TEACHING Not many people want to do but everyone wants to tell you how to do it. I'm so sick of teachers being underappreciated. They have the most responsibility with the lease authority or autonomy. Just let them teach. They work under a f*cking microscope and aren't paid Jack. Rocket River
Actually, since most teachers only work 9 months a year and have large amount of holidays, they make about the same as most accountants, middle managers, and staff members at most corporations...as well as most of them don't work 8 full hours a day. So per hour, they make about normal amounts of money. They are underappreciated though, I wouldn't want to deal with everyone else's bratty kids.
As a teacher I can tell you that when you factor in calls to parents, meetings with parents, administrators, other teachers etc. Plus figure in grading papers, making lesson plans, testifying at student suspension hearings etc. It easily averages eight hour days. Whether they are paid the same per hour or not shouldn't even be the issue. They should be paid a decent living wage. That wage should be able to sustain them throughout the year.
Teachers aren't in class 8 hours a day, but with preparation time, many I know spend more than 8 hours a day working. They do get plenty of vacation though. Even so, they should probably be higher on the food chain than an accountant. Really, it's not the salary that is the real disservice we pay our teachers; it is the disrespect. One, they are looked down on as not having a significant job. Two, they are given no real authority in the education of their students. I pity teachers their plight.
My parents were both teachers and I can tell you they were LUCKY if they got 3 weeks off in the summer. In order to earn enough, they worked summer school (or a second job on weekends) and spent the 3 weeks after the kids are out in the summer and the 3 weeks prior to return going to meetings and in-services. Plus, they graded papers all weekend and until 10pm at night most nights. The "holidays" were mostly spent at in-services, etc. Plus, they were almost always required to attend student functions on weekends and over the holidays. My mom was cheerleader sponsor for 9 years meaning she went to EVERY basketball and football game including trips out of town. I don't know which teachers you are talking about.
OK, I concede the point that most teachers probably do work 8 hours a day. However... If you work 9 months a year you should be paid for 9 months a year. If I told my boss I wanted to work 3/4 of the year, yet be paid the same, I'd be laughed out of the office. If my job did require me to be at work for only 3/4 of the year and I found that I needed more money to live, I'd probably go work somewhere else for the other 1/4 of the year. And don't tell me that teachers can't find decent jobs for the summer months, because I know several that do. The teach at the local community college, they pick up summer courses to teach at school, heck, I even had a chemistry teacher in high school that did contractor research for DOW during his off time. I would however think that it would be OK to pay teachers that work at year round schools more...even though they get 3 months off, its broken up to a month at a time...it would be much harder to pick up other jobs for only a month.
If you were working the hour teachers worked.. . most folx will get some overtime. . .maybe even a raise. Esp since their job is so important. Your opinion is EXACTLY the reason Teaching is such a maligned profession. I know very nice and brilliant folx who would have like to become teachers or were teachers and basically said. . they could not afford to be a teacher. The profession is the lessor for it. Teaching is seen as a fall back. something to do if all else fails. So alot of times we end up with people who don't give a d*mn, Only there until that job at dow opens up, or bitter about actually being there. Rocket River
I agree teachers are underpaid and generally under appreciated. However you guys are missing one big point, they CHOOSE to stay teachers, they could get out and participate in the free market economy that we are in and make substantially more money. In fact, I know several that do.....do not dismiss the fact that most teachers do get the equivalant of 4 months off per year. Personally, after I sell my business and do a couple more projects I am going back to school to get my teaching certificate and then go teach. That way I can live off the interest and not have to worry about how much I make teaching. DaDakota PS. I am in favor of giving teachers a significant raise, but there needs to be some standards instilled so that lousy teachers do not get the money too. Incentivise the teachers to excel at their craft and you will see a lot better end product.
