New America Media, Audio, Shirin Sadeghi, Posted: Sep 26, 2011

He's that guy who takes care of your kids all day long everyday. She's the friend they need when they're alone. He's the authority they turn to when they need help. He or she is your child's teacher and teachers are a dying breed in America.

There are currently 3.2 million teachers in America, but in the next few years 1.8 million of them will be up for retirement. Of the other teachers, statistics indicate that 62% of them leave the profession within five years and it has nothing to do with not loving what they do.

Jonathan Dearman was a teacher in San Francisco for 5 years before he left the profession to go into his family business of real estate. He is one of a handful of teachers who are featured in the new documentary American Teacher and he told New America Now Host Shirin Sadeghi what it's like to be an educator in America.