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Teachers' Day 2017: 4 reasons why America needs great teachers more than ever

The latest Google Doodle celebrates the stars of the US education system

New York

Tuesday 09 May 2017 19:11 BST

Google is celebrating teachers with an animated doodle (Google)

Google is honouring teachers with a colourful doodle for Teachers’ Day.

The animated image depicts the letter "g" teaching the other letters of Google about a range of subjects from chemistry to space and arithmetic.

In a changing political climate with competing ideas on how to fix America's struggling education system, here’s why the country needs to value its teachers and inspire even more to take up the job.

1. The US is declining in global education rankings

When it comes to math and science education, American students rank behind many advanced industrial nations, according to data from Pew international math and science assessments.

The most recent Programme for International Student Assessment — one of the largest comparisons compiled between countries — found that US students ranked 38th out of 71 in math and 24th in science in that field (other rankings are more generous with the US, but not by much).

2. Trump's White House is looking to cut education funding

President Donald Trump requested a budget earlier this year that would slash domestic funding while boosting military expenditures. That included a requested cut of 13.5 per cent, or $9.2 billion, to the US Department of Education.

Included in that original budget plan was the removal of $2.4 billion in grants for teacher training and $1.2 billion in funding for summer and after school programmes. America has always needed great teachers, but with the education system facing such a rocky path, it needs to value and recruit them more than ever.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Show all 13

1/13Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Ida Wells

An African-American journalist and activist born in Mississippi in 1862, she wrote prolifically on the fight for women’s suffrage as well as the struggle for civil rights. She documented the practice of lynching black people in the southern states showing how it was often used as means of controlling or punishing black people who competed with whites rather than as a means of “justice” for crimes.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Lotifa El Nadi

Egypt’s first female pilot born in 1907 in Cairo. Although her father saw no need for her to pursue secondary education, expecting her to marry and have a family, she rebelled and worked as a secretary and telephone operator at a flying school in exchange for lessons as she had no other means to pay for the training. Her achievements made headlines around the world when she flew over the pyramids and competed in international flying races.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Frida Kahlo

A Mexican painter and activist born in Mexico City in 1907, her work has been celebrated internationally as emblematic of Mexican national and indigenous traditions and by feminists for its honest depiction of female experience.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Lina Bo Bardi

A Brazilian architect, born in Italy in 1914, she devoted her life to the promotion of the social and cultural potential of architecture and design. She is also celebrated for her furniture and jewellery designs.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Olga Skorokhodova

A Soviet scientist born into a poor Ukranian peasant family in 1911, she lost her vision and hearing at the age of five. Overcoming these difficulties in a remarkable way, she became a researcher in the field of communication and created a number of scientific works concerning the development of education of deaf-blind children. She was also a teacher, therapist and writer.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Miriam Makeba

A South African singer and civil rights activist born in Johannesburg in 1932, she was forced to work as a child following her father’s death. She became a teenage mother after a brief and allegedly abusive marriage at 17, before she was discovered as a singer of jazz and African melodies. After becoming hugely successful in the US and winning a Grammy, she became involved in the civil rights struggle stateside as well as in the campaign against apartheid in her home country, writing political songs. Upon her death, South African President Nelson Mandela said that “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Sally Ride

An American astronaut and physicist, she was born in Los Angeles in 1951 and joined NASA in 1978 after gaining her PhD. She became the first American woman and the third woman ever to go into space in 1983 at the age of 32. Prior to her first space flight, she attracted attention because of her gender and at press conferences, was asked questions such as, “Will the flight affect your reproductive organs?” She later worked as an academic at the University of California, San Diego.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Halet Cambel

A Turkish archaeologist born in 1916, she became the first Muslim women to compete in the Olympics in the 1936 Berlin games as a fencer. She declined an invitation to meet Adolf Hitler on political grounds, and after the conclusion of the Second World War, she trained as an architect and later worked as an academic in Turkey and Germany.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Ada Lovelace

An English mathematician and writer born in 1815, she became the world’s first computer programmer. The daughter of poet George Byron, she is chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine, and was the first to recognise the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, creating the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Rukmini Devi

An Indian dancer and choreographer credited with reviving Indian classical dance, she was born in 1904 and presented her form of dance on stage even though it was considered “low” and “vulgar” in the 1920s. She features in India Today’s list of “100 people who shaped India” having also worked to re-establish traditional Indian arts and crafts and as an animal rights activist.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Cecilia Grierson

An Argentine physician, reformer born in Buenes Aires in 1859, she became the first woman in Argentina to receive a medical degree having previously worked as a teacher. Women were barred from entering medical school at the time, so she first volunteered as an unpaid lab assistant before she was allowed to train as a doctor. She was acclaimed for her work during a cholera epidemic before going on to found the first nursing school in Argentina. The harassment she experienced at medical school helped make her a militant advocate for women’s rights in Argentina.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Lee Tai-young

Korea’s first female lawyer and judge born in 1914 in what is now North Korea, she was also an activist who founded the country’s first legal aid centre and fought for women’s rights throughout her career. Her often mentioned refrain was, “No society can or will prosper without the cooperation of women.” She worked as a teacher, married and had four children before she was able to begin her legal career after the Second World War, becoming the first woman to enter Seoul National University. She also fought for civil rights in the country and was arrested in 1977 for her beliefs, receiving a three-year suspended sentence and a ten year disbarment.

Google marks International Women's Day with 13 amazing women

Suzanne Lenglen

A French tennis champion born in 1899, she popularised the sport winning 31 championships and dominating the women’s sport for over a decade. She was the first female tennis celebrity and one of the first international women sports stars, overcoming a childhood plagued with ill health including chronic asthma – which continued to plague her in her adult life. At 15, she became the youngest ever winner of a major championship and lost only seven matches during her entire career. She received widespread criticism for her decision to turn professional, but defended her right to make a decent living in the days when the grand slam tournaments paid a relative pittance to the winners.

3. Many jobs of the future are in science, maths and tech

Jobs that rely on STEM expertise (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) are expected to increase considerably. Those jobs, which generally require a bachelor’s degree, are also pretty lucrative, and there will be hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the next years that pay six-figure salaries.

4. Creationism is still being taught in a number of public schools

At least 14 states allow taxpayer dollars to go fund schools that teach creationism. The issue is contentious to say the least, with opponents saying that teaching creationism with taxpayer dollars violates the separation of church and state clause in the US constitution. What's more, it isn’t based on any empirical evidence.

Supporters of that curriculum argue for their religious freedoms and say that evolution hasn’t been adequately proven. Having good teachers to wade that debate and help students to make informed decisions has always been important.

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