I received a *cute* little email forward from my sister, about how teachers are apparently underpaid and worth say, 8 times more than they get paid. I thought I'd share the forward with you, and then my response. It's worth the read:
SICK OF THOSE HIGH PAID TEACHERS
Their hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten months a year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do...baby-sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right
I would give them $3.00 dollars an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 AM to 4:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.
Now, how many do they teach in a day...maybe 30? So that's 19.5 X 30 =$585.00 a day. But remember they only work 180 days a year! I'm not going to pay them for any vacations. Let's see...that's $585 x180 = $105,300 per year. Hold on! My calculator must need batteries!
What about those special teachers or the ones with master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour. That would be $7 times 6-1/2 hours times 30 children times 180 days => > $245,700.00 per year.
Wait a minute, there is something wrong here! There sure is, duh!
And my Response:
Oh Sister, so cute are you when you feverishly defend teachers…regardless of the truth.
However, while you were amassing tens of thousands of dollars of debt only to enter a career you knew only paid ~$34k per year, I think they failed to teach you proper math. Lucky for you, while only collecting $14k of school debt for a career that pays me 3, 4, 5 and many more times the national average, I did learn what you teachers call “new” math.
You imply teachers are worth $245,000 per year. Well Please see below for my “lesson plan” in rebuttal to your below email about teachers pay.
1. Though you do teach more than 1 student at a time, it is absurd to think that your pay should go up proportionately to the number of pupils in your class. I mean, the guy that works the McDonalds counter gets the same hourly wage if the serves 20 people an hour as he does if he serves 1 person per hour. Life just doesn’t work that way.
So lets call it 19.50 per day, not $585 per day. To be fair, lets bump you up to minimum wage: $59.63 per day
2. Teachers with Master’s Degree’s you say? In my industry those folks have a starting salary at most 60% higher than those with a BA….surely not the 133% more pay you claim in the below email. Masters degree =$80.50
Grand total: $17,173 per year. You make about double that. Wish I made double what the basic math says about my career.
BUT WAIT, there is more!
3. You have some of the best health insurance available, for almost $0 out of your pocket for premiums. My company (that offers great insurance in the private sector) pays about 90% of my premiums. That’s worth about $10,000 per year for my wife and I. We know your insurance is cheaper for you than mine is for me, so lets assume your ‘company’ pays 98%. That’s a value to you of $10,780.
salary + benefits= $44,780 per year or 161% greater than my above calculation.
4. Lets not forget the sweetheart of a retirement plan that you contribute $0 into. I’ve heard some teachers retire with up to 120% of their highest annual salary. So if they make it to $60,000/yr like many teachers do they retire with $72,000 a year in retirement. But lets say you are a new teacher and you only get 80% of your highest salary when in retirement. That’s still $48,000 a year. Of course you will live for probably 30 years after you retire earlier than most people do (because they don’t have the great pension plan you have) so in today’s dollars that’s $1,440,000. You’ll work about 20 years before retirement so lets call it compensation of $72,000 per year NOW in TODAY’S dollars.
I could get more technical with present value, inflation, opportunity cost, etc, but I am sure you have papers to grade.
So with my simple math we have $44,780 + $72,000= $116,780 per year or 580% more than my original calculation.
5. As a salaried employee it doesn’t really matter if you work 180 days or 300 days. I work about 245 days out of the 250-255 work days that my company recognizes. When I take a day off, they actually count that as compensation. They say a day off has value above and beyond my salary. So lets look at the summer, spring break and Christmas vacations you get. That’s what, 70 additional days off do be conservative? Seventy days at $80.50 per day…that’s $5,635 worth of additional compensation.
$116,780 + $5,635= $122,415
I could go on about the value of virtually guaranteed employment due to a rock solid union contract, guaranteed raises regardless of performance, etc, etc….but I think you get the point.
I think you can see that teachers are paid VERY well and appreciate benefits and job security that most of us in the private sector will never enjoy.
Your (apparently underpaid) loving brother,
Jeff
P.S. never send something like that to a Financial Analyst
So, do you make $122,415 per year?
-Jeff the Great
Posts
27 comments:
Ooooh, Jeff, you went a little nutso there. Kinda hard/unfair to make assumptions about a job you've never done and how much actually goes into it. Financial "anal"ysts sure can paint a pretty picture with numbers, but how much does that truly relate to real life effort/time/energy? Shouldn't time and energy be compensated as well?
