Rising Educators Club to help Central High students explore teaching careers

High school is all about allowing students to explore different pathways, and a new club at Cape Girardeau Central High School will give students more background on a career in teaching.

Howard Benyon, deputy superintendent of secondary education with the Cape Girardeau School District, said nationwide, school districts are experiencing a severe shortage of qualified teachers, and the Rising Educators Club is one way the district is looking to address the shortage locally.

“It gets tougher and tougher each year,” Benyon said of finding quality teaching candidates. “Growing your own, you train them the way you want them to work in your building, your classrooms.”

Furthermore, Benyon said, this keeps students here in the community long after graduation, contributing to society by becoming an educator.

The focus on teaching is important, Benyon said.

“If we don’t encourage in our own field, our own profession, we’re doing a disservice to education,” Benyon said. “It’s important that we build the foundation for our students. We want them to have a good, positive experience here, so they know what they’re getting when they come back here and begin to work for us.”

Tuesday’s initial meeting drew more than 60 students — too many to hold in the room originally booked for the meeting, Benyon said.

One key point in Tuesday’s meeting was the paid internship planned for this summer, assisting with summer school, Benyon said.

This way, students can have real-world experience ahead of any university courses, to see whether education could be a good fit, he added.

And, Benyon said, “education is so broad. Whether students want to become a coach, a PE teacher, a physics teacher, a math teacher. It’s just so broad, so we might as well look at that and then look at the various pathways, just within education. And this will give them the opportunity to do that.”

Benyon said when the district was hiring for an upper-level math class, only two people applied.

That speaks to one of the main factors contributing to the teacher shortage, Benyon said.

“I think economics is a big part of whether they choose the path of becoming an educator,” he said. “Teachers can get a math degree, science, physics, and can make $100,000 a year versus $40,000.”

Benyon said students are tech-savvy.

“They know the future is technology,” he said, adding the district encourages students to pursue degrees in tech fields, but that isn’t for everyone.

“Some kids are not built for a university,” Benyon said. “I wasn’t at first. I had to grow into it and learn, and I had some great people around me to help me do that.”

Benyon said his own path to education was not direct, and without the guidance and support of several teachers throughout his own education, he’d never have entered the profession.

“It is really personal experiences,” Benyon said. In secondary education especially, he said, “you don’t really know where you fit in ... so having that post secondary support is so, so important.”

A $10,000 grant through the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, will allow the Cape Girardeau School District to have the club and fund the first paid internship, Benyon said. He added he hopes the program will continue to grow and develop, so more opportunities can be available to students.

“Once we get it up and running correctly, and kids are getting more engaged with it, I think we’re going to see additional benefits,” Benyon said.

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