According to Tom Carroll, the commission's executive director and a former Education Department official, "We like to look for a fix that works, and when we say the problem is a shortage, then the solution is simple: just find more people. Unfortunately, the teacher shortage problem is a little more complicated than that." The report notes that because of conditions in our schools, many new teachers quit within their first few years on the job-and that this is most pronounced in our poorer school districts.

The report asserts that our schools need "highly qualified beginning teachers" who have a deep understanding of the subject and how students learn, as well as an ability to create a positive learning environment.

Some of your friends, newbies to the teaching profession, tell you that they never get time to do the "fun stuff" of teaching. Instead, they spend the bulk of their time in the classroom engaged in classroom management activities with disruptive students. Off hours, they spend an overwhelming amount of time doing prep work in order to stick to the mandated curriculum.

Let's imagine that Tom Carroll has just asked you to use Systems Thinking to facilitate a meeting addressing teacher shortages-and the meeting starts in two hours. Develop a simple map or model that will help you to focus the discussion, ask good questions, and clarify the issues around the apparent teacher shortage.

Good luck! Tune in next month, and compare your work to ours!