Clearly the perspective of someone without any experience in public education. "0% contribution to retirement plans" do a little research and you will see that the "sweet" retirement plan you speak of is not so sweet. Most states require substantial contributions and the exclude you from collecting any Social Security contributions made through previous employment.
While you are researching retirement plans try to find some facts to support the rest of your claims. Or do highly paid financial analysts not need to do research? Research is probably a waste of time as it gets in the way of giving bad advice about sub-prime mortgages, refinancing, hedge funds, and collecting fees for giving information that any monkey can find on the Internet.
Haha this Jeff guy's logic makes no sense. He also should spend less time at the office, and more in the gym.
Ahhh... but he failed to account for the first paragraph that assumed that teachers are babysitters. Using that logic, a babysitter gets paid for each child he/she tends. Babysitters are not salaried. The more children they keep, the more they earn. Come on, Jeff, use the skills you learned from a teacher and read the WHOLE story.
Truth is, teachers hours and all the time off they get is very hard on a home with two working adults. All of their vacation time goes to summers or holidays or teachers conferances. I would be willing to pay more to teachers if they worked more days out of the year.
oh WAIT! Teachers don't get paid for summers off...they can choose to have their salaries spread out over those summer months, but they certainly do not get paid for the summer. There is a reason why the manager of my local foot locker has a degree in education but is working retail...the job is not a well paid one.
Not sure where you're getting the college debt, either. It not only costs tens of thousands for college every year but also masters and if the teacher is really dedicated, they pay for THEIR OWN National Board Certification, and only some districts give you a raise for that. The school I went to (I'm not a teacher, but the school is known as a teacher's school) is not a high end college at all, just a standar liberal arts college and it was $16000 a year 6 years ago. Get the facts.
Rock solid contracts? Teachers are lucky to get a 1% raise a year with those contracts. They have a union (which they pay dues for), yes, but they also have to deal with every stupid financial analyst saying that they're overpaid and have to deal with government games as well. Having to fight for 1% a year, would you be happy with that, Jeff? And try having the stress of when you're up for tenure, you can get let go for no reason. Job security? Really, Jeff?
Hmmmm, retirement...not sure where you're getting that 0%, there are matching programs but certainly not this amazing program you're talking about.
Hmmmmm, good healthcare...not sure where you're getting that either.
And how about the extra stress of no respect from the community, I'm sure you're used to being the town pariah, but teachers certainly don't deserve that.
Too bad you've just proven that your math is wack because you haven't applied logic to it. Get off your high horse and start shoveling the sh*t you're putting on the web.
Look at all these teachers crying...
Not only do they have the most stable jobs in the country, they have the best benefits too.
Yet, despite "caring about the children" they seem to threaten to strike every time their pay doesn't go up by more than the private sector (which has 10%+ unemployment, might I add.)
Seriously, you work at the school for 7 hours a day for 180 days out of the year.
Others work 9-10 hours a day for 250 days a year. (240 with vacation time.)
180/240 = 3/4, not even counting the 7 hours versus 9 to 10 hours. When you grade your papers, yada yada, you work the 9 to 10 hours that everybody else only works. Yet, you work 75% of the time that anybody else does.
I don't see how any teachers spend more time than that grading papers. I'm a college student now, and I'm in luck if it takes my professors less than two weeks to grade anything I do, even WITH TA's helping them. I know, Apples and Oranges, right?
Still, I could teach long division and third grade spelling without a degree. I'd love to do so for 45k a year and 60 days off above what the private sector gets.
If you don't like your job (or pay) as teachers, then get the proper education to find another one.
I'm suffering extreme financial hardships right now doing just that. Still, I don't complain about it, I just do the best I can.
You don't see me threatening strikes, or protesting at the capitol.
Also, to the teachers that cried about "not being able to take social security payouts"
That's because teachers, as state employees, contribute their social security money to their own pension funds.
They don't pay into social security, they pay into their own pension funds.
Meanwhile, the private sector pays into social security, and many of us under 30 will never see a dime of social security in our lifetimes.
I guess I should pay more taxes to pay more to teachers that work 75% of the time that I do, so that they can get better retirement benefits than me and not piss away hundreds a month on FICA.
Oh boy do I have a few things to say....
As a teacher, so much of this is a mess. So are most of the comments left by ignorant people.
To the anonymous who said that we do not get social security because we do not put in to it.... READ the what was said. We do not get the social security that we put into from PAST jobs, not our teaching job.
