Those Who Can't Teach Anymore
"Those Who Can’t Teach Anymore" is an Ambie Nominated, Award-Winning, 7-part narrative series exploring why teachers are leaving education and what can be done to stop the exodus.
Trailer · Wed, March 19, 2025
Season 2 Trailer
Teachers are still leaving education at an alarming rate. In the new season of Those Who Can't Teach Anymore, we will get a look at a year in the life of a teacher. We will meet 15 teachers from across the country who volunteered to keep weekly personal audio journals of their 2023-2024 school year. These teachers recorded on their own at home on their couches, in their kitchens, in their classrooms, or on their drives to work. Teachers everywhere are all going through similar things. If we have a better understanding of what teachers experience, we might be able to take the steps needed to help keep brilliant teachers in education. Look for Episode 1 on May 6, National Teacher Appreciation Day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bonus · Wed, October 30, 2024
Bonus: Presenting The Modern West
Those Who Can't Teach Anymore presents a segment that Charles Fournier produced for the podcast The Modern West. In this segment, "One Size Does Not Fit All," you will meet Iva, an innovative teacher conducting scientific research with her middle schoolers on the Wind River Reservation. They even set up trail cameras! You can find other episodes from The Modern West wherever you find podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bonus · Fri, July 19, 2024
Bonus: Presenting Those Who Can't Do
Those Who Can't Teach Anymore presents a segment from the podcast Those Who Can't Do, hosted by Andrea Forcum. In this segment, Charles Fournier talks with Andrea about teacher attrition, absurd dress codes, and what not to do in your classroom. To hear the whole episode and more episodes from Andrea's podcast, check out Those Who Can't Do wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Bonus · Wed, July 12, 2023
Bonus: Presenting This Changes Everything
Those Who Can't Teach Anymore presents the award-winning episode, "The Kids Are Not All Right," from This Changes Everything, a Cascade Public Media/Crosscut podcast. In this episode, producer and host Sara Bernard explores how the pandemic has exacerbated the mental health of students and teachers. In a moment when students and teachers are in need of support, the questions remain: What is being done and is it enough? To hear more about how the pandemic has impacted schools, check out the rest of This Changes Everything, Season 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
S1 E7 · Wed, February 22, 2023
Those Who Can't Teach Anymore
Think about your favorite teacher. What were they like? What made them your favorite? Now, imagine if your favorite teacher quit their job before you had them in your life. What would you have lost? Think about what future generations of students will lose if more teachers leave because teachers don’t feel valued or trusted or fairly compensated. If things don’t change, more teachers will leave because they are realizing that they can. In this episode, we hear from former teachers who left education and are happier for it. Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Don’t You Leave” by Crowander is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Happening for Lulu” by Kraus is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Soldier’s Story” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Be Nice” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Fireworks” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Faster, Sons of Vengeance, Faster!” by Doctor Turtle is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Changing Moment (ID 1651)” by Lobo Loco is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Transcript: A quick warning, this episode discusses sexual abuse. During the quarantine, I received an anonymous letter from a former student that had since graduated. After pleasantries, the note says “I’m writing you now to thank you for things that you never knew you did when I was your student.” And then they go on to explain that though I would not have known this, they had been sexually abused by their father, and they had just found the strength to tell someone, cut ties, and start the healing process. They said that my class was a space that made them feel safe, heard, and respected. They wrote that I helped them quote “understand that there are good men
S1 E6 · Wed, February 08, 2023
Those Who Stay
