RANT: Teachers, why are you so whiny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a teacher, but contrary to one of the PP’s, I believe teaching is a professional career. I don’t think you, Mr/Ms Lawyer, are any more important than teachers.

There has not been on person that I've seen on this thread that said some other career is more important than teaching. That's you being defensive.

I'm one of the lawyers that posted here. And to the contrary, teachers have a FAR more important job than I do. Their underpaid and undervalued. BUT they are quite aware of this when they go down the teacher track. And many of them make quite a bit more than other professions that work equal to or more hours and are paid less (e.g., a friend is a journalist -and editor- and her sister is a teacher. The teacher makes FAR more and has more time off. And works less.) So change careers. Tune it out. Lobby for change. But, quit your bitching.

Nope - they are paid, just what they should be paid based on supply and demand. If someone is willing to step into that job at that salary, then the salary is adequate. In fact, unions have probably distorted it upward. The only ones who are underpaid are math and science teachers because there is a continual shortage.

The path to becoming a teacher is relatively easy compared to other professions, hence the lower salary. It might also explain the lower average SAT scores for education majors.

Paying the profession much more and giving it more prestige might raise the caliber of the people in the profession. Likely since jobs were limited for educated women in the past, it may explain why you had educated and more intelligent women working in the profession.

[Anonymous]

Beautiful post. I read every word. I think people who don’t like the post have been groomed by society to feel bad for teachers. I was raised the same way. Always hearing and reading that teachers don’t get paid enough, woe is me. The point is, I respect teachers and the work they do, but I am not fooled into believing they’ve got a bad hand in life. I don’t know who started the complaining and the campaign for “it’s a hard knock life for teachers”, but it’s gone too far. Wake up call: most people don’t get paid enough for what they do. Yet, only the teachers have held that card for years.
Most people don’t have pensions anymore. Most people don’t have guaranteed wages. Most people don’t get summers off, holidays, and snow days. Most people pay a lot of money for their medical and 401k plans. Most salary people work beyond their schedule. My SO is on call 24/7. Website goes down at 2 am, he’s up to fix it and is still expected to work his 50 hours that week...year round. He works on vacation and sick days. He feels adequately paid at 70k a year. I beg to differ. Again, I feel most people don’t get paid enough. Just tired of hearing about teachers. Firemen are roughly in the same salary range in my city. Risking life and limb, but I don’t hear their collective voices crying about the injustice.

Another thing that bogs my mind...most of the curriculum is set out for you. Most of it is standardized. Your job is just to teach it. Why do they have these ridiculous tiers you have to go through to make more money? Did those classes make you better at teaching? Will that course be used in your classes? No. So what’s the point?!

I say pay the teacher. Stop the levels.

[Anonymous]

A few points about the above post. Teachers are educated. They have to have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree and in many districts, they have a set number of years after being hired to earn a Master's degree (in public schools). Firefighters do not have the same educational requirements therefore their pay reflects this. Teachers are paid less than similar workers.
https://www.epi.org/publication/teachers-make-17-percent-less-than-similar-workers/
Finally, if you read DCUMs you will know that many districts do not have any curriculum for certain subject areas and even if they do, they are awful (see posts about the Hopkins review of certain curricula). So teachers are often working as their own curriculum writers in addition to teaching. Even with decent curriculum, teachers still have to find materials (and pay for them) to meet the needs of their students. Who pays for this? The teachers do. That is above and beyond them paying for the materials they need that is not covered by their district. As far as the "most people" the PP writes about, they are hourly workers without the same education as teachers. I don't get my summers off. I am not employed by my district in the summer. I have to find a temporary job to try to make up what I am paid during the school year. And no, not everyone can become a high priced tutor like many posts have suggested. My contract is for 190 days a year but those 190 don't pay for all of my bills. So many people say they would love to have off in the summer. That is because they are paid enough to survive without being paid in the summer. Most teachers are not, unless they have spouses who make a good income. I enjoy my teaching job for the most part (the teaching part which is a small fraction of what I do now) but the fact that so many teachers are leaving the profession entirely should let the public know that something is very wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beautiful post. I read every word. I think people who don’t like the post have been groomed by society to feel bad for teachers. I was raised the same way. Always hearing and reading that teachers don’t get paid enough, woe is me. The point is, I respect teachers and the work they do, but I am not fooled into believing they’ve got a bad hand in life. I don’t know who started the complaining and the campaign for “it’s a hard knock life for teachers”, but it’s gone too far. Wake up call: most people don’t get paid enough for what they do. Yet, only the teachers have held that card for years.
Most people don’t have pensions anymore. Most people don’t have guaranteed wages. Most people don’t get summers off, holidays, and snow days. Most people pay a lot of money for their medical and 401k plans. Most salary people work beyond their schedule. My SO is on call 24/7. Website goes down at 2 am, he’s up to fix it and is still expected to work his 50 hours that week...year round. He works on vacation and sick days. He feels adequately paid at 70k a year. I beg to differ. Again, I feel most people don’t get paid enough. Just tired of hearing about teachers. Firemen are roughly in the same salary range in my city. Risking life and limb, but I don’t hear their collective voices crying about the injustice.

