Giving Compass' Take:

• Tes discusses a so-called crisis of confidence among teachers (specifically in the UK), in which those who aren't connected to the profession feel free to weigh in on it.

• What can educators in the US learn? How might we be able to increase retention rates?

• This national poll finds that teachers would not recommend their profession to others.

The Oxford English Dictionary opted for "toxic" as its 2018 word of the year, partly because they reported a 45 percent increase in people searching for the word.

This little bit of data will speak volumes to teachers, although I suspect many of them would have plumped for "crisis." A widely reported school funding crisis has joined forces with the teacher recruitment and retention crisis, to make quite an unholy trinity this Christmas. And just to put the cherry on the crisis cake, the BBC’s documentary series School has been delivering a warts-and-all view of what budget constraint really looks like, at least for one group of schools.

Who better to bring some festive cheer than the singer Charlotte Church? She made an appearance at the SSAT national conference and promptly told teachers they’re doing it all wrong, shortly before global thought leaders and some of the world’s leading policymakers, business leaders, philanthropists, educators and innovators gathered in Hong Kong for the second annual Yidan Prize Summit to tell teachers: “You’re doing it all wrong.”

Why is this? How come so many people employed outside the profession feel not just able to tell the professionals what to do, but to do so lavishly and without the least embarrassment? The annual events calendar in Dubai for thought leaders and innovators must be getting a bit crowded.

Read the full article about outsiders telling teachers what to do by Joe Nutt at tes.com.