The first step to solving the problem of teacher attrition is to admit that there is a problem. Some groups have already taken this step, and they are listening to teachers in order to create solutions that will retain teachers. These programs make a big difference, but their approach isn’t the norm. In this episode, we hear about successful efforts to keep teachers in education, and we’ll ask the question: Who should have the responsibility of keeping teachers in education? Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Sunlight” by Nul Tiel Records is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “I’m Fat” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Keep The Prices Down” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Kaptan Hayvanlar Alemi” by Hayvanlar Alemi is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Grab a Bargain” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY license. “Place on my Bonfire” by Lobo Loco is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Your Paradigm Dial” by Origami Repetika is licensed under a CC BY license. Transcipt My third grade teacher had a phone booth in his classroom. It was a full size, glass booth that was mostly sound-proof. The phone booth was the choice place to spend any indoor recess, but during class, it was used as the equivalent of a time-out. Our teacher was a mustachioed man who called his facial hair his “cookie duster” and wore tinted-glasses and thick collared polyester shirts, If a student was misbehaving
S1 E5 · Wed, January 25, 2023
Education has a Tourist Problem
Imagine that you are hiring a new English teacher. None of the people who apply have any of the qualifications to teach English. No teaching degree. No English degree. No experience in the classroom. Would you hire any of them? Probably not. Now here is the irony. Many of the people making curricular and legislative decisions about education don’t have the qualifications to be hired within education. This is a problem. In this episode, we hear how standardization, high-stakes testing, and policy decisions made by non-educators may be contributing to teachers’ decisions to leave education. Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “So Stark (You’re a Skyscraper” by Matt LeGroulx is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Cat and Mouse” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY license. “Space (Outro)” by Andy Cohen is licensed under a CC BY license. “Home Fire” by Nul Tiel Records is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Press Conference” by Blanket Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Things Change” by HoliznaCC0 is in the Public Domain . “Living Life” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Boulevard St Germain” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Hungaria” by Latche Swing is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA license. “Business Getaway ” by <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Scott_Holmes/Music_for_TV__Film_Vol_2/Scott_Holmes_-_Infrastruc
S1 E4 · Wed, January 11, 2023
Why Are We Here?
What’s the purpose of education? If you were to ask 10 different people this question, you may get 10 different answers. Education shouldn’t be this complex, but getting people to come to a consensus on anything right now is a challenge. This can be a problem. If teachers are expected to meet ambiguous goals, it can lead to burnout and frustration. In this episode, we hear how conflicting values in education may be contributing to teachers’ decisions to leave. Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Your Paradigm Dial” by Origami Repetika is licensed under a CC BY license. “Room With a View” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Business Getaway ” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “I Was Different” by Ov Moi Omm is licensed under a CC BY license. “Sunny Afternoon” by HoliznaCC0 is in the Public Domain . Transcript: In the spring of 2016, Julian Saporiti, the guy that made the theme song for this podcast, asked me if I wanted to help him teach a summer road trip class for the University of Wyoming. It was easy to say yes, and this class ended up being one of the most influential educational experiences that I’ve ever had. Many of our students felt the same way. One of them, Sam Mallory, even talked about it in his graduation speech. Sam Mallory: Two years ago about this time of year, I was officially enrolled in the most influential course in my college experience And what made this class so significant likely had to do with the fact that we valued experience over product, which is a pretty non-traditional approach to a college course.. Our Syllabus included the following: Introductions: Julian Saporiti - Instructor /Guitarist. Charles Fournier Advisor/ Contemplation Mentor Books: Jack Kerouak’s On The Road and John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charlie Music: Songs and lyrics for sing-alongs Assignments: This list
S1 E3 · Wed, December 28, 2022
What Would Robin Williams Do?