To the Anonymous who complained about waiting 2 weeks for a grade..... Try correcting 5 written assignments times 30 students times 5 days a week.. that's a whopping 750 assignments a week!! And that is just a rough estimate for elementary school! What about those teachers that teach multiple classes a day??
This article, and the comments just show how clueless people are about what goes into a teaching career. I WISH some of you could be in our shoes for just one week.
See what you think then. I find it amazing that athletes and other celebrities can make millions, but the ones teaching our youth get shafted. It's awesome
What really makes me laugh is when the ignorant people say that Teachers work 7 hours a day! I go home after working at least 8 and work another 3 to 4 hours at home on school work! summers off-thats a joke-I have to work another job to pay for my degree-we are not free loaders that get free handouts-we pay for our education . And babysit you say-I would love to see Jeff in a classroom with 36 students who have no discipline at home from their parents -yet we teach these children what the elders fail to do. So jeff-get off your high horse and come and teach with us for awhile-you couln't handle it.
You so called "Teachers" are idiots and make way too much money. You live above your means trying to purchase BMW's and Mercedes Benz's, bling bling jewelry and such. Then you want to complain about not having enough money? Give me a break. You earn enough money, you just want to flaunt the money you do make to project a lifestyle which you don't or can't actually afford to live. Makes me sick that even the worst teachers in this country get tenure, therefor becoming immune to being terminated. I've had good teachers, and I've had bad teachers. Your focus as a teacher should not be about money. It should be about educating students. The ones that act up in the class room are the ones you could report to the principal. I'm sick of hearing excuses about you morons needing more money. In the private sector, do you know how many people out there wish they made 35-45k per year with benefits and summers off? Boohoo hoo, I have to grade papers at home. (But I drive a cadilac, and live in a house that cost way too much money) What a joke. It's no wonder this is a DUMB country. All you people care about is money.
I am was an IT professional who worked in a school district.
I left because I was paid less than the "teachers" who can not even use a computer.
We know what you do during the day.
We see you posting on face book and reading personal e-mail.
We see you playing farm-town and other browser games.
We know how hard you really work.
WOW... Some people need to get their facts together. Instead of time on figuring out all these "facts" you could start to research what it takes to become and keep your teacher certification. Then after you get your certification and maintained it with continued education after 8 years of teaching you can find out that thoes once "stable" careers are being lost as well as many careers in industry due to the economy. NOTHING is free to anyone and EVERYONE has to work hard for a living!
PART I
To compare ANY two professions is unfair and impossible UNLESS you have PERSONALLY worked both jobs. Comparing salaries or benefits is equally impossible and unfair. But I will give it a shot in the spirit of these other misguided posters…
I have been teaching for 16 years and was only able to afford my first house 3 years ago. I currently drive a 98 Ford Taurus that is falling apart. But that is me and my situation. ( I'm not sure what "bling" the previous poster is referring to.) Perhaps I need a financial analyst. Some teachers DO save their money wisely and can afford nice things and some don’t...JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PROFESSION.
Comparing a teacher to someone who works at McDonald's makes no sense. Someone who works at McDonlad's (or a doctor, lawyer, or…ah…financial analyst) serves ONE PERSON AT A TIME no matter how busy they are. A teacher is expected and required to serve THIRTY OR MORE people at THE SAME TIME for EIGHT HOURS, and to do it with professionalism and results, even if those "customers" don't want to be there. Imagine a doctor, lawyer, or...ah...financial analyst being required to serve 30+ people AT ONE TIME FOR EIGHT HOURS and some of those thirty people are swearing, not listening, or, in my case of elementary, peeing their pants. That doctor or lawyer is told they are not allowed to send them away, but to deal with them because it's their job…FOR EIGHT HOURS. And then tomorrow those SAME THIRTY CLIENTS will again be there, just as problematic as the day before, for 180 DAYS.
But again, this comparison makes no sense because YOU CAN'T COMPARE DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS.
As for salary, some schools pay more, some pay less...JUST LIKE EVERY PROFESSION. But my 1.4% guaranteed raise per year does not match the cost of living increase. And I have no recourse or way to improve my salary. I may be a bad teacher and not deserve anything more. But I may be a FANTASTIC teacher teaching YOUR child and I won't get any more money either. Maybe I was the teacher that taught YOU to be a success, but I will never be tipped, or rewarded with a bonus or promotion. I have no encouragement from YOU (or my bosses or the community) to improve or be a success.