Your parents did it the right way. They picked up summer classes and worked a full year to make ends meet. That's what most of the population does. LUCKY to get 3 weeks off in the summer? I'd be lucky to get 3 weeks off in a year! You posted this while I was typing my other post. And by the way...I know lots of teachers that get the WHOLE 3 months off, it sound like your parents had a very good work ethic and you should be proud of them. BTW: My future sister in law just took a teaching position in a Dallas suburb straight out of college for $33,000/year. She has the ENTIRE summer off so she picked up class this summer for another $5,000. Thats $38,000 for the first year straight out of college! That's not too shabby, I'm sure there's lots of graduate new-hires that would take that amount, and she STILL gets about 5 weeks of vacation during the school year total...that includes Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and all the other little holidays added up as well as the time she had between picking up summer classes and the regular school year. $38,000 + 5 weeks vacation straight out of college + teacher health insurance benifits (the best there is) + pension + 401K + automatic 7% raise after the 2nd year and every year after that until some ceiling (not sure what that is). That's not too shabby if you ask me!
SuperMac, That is great for just out of college, the problem is that it ends there. You do not have that high of a ceiling. There needs to be some incentive in there for these teachers to get better and to improve. The tenure system is just not cutting it anymore. As an example. You have 2 history teachers, one is a young one who is very good at his job while another is an old foggy who is tired and does not do anything to improve. The young guy should be able to make more money then the old guy if he is a better teacher. Just my opinion though. DD
Jeez, I need to become a teacher and get these benefits...wait a minute...I am a teacher...where is this district???
I work 50-60 hours a week. Its what I do for my salary, my job demands it. I'm right out of college and I have to pay my dues. I know there might be some teachers that work that many hours a week, but not most of them. Most folks do not get overtime or a raise for working way over 40 hours a week unless they are waged workers. Most corporate people are not waged workers, they work for a salary and they are expected to do the job they were hired for, no matter how many hours it takes. MOST people I work with work about 45-55 hours a week, and some weekends, and from home when they have the time. They don't get overtime because they are salaried, just like teachers.
Richardson, outside of Dallas. She had me go over her contract with her because I have some limited legal experience from college.
I agree with most of your post. However, every accountant I know that goes to a public acct firm works over 60 hours a week, only has 2, maybe 3 weeks vacation, and doesn't really make all that much. Plus, most have master's degrees, and CPA licenses, which is another year or two of education than it takes to be a teacher.
My dad is a teacher and i dont really see him complaining, he teaches in high school so i guess thats a plus cuz most kids are mature enough to not act up. I dont really know what i am talking about so just ignore this post.
I'm going to jump in here as the son of two lifetime teachers and say that I dont know what the hell all these teachers that "spend all of their time til midnight every night grading papers" are doing. My dad was a high school history teacher for about 15 years and for about the past 10 years he's been an award winning principal (national principal of the year for bureau of indian affairs scools, principal of the year for all Bowie County Public schools...), and I have never seen him slaving over his work at home all hours of the nights. The main work oustide of school that my dad has to do outside of school is working ball games, extra curricular events, etc...but these are all things my dad enjoys as a part of his job. If a teacher is a good teacher that can keep control of their class the job is no harder than any other job out there, and the time off is better than any job in America. There IS room for educators to make more money, just like in any other career you can move up the ladder to assistant principal, principal, or an administrative office job.
I was going to guess Plano. I know their starting salaries are somewhere in that same neighborhood that you were talking about here in Plano. Dallas ISD was giving signing bonuses going into this year, as well. Of course, they still can't hire enough of them to meet their needs, and it's likely to get worse at DISD specifically in the coming years (Fort Worth, on the other hand, had too many teachers for this school year).
The problem is that every school district is different. I know that working at a school populated with inner city youths from the Bronx, Harlem, Brooklyn, WAshington Heights etc. or kids from south central LA actually might be more difficult than many other jobs in America. There are a number of different factors that would influence how much time outside of class a teacher might have to spend calling parents, going to meetings, extra training etc. Other factors include the age of the children - if they are elementary age, highschool age etc.