The most easily recognized teachers in our culture are on the big screen. So when we think about good teaching, it’s almost impossible not to think of Robin William’s character in Dead Poets Society standing on a desk and inspiring his students. This might be part of the problem. When teaching is associated with unrealistic Hollywood characters, it can create impractical or ridiculous assumptions about what teachers do. In this episode, we hear how the stereotypes of teachers may be contributing to teachers’ decisions to leave education. Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “NPC Theme” by HoliznaCC0 is in the Public Domain . “Sunny Afternoon” by HoliznaCC0 is in the Public Domain . “Infrastructure” by Scott Holmes Music is licensed under a CC BY-NC license. “Just a Blip” by Andy G. Cohen is licensed under a CC BY license. “Room With a View” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. Movie Clips: Freedom Writers (Paramount Pictures) Dead Poets Society (Touchstone Pictures, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) School of Rock (Paramount Pictures) Ferris Bueller (Paramount Pictures, United International Pictures) Transcript: Episode 3: “What Would Robin Williams Do?” There is a picture-day-esqu photo on my parents’ fridge of me sitting on my dad’s lap. I am wearing a tie-dye shirt and my orange hair is in its natural state of an Eddie Munster widows peak. My dad is in a blue button down and has on a tie. My cheeks crowd my eyes, my smile is so big. My dad, who doesn’t always smile for pictures, has a cheeky grin. This picture was taken around the same time that my dad squatted down to eye-level with me and said: “When people ask you where you got your red hair, you tell them the milkman. Okay?” He didn’t make a big deal about telling me this. It was just a directive, and I said okay. I figured, yeah, that makes sense. So as adults would come by, ruffle my hair and say things like, “Oh my, what pretty
S1 E2 · Wed, December 14, 2022
Inheritance
Many of the problems modern teachers are facing aren’t new, so we’re going back in time to find out how our education system became a system that teachers are currently fleeing. Come to find out, modern teachers inherited low pay, limited respect, and a system that strips communities of their cultural traditions. In this episode, hear how Indian Boarding Schools and the American Industrial Revolution have left traces on modern education, and how these traces are contributing to teachers’ decisions to leave education. Music: Theme Song By Julian Saporiti “Sonata No.13 in E Flat Major, Op. 24 No. 1-II. Allegro, Molto, e Vivace” by Daniel Veesey is in the Public Domain . “Railroad’s Whisky Co” by Jahzzar is Licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Ugly Truth” by HoliznaCC0 is in the Public Domain . “Upsurge” by Jonah Dempcy is a CC BY-NC license. “Green Lights” by Jahzzar is licensed under a CC BY-SA license. “Pizz” by Andrew Christopher Smith is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA Transcript: I had a band teacher once hold me after class and force me eat a beef and bean burrito. He sat in front of me on the piano bench to make sure that I ate it. I was a freshman, in the middle of the high school wrestling season, and I was cutting weight for my first varsity tournament – where I’d end up getting my lips knocked off. My teacher, Mr. Duran, was short, wiry, wore jeans with a braided leather belt and a button-down shirt. He had round-framed glasses, combed his hair to the side, and more than once told me to listen to the greats like Chick Webb and not just the white guys that made it on the radio. He was in his 30th year of teaching, and he was not shy about giving advice. While I ate the burrito, Duran talked about playing baseball in college and how abruptly a life of sports could come to an end but how long a life of music could last. This was mature guidance, albeit, guidance that I see more value in now than I did then.
S1 E1 · Wed, November 30, 2022
Fight, Flight, or Apathy
We are witnessing a mass exodus of teachers from education. My wife, Jennie, is one of those teachers that left. She, like many educators, was tired of not being treated like a professional. Even for me, a high school English teacher, the job is getting harder. So I go in search of answers. In this episode, we hear from Jennie and two other former teachers about why they left teaching. From struggles with mental health, to low pay, to a lack of autonomy in the classroom - they give insight into why we are losing good teachers across the country. This episode was produced by Charles Fournier. It was edited by Melodie Edwards. Other editing help came from Noa Greenspan, Sarah-Ann Leverette, and Cody Fournier. All music is by Julian Saporiti . A special thanks to Jennica Fournier, Shane Atkinson, and Jaye Wacker for being inspiring teachers and taking time to sit down and chat with me. This podcast is funded in part by the Fund for Teachers Fellowship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Trailer · Fri, September 23, 2022
Season Trailer: Those Who Can't Teach Anymore
Brilliant teachers are leaving education in droves, and they will continue to leave unless something changes. In February of 2022, the National Education Association reported that 55% of teachers were thinking about leaving education earlier than they had planned. The history and politics surrounding education, portrayels of education in pop-culture, and difficulty of teaching conditions have been feeding into why teachers want to leave. If we don't take time to listen to teachers and work towards fostering an environment that makes them want to stay, great teachers will continue to leave the profession. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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