I don’t know where the poster got his facts about my retirement package. I am required to pay social security and ALSO contribute to the state school retirement system. And my state is talking of cutting the benefits of my school retirement package so I may never see any of that money, just like SS.
I also don’t understand where non-teachers get the idea that we have job security. I was laid off due to “cutbacks in the program” after 10 years of teaching. Job security??? And there are basically no job openings except at the beginning of the school year. So if a teacher looses a job, he/she is pretty much guaranteed no job for 12 months. Fortunately I found another teaching job after a year of unemployment, but like most schools do, I was placed on the bottom rung of the pay scale same as a brand new teacher out of college. There is no negotiating in the teaching profession regardless of your experience or skill.
I will freely admit that I have been very happy with my insurance package up until a few years ago when we started having to pay more. Non-teachers see that we often have a good insurance package and try to make comparisons. You CAN’T COMPARE ONE ELEMENT of an ENTIRE PROFESSION. But I will try…
PART II (continued from previous)
What I see is non-teachers who have more than the 25 minutes for lunch I am given (not allowed to leave the building though), non-teachers who are allowed to use the restroom or get coffee whenever they want, non-teachers who are allowed to refuse service to unruly or violent “customers,” non-teachers who receive monetary bonuses/raises/promotions for working hard, and non-teachers who are allowed to make phone calls to friends/family/appointments whenever they want to. But not every profession has all these benefits either. I can’t say for sure because I’ve only worked a few other jobs besides teaching. YOU CAN’T COMPARE DIFFERENT PROFESSIONS UNLESS YOU’VE DONE BOTH BECAUSE YOU WON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.
To the former school I.T. “professional,” I wonder what your department was actually doing besides spying on teachers. I have no doubt that some teachers may have been using Facebook, Farmtown, and personal emails…JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PROFESSION. I’d be VERY SURPRISED if the people in YOUR department were not. Perhaps if people in your department were doing their own jobs, you would have blocked all of those computer-related distractions like my school I.T. department did. And you criticize the teachers for not knowing how to use a computer. How is that the teacher’s fault? Teacher’s are EXPECTED to keep up with technology but given no training or compensation or TIME to learn new technology. My school has implemented three different on-line grading systems in three years, and even our I.T. department can’t keep up with them and can’t answer our questions. But we the teachers are required to use them to post grades to parents immediately.
To this I.T. guy (and the rest of you) who paint such a FANTASTIC PICTURE of the teaching profession...great pay, benefits, time off...I do not understand why you are not quitting your job and RUNNING to the nearest college to become a teacher. Really. Are you? If not, then you completely void your entire argument and should stop making comparisons that you know nothing about. I know MANY MORE people who have left the teaching profession than have joined it.
PART III (Continued from previous.)
I am not trying to imply that I don't like teaching. In fact I LOVE it and would not want to do anything else. I only tried to respond to some of the previous misguided posters and their incorrect impressions of the teaching profession.
I know all the great reasons that I AM a teacher. But I ask you misguided posters...If teachers have it so great, why are you NOT a teacher?
Bravo, anonymous poster for Parts I, II, and III! I, too, am a teacher. I never intended on teaching but somehow ended up in the profession. Let me reflect on my experiences in the profession, as someone who didn't set out to be a part of it.
The reason we need descent health insurance is because we end up with horrible medical conditions and ailments which are a direct result of our jobs. I take medication every day for a serious stomach ailment that resulted directly from the extreme stress of my job as a teacher (out of the mouth of my doctor). I have the pleasure of contracting every contagious disease known to man. The reason our employers provide health insurance (for which we ultimately pay) is so that we can get back to the job ASAP! It's not intended as an incentive! What a luxurious job.
And then there's the "off" time, like summers (for some) and evenings (for some). I teach in the performing arts, which means that I must stay after school, sometimes until well after 10pm, for performances and rehearsals. I get no pay for this. Many times, I am required to attend performances on the weekends. I get no pay for this. And oftentimes, I must accompany students on trips to festivals, gigs, etc. outside of school (on icy, snowy roads). I get no pay for this. According to my time sheet, I worked over 46 hours every week last school year, but was only paid for 40 hours a week. So I worked 216 extra hours last year that I didn't get paid for. That's a really luxurious job.