Another thing that bogs my mind...most of the curriculum is set out for you. Most of it is standardized. Your job is just to teach it. Why do they have these ridiculous tiers you have to go through to make more money? Did those classes make you better at teaching? Will that course be used in your classes? No. So what’s the point?!

Most of the curriculum is set out for you???? What planet are you living on? NOTHING about teaching children is standardized, literally nothing. Fwiw, my union in my district took a pay freeze the last 7 years. Yes for real and no I am not telling you where I teach. Two contracts worth of pay freezes. We did it in order to keep small class sizes. The only other choices were a) raise taxes or b) raise class sizes. WE did what was right for children when the community would not or in some cases, could not. Yes, the courses I took made me a better teacher and yes I use what I learned each day. I make 75K a year and I've been teaching 25 years with a masters degree. If I started working in my current district and never moved to a different one, I'd be making closer to 100K. But when teachers move districts they do not take all their years with them. I'm fine with that most of the time. I love my job, I love my students, and my teacher spouse and I have enough money for a very small SFH, one car that we share, and we can afford to go on a 3 day vacation an hour or two away from our home 1x a year. We can afford to save enough money to retire on between the percentage of our salary (9%) that we contribute to our pension and the 20% of our take home pay that we save. We save that much of our pay because we are smart enough to know that the pension is probably not going to be there when we retire. Teachers really don't complain more than other professions. You should hear the moms in my neighborhood. "But I don't have time to help little johnny learn how to recognize his letter names before he enters kindergarten....that's the teachers job....I work too much! Poor me, wah, wah, wah."

[Anonymous]

Good on you. Reality check. Just house sat for my friend who is a beautiful teacher - loves kids & came to the profession late in life. The house abounds with Thank you Teacher memorabilia, lotions, potions and gifts. Phone call from my son - a bricklayer - unloved, constant physical pain, low pay - alone. Wish he could’ve been a teacher. Wish he could’ve had lots of holidays and recovery time. Wish his bad days could’ve been forgivable. Instead he has to pull down a wall & build it again - no pay. At school he was dyslexic but his teacher didn’t work it out & didn’t care but still got paid. I’m so sad for him as a literate, eloquent mother. Life isn’t always fair. Do what you do do well teachers and see your struggling students for what they are, ie - opportunities to make a difference. What more can I say.

[Anonymous]

I can't count the number of FB posts I've seen lately from public school teachers crying for a "vacation" - didn't the school year just start?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't count the number of FB posts I've seen lately from public school teachers crying for a "vacation" - didn't the school year just start?

They will get 3 days to a week for Thanksgiving and 2-3 weeks for Christmas in most places, so they haven't got long to wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't count the number of FB posts I've seen lately from public school teachers crying for a "vacation" - didn't the school year just start?

They will get 3 days to a week for Thanksgiving and 2-3 weeks for Christmas in most places, so they haven't got long to wait.

You don't live in the DC area, do you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't count the number of FB posts I've seen lately from public school teachers crying for a "vacation" - didn't the school year just start?

They will get 3 days to a week for Thanksgiving and 2-3 weeks for Christmas in most places, so they haven't got long to wait.

We do? I get 2 days for Thanksgiving and one week and one day for winter break.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't count the number of FB posts I've seen lately from public school teachers crying for a "vacation" - didn't the school year just start?

They will get 3 days to a week for Thanksgiving and 2-3 weeks for Christmas in most places, so they haven't got long to wait.

We do? I get 2 days for Thanksgiving and one week and one day for winter break.

You poor dear. The rest of the working world gets 1 day at Thanksgiving and 1 day at Christmas.

