Nobody claimed that being a teacher is easy or luxurious. You CHOOSE not to be a teacher because of the associated crap you have to put up with. I know I don't have the patience to do it either, and I'm glad a lot of folks do. I respect their efforts to teach my children and their dedication to their craft. But those people CHOOSE to be teachers, knowing full well what the job entails, pay, etc. It is hypocritical when teachers complain about low wages (their annual pay in my area is above the median household income in their districts and they have super-cheap health care, for the most part) and long hours for 9 months out of the year touting how dedicated they are to the children, how they have to do continuing education, their bosses couldn't do their jobs but mandate how they do it, etc., then post a series of "Parents, they're your problem now!" memes on Facebook as they have their post-state-testing last month of the school year countdown to their three month vacation. Teachers can't have it both ways, playing the martyr during the school year then flaunting the main counter (it's a 9 month job) that the general public has when they claim they are underpaid.
What you're saying represents what most people think about the job of teaching, but I'd like to make a few corrections:
- When I started teaching, teachers went in with full knowledge that they were making a trade-off: We promised to accept a low paycheck with little room for advancement, but we'd have good benefits (for low cost to us) and a secure retirement ... and it was a good "mom job" in terms of life-work balance. As years have gone by, that has changed: The paycheck is still lower than those of other professionals with similar educational /performance requirements, but the benefits have lagged (and now are far from low cost), and the pension is not as secure as it once was. The job has increased
exponentially in the last decade; larger class sizes, more requirements from the state, more difficult students. Yet the public seems to think we're still operating under the old system under which I entered.
- Similarly, the public doesn't know what's going on with teacher salaries ... except for the people who are paying close attention to what the media says. Here's an example: About two years ago in my state, after a six-year salary freeze, the media announced that teachers were receiving an average salary increase of 7% all in one fell swoop. 7% is pretty good ... but the reality is that the state gave
new teachers something like a 15% raise (because new teachers are leaving in droves), and teachers at the top of the salary scale (I'm not there, but I'm sympathetic) received literally nothing ... while insurance almost doubled in cost in a single year, meaning that the most experienced teachers not only received nothing after that six-year salary freeze but also saw a pay decrease, while the public said, "Why are you complaining? Didn't you just get a 7% raise?" And when we say, "The most experienced teachers are making fewer dollars than they were a decade ago", we are told that we're whiney.
- We are 10-month employees. We are not paid for an 8-week summer break.
- I don't claim that my immediate superiors couldn't do my job; after all, all the principals and assistant principals were once classroom teachers, and even if they're out of practice, they know the score. However, I'm not sure about the legislators who make the laws -- though they make laws that affect our children's lives and futures, many of them have not been in a classroom since they themselves were students. No, it's not that they lack the ability ... it's that they don't pay enough attention to actually know what's going on in schools to know what needs to be done. In all the years I've been teaching, no legislator has ever returned one of my letters, visited my school, or asked a single question.
And I have to point out an inconsistency in your arguments:
- You say teachers whine all year long, then laugh, "They're your problem now, parents!" Literally millions of people work as teachers. You can't assume that these are all the same people.