As for the actual requirements of the job, today's teachers are required to be not only distributers of knowledge, but we are now required to be babysitters, parents, nurses, and personal counselors, to name a few. News flash - none of us WANT to be babysitters! The reason we are babysitters is because the children which all of you parents send to school have no manners, no respect, no decency, no hygiene, and little command of the English language. We're too busy teaching them how to function as human beings, which is your job as parents, not mine! Wow. That is EXACTLY the job I wanted. As I walked across the stage at graduation with my PhD in my hand, I thought, "I can't wait to be a babysitter!"
There are teachers out there that strive to do as little as possible while collecting the biggest paycheck as possible. But for the most part, and in my experiences, most of us teachers actually want to teach. Something drew us to the profession and that's why we do it. If you broke my pay down by the hour, I would make a little over those manning call centers. But I didn't choose teaching for the money. While my reasons are my own, the important part is that I chose it. Without those of us making that choice, your children wouldn't have the babysitters, parents, nurses, counselors, and most importantly, the distributors of knowledge that are all wrapped up into one little, neat professional educator package.
All professions have their issues. But I wouldn't DARE criticize something I don't understand. It is simply rude to make uninformed generalizations about anything, let alone a vast profession. Teaching was considered a noble profession centuries ago and surprisingly to some, still is! It is not a luxurious profession. Without teachers, society would be quite different now or even cease to exist. Knowledge must be perpetuated and the only people that can initiate this perpetuation, especially in today's society, are professional teachers.
Perhaps those who ignorantly assume they are experts in the field of professional education and find it necessary to criticize it should have better listened to their teachers in the areas of manners and humanity. But just as any good teacher would do, I can simply make you aware of your complete lack of respect and hope above all that you've learned your lesson.
Being married to a man, with an ex-wife who is a 3rd grade school teacher, all I can say is, it would be much easier to take all their sanctimonious squabblings about how hard their jobs are if I didn't know that she gets off work everyday at 3 and can't seem to clean the house, make dinner or have sex for being so tired. Yet the rest of us work longer hours for crappier pay and benefits, with zero time off and STILL manage to do all those other things. But some how it's all just too much when you've taught at a 3rd grade level from 9 - 3! As far as I'm concerned, I work with engineers all day and it's pretty much babysitting. Why should teachers do it for so much more than I do? And every day that I show up to my job baby-sitting all those engineer types, well, it could be my last, because I don't have the protection of some big union to get my back if someone has it out for me. I must prove my worth everyday with my boss breathing down my neck. Sure, a bunch of 3rd graders pulling at your skirt gets old, but it's "the greater good"... the "higher purpose" and it's what you went to school for! You made a specific EFFORT to get that job! It's like soldiers who enlist and then bellyache that they are getting shot at! Yeah, you are, cuz... ummmm... that's what you signed up for!
Sounds like some of you need to go back to college, get your teacher certification, and become a teacher since the "teachers life" is so easy and fabulous!
I am so incredible nauseated by some of the comments here by teachers. Now, speaking as a New York City parents I can say, 100% and without a shred of doubt, that teachers here get paid far too much. The starting salary for a newly minted college student with just a BA is $45,530. That's for a contracted 1,159 hours a year (6hours, 20 mins a day x 183 days). In other words, teachers have an hourly rate of $39.28. I, like the rest of the regular world, work 2080 hours (8hrs a day for 260 days). With my $67,000 yearly salary I have an hourly rate of $32.21.
Are teachers over paid?
Yup!
Let's not also forget that it's near impossible to fire a teacher once they have tenure and that, as far as I can tell, teachers are not in any way required to actually prove that they are capable of doing their jobs. There's no metrics for success for their roles. They can't get fired if they produce kids who can't read.
I have zero compassion for their "plight".
Teachers are overpaid? I have worked in some low income districts middle class districts and special schools for students who refuse to behave within the typical school setting. Yes those were my choices. I have had high school and middle school students ask me why I work with them because they are "dumb" and why work with kids that don't want to learn (student's words not mine) and the short and simple answer is I want to touch the future. Odds are someone TAUGHT posters to read someone TAUGHT you to think critically someone TAUGHT you to communicate in effective ways. The truth is most of what I learned about how to navigate in the world I did not learn iin the physical classroom but the experience of SCHOOL taught me how to deal with people who did not look like me,people who did not think like me, and people who were not my family so they did not HAVE to like me. For those of you who say teachers get off at 3, I don't know those teachers. Most teachers I know spend 2-3 hours after kid interaction correcting papers, adjusting lessons, and getting ready for summer. That wonderful summer? Spent preparing for next year with trainings and learning whatever new curriculum/technology has been adopted.
