Teacher salary at top private schools

[Anonymous]

NP and teacher here; just have to add my voice to the chorus: I arrive most days at 7:15 a.m., and a good day is when I can leave by 4:30. This day includes a 45-minute lunch of which 20 minutes go to helping students who need extra help. At home I generally put in another couple hours of work each evening (grading, contacting parents, lesson planning, writing required teacher comments, completing required paperwork, etc.) If that's a "short day," please explain what you consider a long day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP and teacher here; just have to add my voice to the chorus: I arrive most days at 7:15 a.m., and a good day is when I can leave by 4:30. This day includes a 45-minute lunch of which 20 minutes go to helping students who need extra help. At home I generally put in another couple hours of work each evening (grading, contacting parents, lesson planning, writing required teacher comments, completing required paperwork, etc.) If that's a "short day," please explain what you consider a long day.

7 AM to 11 PM for ten years , weekends as well in order to make law partner. One two week vacation a year. Working from 5AM through 2pm the following day every third day for three years of medical residency( 36 hr shifts every third day). working 7A-7:30p three to five days a week, every other weekend ( same hours) plus either christmas,and fourth of July or New years and thanksgiving for the life of your career ( nurse)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP and teacher here; just have to add my voice to the chorus: I arrive most days at 7:15 a.m., and a good day is when I can leave by 4:30. This day includes a 45-minute lunch of which 20 minutes go to helping students who need extra help. At home I generally put in another couple hours of work each evening (grading, contacting parents, lesson planning, writing required teacher comments, completing required paperwork, etc.) If that's a "short day," please explain what you consider a long day.

7 AM to 11 PM for ten years , weekends as well in order to make law partner. One two week vacation a year. Working from 5AM through 2pm the following day every third day for three years of medical residency( 36 hr shifts every third day). working 7A-7:30p three to five days a week, every other weekend ( same hours) plus either christmas,and fourth of July or New years and thanksgiving for the life of your career ( nurse)

Hmm. Teacher here. I have three doctors and two nurses in my immediate/near-immediate family (parent, siblings, cousins and in-laws). (No Biglaw lawyers though!) None of them work many more hours than me in total for the entirety of their careers. They worked many longer shifts (such as the 36-hour one you mention) during training. My sister who is a nurse is the first to admit that she doesn't work as many hours as I do. A typical nurse's schedule includes three long shifts, but the total number of hours isn't longer. Medical residents work very long hours but when their residency is over, that is generall no longer the case (obviously depending on specialty).

If you really in fact worked 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. plus weekends for ten years (and I am skeptical of that claim because no, I don't believe that you actually literally did nothing but work except for 11 p.m.-7 a.m.; such a claim strains credulity, since I am fairly sure that you also ate meals, made personal calls, took off for a doctor's appointment or other personal matters, did some internet shopping, etc., whereas teachers, when they are at school, because of the nature of the job, are literally working the entire time with next to no breaks), then guess what--you "win." If accurate, that would indeed be a longer day than teachers work. (Of course, you probably get paid many times what teachers earn.) In fact, that would be an insanely long day. Of course, that doesn't mean teachers don't work a long day; it only means that some Biglaw associates work ridiculously long days (for tons more money).

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous

7 AM to 11 PM for ten years , weekends as well in order to make law partner.

Right-o! Tell us you're doing that so you'll be making $50,000/year when you're 48.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quote=Anonymous

7 AM to 11 PM for ten years , weekends as well in order to make law partner.

Right-o! Tell us you're doing that so you'll be making $50,000/year when you're 48.



I agree. What a ridiculous statement. I taught for 6 years in public schools and 2 years at a for profit 2-year college. Never worked harder in my life or had less time off. Also tutored at hospitals to make ends meet. Summers off - ha! Just meant I had to scramble with two part-time jobs. It is an exhausting job to have to attend to the needs of others, so intensely, for so many hours and then go home for another 2 or 3 hours of prep and follow-up work. My subsequent career in business has been a relative piece of cake. Sure there are crunch times and exhausting moments but the bone-numbing weariness and low pay I experienced as a teacher just was never repeated in any of my professional business positions.

[Anonymous]

My DH has been a BigLaw partner for nearly 20 years -- he's worked hard, but 7-11 including weekends -- no. Many of our law school classmates are partners and I really don't know anyone who worked thouse hours.

Teachers, with very few exceptions among you, you have my deep admiration and appreciation. We have 4 kids -- oldest has now graduated from college and youngest is in HS -- and one day when I started counting how many wonderful teachers they have had over the years I just got too tired to finish counting. Forget the beautiful buildings with all the bells and whistles, forget the slick alum mags and websites, forget the receptions for new parents and returning parents and graduating parents -- it's the teachers that make the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

7 AM to 11 PM for ten years , weekends as well in order to make law partner. One two week vacation a year.

Please tell us what the salary is as a partner (500K?).