Enjoy your 6 extra days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't count the number of FB posts I've seen lately from public school teachers crying for a "vacation" - didn't the school year just start?

They will get 3 days to a week for Thanksgiving and 2-3 weeks for Christmas in most places, so they haven't got long to wait.

We do? I get 2 days for Thanksgiving and one week and one day for winter break.

You poor dear. The rest of the working world gets 1 day at Thanksgiving and 1 day at Christmas.

Enjoy your 6 extra days.

Not the PP, but when somebody corrects a misconception it’s not a complaint. This happens a lot. Somebody will make a statement about teachers that isn’t accurate. The teacher points out that the statement is incorrect and then the teacher is seen as complaining.

Example:
Statement: It must be nice to get free healthcare.
Teacher’s Correction: Actually, I do have to pay $$$ of the premium.
Response: Well, don’t complain. A lot of people don’t have what you have.
Teacher’s Thought: (I’m not complaining.)

Example:
Statement: You get free healthcare for life.
Teacher’s Correction: Well, I can keep it but I have to pay $$$$/month.
Response: (See above)
Teacher’s Thought: (See above)

Example:
Statement: Will you do 20 years and be done?
Teacher’s Correction: I’ll probably have to go 34.
Response: Pffft. That’s still young! Don’t complain.
Teacher’s Thought: (I’m not complaining.)

[Anonymous]

Teacher here, early 30s. I'll clear $125k this year. No whining from me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think, in general, if you have only ever been a teacher, you have no idea how hard people work in non-teacher jobs. They think that the pace and work-load of their careers is somehow unique or special.

For some reason, teachers seem to think their lives of running around, working, doing stuff on weekends and on evenings (on top of all their home duties) are somehow unique.

To a person, they seem to think that summer and holiday vacations are owed to them because they work so hard during the school day.

What they fail to see is that WE ALMOST ALL work really hard during the work day, and WE DON'T get huge vacations.

I truly don't get this. The work a teacher puts in is no more mentally strenuous than other professions, nor nearly as physically strenuous than a handful of specialized professions (including nurses) - and yet they feel like they are working harder than the rest of us?!

really, what gives. It's a part time job. They should be thankful that they get so much time off, not whining about the "long days." Even if you add up all the nights and weekends" hours it still doesn't equal a full-time job!!!!

This doesn't mean that I am not grateful for teachers, I certainly am, I am just so SICK of the entitlement.

How many other professions do people put on 12 hour days just to meet the basic requirements of their job? The planning and grading teachers have to do CAN’T be done during their contract day. There is no time for it. They are simply expected to spend hours and hours of their own time to do it. And that doesn’t even include the other duties they are expected to do like running after school clubs or helping students after school, both of which are unpaid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here, early 30s. I'll clear $125k this year. No whining from me

Where do you work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beautiful post. I read every word. I think people who don’t like the post have been groomed by society to feel bad for teachers. I was raised the same way. Always hearing and reading that teachers don’t get paid enough, woe is me. The point is, I respect teachers and the work they do, but I am not fooled into believing they’ve got a bad hand in life. I don’t know who started the complaining and the campaign for “it’s a hard knock life for teachers”, but it’s gone too far. Wake up call: most people don’t get paid enough for what they do. Yet, only the teachers have held that card for years.
Most people don’t have pensions anymore. Most people don’t have guaranteed wages. Most people don’t get summers off, holidays, and snow days. Most people pay a lot of money for their medical and 401k plans. Most salary people work beyond their schedule. My SO is on call 24/7. Website goes down at 2 am, he’s up to fix it and is still expected to work his 50 hours that week...year round. He works on vacation and sick days. He feels adequately paid at 70k a year. I beg to differ. Again, I feel most people don’t get paid enough. Just tired of hearing about teachers. Firemen are roughly in the same salary range in my city. Risking life and limb, but I don’t hear their collective voices crying about the injustice.

Another thing that bogs my mind...most of the curriculum is set out for you. Most of it is standardized. Your job is just to teach it. Why do they have these ridiculous tiers you have to go through to make more money? Did those classes make you better at teaching? Will that course be used in your classes? No. So what’s the point?!

I say pay the teacher. Stop the levels.

Wrong. In the past this was mainly true, teachers could just teach out of a textbook, but it's not that way anymore. Teachers are given standards they have to teach, but they are not given notes, powerpoints, quizzes, tests and other resources to teach it. They spend a ridiculous amount of time at home trying to come up with all this stuff.