Having taught several years before unions came into our school system in Wisconsin I observed the effect the teacher's union had on educator's priorities. In a nutshell, the priority switched from creative teaching techniques to creative salary and benefit seeking. The last 40+ years of challenges facing the education system in this country, with priorities forced by the unions, has left us with a system that believes that money is the solution to successful education. It is not. Teachers need to face their profession as professionals rather than as union workers looking to noneducators to make their jobs easier and more profitable. If we ever want to actually improve our education system in this nation we must break away from the system that is failing our youth and our country. Teaching is very rewarding and not at all easy. Those who can't handle the job with professionalism and creativity, need to find another line of work rather than hanging on just to suckle on the taxpayer's t..... The NEA and other teacher unions and their sheep are undermining the future of our country.
OH HOW TRUE!!!! It's hard to believe there are teachers out there that have the courage to speak the truth!!! Thank YOU!!! As for the teachers having to have a union speak for them.....I would think people with masters degrees and bachelors degrees would be able to bargin for themselves???hmmm.......
So in IUSD someone who graduated the same year as I, and went straight into teaching would be earning 351$/day of work this year and have earned 170,351$ more than me over the past 5 years. On the otherhand, armed with a PhD, I will be making 160$/day, and my work days will be longer, with less vacations.
I think about HS science teacher (just won teacher of the year award) and agree they need to be paid more (although this teacher is making roughly 75-90k/yr now), and then I think about the tenured high school english teachers I had and feel like they shouldn't have been paid more than 20k. Or rather we should have been paid counseling fees to listen to them complain about Dawson's creek, their dog, or how they're out of sick days.
also, I don't agree with the math. some of these numbers are a bit arbitrary or taken out of context.
I love how people make uneducated posts about what they "think" they know about the teaching profession. I guess because one person knows a couple of teachers, that paints the picture for all of us. Well, if thats true I guess Bernie Madolf and all of the other recently busted Wall Street roadies makes all financial bankers/analysts liars and thieves.
I left a "well paid" profession to become a teacher so I am one of the few who can say that I have worked on both sides of the fence. There are pros, and cons to each side.
I can truly say that the teaching profession is the most challenging position I have ever been in, and I question myself almost daily of whether I should leave it. I have never been a so called "babysitter" who has to teach these kids everything about growing up because MOST parents do not take the time to do so. I was hired to teach a highly technical skill to my students, instead I spend most of the time teaching these students how to have a conversation with a person, how to conduct themselves in public, or what the meaning of respect is. You know, the things that parents should be teaching their kids. Oh, but while the kids aren't at school with babysitter #1, they are at home sitting in front of babysitter #2 (the xbox or playstation).
The last parent teacher conference, which lasted until 9PM (by the way I was not paid for because it falls under the *and everything else we ask you to do* clause of my non-union teaching contract) I had 0 repeat Zero parents show up, after I personally invited 11 because of some of the concerns that I genuinely have for their child.
All that I can say is this. Since becoming a teacher I have made less money and worked more hours that any other job that I have had. I came to the teaching profession because I thought that I may be able to HELP make a difference instead of complain about the problems. I am now in my third year as a teacher and although I question whether I will continue in the profession, the fact that my former students are coming back to say thank you for taking an interest in their future (when people like their own parents would not) makes me come back the next day.
Instead of bashing a teacher, why dont you go to your local school and ask what you can do to make a difference.
Dude, I'd really like to know what teacher you know has those amazing benefits they pay absolutely nothing into. We currently pay about $400 A MONTH into our medical benefits--and we hardly make what y'all seem to think all teachers make. And we're in California. I know other teachers--teachers who've been teachers for years and years who pay close to a $1000/month into these amazing benefits you speak of (and still have co-pay and all that other bullshit)
Seriously, get OVER YOURSELF. Stop picking on the people who have the least amount of support from parents, students, government and increasingly society and yet who still somehow manage to genuinely want to help your children get a decent education.
Also, blaming teachers entirely is completely missing the issue.
everyone is looking at this wrong. I dont think teachers make too much money. I think the whole institutional educational idea is flawed. We send kids to huge buildings and house them like convicts for 7 hours a day. They learn no life skills. We need to rethink this idea of education.
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