and developing relationships with students through the Teaching Academy.
Never having a Black teacher to look up to, Darrius knows what his presence in the classroom would mean to future students.
“All the Black employees are janitors and stuff. So, some people never get the interaction, especially people of another race,” Bradley said. “Having a Black teacher, you get a different perspective of life as a whole.”
As a graduate of the program, Libby MacLean said she was unsure of a career in teaching until she got into a classroom.
“I could see it click in their heads, that’s when I think it clicked for me,” she said. “I want to see this on a daily basis.”
One of the advantages of this program is students spend more than 50 percent of their time in a classroom with their teaching mentor.