[Anonymous]

I work at a big 3 school and NO teacher works from 7 am -11pm... maybe the older, single women for which school has become their life/escape or the English/history teachers when papers are due. But this is not the norm at all. I make about 60k, work 745-3ish, sometimes 5 and do probably 4 hrs of work on the weekend and get about 3+ months off per year. NOT BAD IMO. Could I live in DC and support a family on my salary, absolutely not, and that sucks. I am married to a big law partner and he works much harder than I... his job might be less physically tiring but his work his more mentally taxing and his job is much more stressful on a day to day basis. His work weighs on his mind when he is home 24/7 where as teaching is a joy most of the time.

[Anonymous]

8:38 -- I'm sure teachers don't work 7-11, but does your DH really do that? I'm also married to a BigLaw partner. For the most part he works 9:30-7 weekdays with 2-4 hours work at home on weekends. Perhaps a couple of weeks a year are 7-11 days for him, plus he travels about 1 week/month. Does his work weigh on him on the weekends? Well, he checks BB, but not constantly and we talk about his work a bit (I'm also a lawyer -- for an NGO), but perhaps what you see as a burden for your DH is a pleasure for him? My DH and I both like our work, so it's interesting to think about and discuss. Conversely, while I think teaching can certainly be a joy, I also think it can be dull and repetitive to teach the same topics year-in and year-out. In the same vein, I love my kids and enjoy their friends, but imagine that being with them everyday for hours on end could become tiresome. And who has the patience to deal with their anti-authoritarian acting out? (Our youngest son is a senior this year and I'm reminded again of how trying it must be to teach 2nd semester seniors.) Again, you probably seem all this differently, but maybe that just means it's different strokes for different folks?

[Anonymous]

PP here that brought up the fact that teachers work hard and get paid crap....

i'm married to a lawyer, he works very hard but we don't kid ourselves that my job is paid crap and has a huge work load...but we don't compare all the time We both work hard- what I resent is the fact that folks seem to think teachers have it easy somehow. I'll grant you there are some teachers who do the same job day in and day out and may not be the most creative beings in the world. Perhaps they work it so they can really leave at 3pm and do nothing at home (although find that hard to believe) Given the situation in schools today those teachers are axed or just aren't respected. We can't NOT work hard as a teacher any more - even if we wanted to. Most people don't get that it's not the kind of profession you can laze around doing nothing in. We can't facebook, internet shop go on DCUM when we feel like it. We have a job to do that is demanding, professional and requires us to be 'on' most of the time and then do the paper work and meetings after the 'on' time. I don't want to get into a tit for tat on who has the hardest job..just hate hearing ours is 'easy'.

[Anonymous]

Summers off..vacation every month..cake job

[Anonymous]

Haven't read all the posts, but one dirty little secret is that some private schools are so desperate for male teachers they pay more than to comparable women teachers. Also, it's really hard to find good science and math teachers so if you could find one who brought ethnic and/or gender diversity my guess is that person would be paid much better than some of his predecessors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Summers off..vacation every month..cake job

Troll be gone! I am waving my garlic at you! Go back under your bridge and let this discussion carry respectfully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at a big 3 school and NO teacher works from 7 am -11pm... maybe the older, single women for which school has become their life/escape or the English/history teachers when papers are due. But this is not the norm at all. I make about 60k, work 745-3ish, sometimes 5 and do probably 4 hrs of work on the weekend and get about 3+ months off per year. NOT BAD IMO. Could I live in DC and support a family on my salary, absolutely not, and that sucks. I am married to a big law partner and he works much harder than I... his job might be less physically tiring but his work his more mentally taxing and his job is much more stressful on a day to day basis. His work weighs on his mind when he is home 24/7 where as teaching is a joy most of the time.

With all due respect, it's possible that teachers who work in other schools, schools with kids living in poverty, and students with disabilities, do have work weigh our minds.

I love what I do. Teaching is a joy for me as well, but I certainly have situations where I'm kept up at night by worry about my kids. On the other hand, I can and do support my family on my salary.

Having said that, I won't argue that a Biglaw partner doesn't work more hours than I do, he/she well might, but certainly not the 4 or 5 times more it would need to be to justify the crazy salaries I read about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted talented teachers who are also certified. It is not impossible to get both all rolled up into one.

No, it is not impossible. Most teachers DS's private have at least master's degrees in some sort of educational field. Few are certified to teach in public schools. Having a certified teacher is no guarantee that a teacher is competent.