RANT: Teachers, why are you so whiny?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher. I will retire within the next ten years. I am ONLY staying because of the pension. The pension is the only thing that makes teaching worth it.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why my kids are all in private school. $hitty teachers only doing it for the pension.

I’m a former private school student and a former private school parent. You’d be surprised how many people are teaching private because they do not qualify to do anything else and they will work until forced to retire because the pay is so low with no pension.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because we have to deal with entitled parents like the above poster, who think that they are The Boss and their child is The Most Important Child. Sorry, Billy isn't that special and he gets an equivalent portion of my time and concern as all the other students in the class. The loudest parents think that they get the best treatment, but I'm an advocate for all the children, not just yours. Being demanding and obnoxious makes me much less likely to devote extra attention to your child.

But you know what, teacher? When the room parent collects gift cards for you we bet it is done with the sole purpose of receiving special treatment....and you deliver. If you care about all children...then don’t accept gifts, my dear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SIL retired from a DC area school system at 52 (30 years). She brings in a 80,00/year pension that is COLA ‘d. That is not underpaid. Tired of hearing how hard a job it is. Many teachers dial it in year after year. I worked as an aide and can attest to this. There are some exceptional teachers but that is not the majority.

That is not a pension that newer teachers will receive

I have 27 years in FCPS. I’ll have 30 years at age 52 and will be eligible for full state retirement (VRS), but that will be nowhere near $80k. VRS provides about 50%, so figure $50k. Now, at age 55 I’ll be eligible for the district’s supplemental plan which will push it closer to the $80k amount. Is your SIL in MD or VA?

As a PP mentioned, newer teachers’ requirements (age and service) and benefits are different.

My mom was in the old system and it is 80% of the average of your last 3 years and those maxed out in the high $90sK in her system. She ended up around the mid $80sK, but pays a lot for her private health insurance because the retiree plan is horrible for medical and Rx. There are zero retiree benefits for vision or dental. She is nearly blind in one eye. almost 50 years service in low income schools and that’s the best they could do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SIL retired from a DC area school system at 52 (30 years). She brings in a 80,00/year pension that is COLA ‘d. That is not underpaid. Tired of hearing how hard a job it is. Many teachers dial it in year after year. I worked as an aide and can attest to this. There are some exceptional teachers but that is not the majority.

That is not a pension that newer teachers will receive

I have 27 years in FCPS. I’ll have 30 years at age 52 and will be eligible for full state retirement (VRS), but that will be nowhere near $80k. VRS provides about 50%, so figure $50k. Now, at age 55 I’ll be eligible for the district’s supplemental plan which will push it closer to the $80k amount. Is your SIL in MD or VA?

As a PP mentioned, newer teachers’ requirements (age and service) and benefits are different.

My mom was in the old system and it is 80% of the average of your last 3 years and those maxed out in the high $90sK in her system. She ended up around the mid $80sK, but pays a lot for her private health insurance because the retiree plan is horrible for medical and Rx. There are zero retiree benefits for vision or dental. She is nearly blind in one eye. almost 50 years service in low income schools and that’s the best they could do.

PP here. Yes. Healthcare premiums are still high.

She was in under the old system in which district? I’m under the “old system” in FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let’s be honest, any degree that you get in 4 years that isn’t a B.S. degree is an easy degree.

Most of my children's teachers have Master's degrees.

My masters degree in “Arts of Education” is a bit of joke to me. Took only one year and I worked full time teaching, too. I was extremely busy but it didnt have nearly the pressure of my undergrad degree at a top ten small liberal arts school. Most programs are here though are two years and seem much more work though.

[Anonymous]

My Master’s degree was FT and it took two years. The second year was FT student teaching and then classes four nights a week. Many people dropped out because it was a ton of work. Was it rocket science? No but it was a lot of work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Registered Nurse here. So you don’t get a “pee”-pee break? To quote Freddy Mercury...
“Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?” I cannot believe someone actually compared their
teaching profession to other professions and asked if other people actually get a free moment
to go to the restroom. I seriously lol’d. In my job as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse where I actually
bathe people and wipe human waste from them (many of whom have been teachers or
their loved ones) to aid in maintaining their dignity, my bathroom break may not happen in
my twelve hour shift. In fact, during my first year as a nurse I actually had to go to a urologist
to have my urethra muscle dilated because my urethral muscle had been so overused from holding
my urine during my 12 hour shift without bathroom breaks that the muscle had closed my urethra and
caused me to retain a full bladder. I had to take Flomax, a drug used primarily for older men
(24 year old young lady at the time) with prostate swelling for a year and have a Medical form
signed for my boss to see so that there wouldn’t be any issue with me leaving my patients for
5 minutes three times a shift to re-train my bladder. My Mandatory raise of at least 1% annually
stopped about 10 years ago for our profession and union representation isn’t present in my state. My hospita
is not government-controlled as most hospitals in rural settings are privately owned and are capitalist organizations.
This means the better your hospital performs financially (more patients to less nurses, no litigation),
the more the administration gets paid. While you got your full lunchtime, pee break, planning period AND got off at 4pm
break, a nurse is probably sleeping through breakfast and lunch with her family only to scarf down a protein bar
as they give a quick kiss to their loved ones and race to their fourth shift in a row which is a
mandatory overtime shift and the third one this month. They have a 50/50 chance of having a minute
at 1am to have an energy drink polished off in 10 minutes before they race to a CODE BLUE where CPR is performed
for an exhaustive 30 minutes to an hour. Possibly on one of YOUR colleagues so that they
can live to fight another day full of making mind-numbing lists of injustices done on teachers. While you
are worried about the possibility of an active shooter coming into your school the nurse considers this as she is
screamed at and threatened by a family member of the patient who is a paranoid schizophrenic and was brought to
the hospital by cops who tell you he is combative as they remove his handcuffs and walk out leaving him as he is
threatening to blow up the KFC because they wouldn’t serve him chicken McNuggets. The nurse has been bitten,
head butted, scratched and fondled this week and had an actual active shooter in the hospital last month.
So what if there are 23 pages of rants against teachers? Maybe it’s time for teachers to listen and
get over themselves and their petty complaints. Please enjoy your summers and major holidays off work.
Enjoy it for me, your friendly neighborhood nurse. I’ve worked the last 5 Thanksgivings and 7 Christmas’ and
delayed my children’s Holidays. Thank you for finally giving us nurses an outlet to rant and whine a bit.
Gotta get back to it...KFC is calling again because Bless him, my sweet patient just stuck his hand in the fryer
trying to fish out those pesky McNuggets.

Maybe you should learn to write using paragraphs before writing your novella.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Registered Nurse here. So you don’t get a “pee”-pee break? To quote Freddy Mercury...
“Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?” I cannot believe someone actually compared their
teaching profession to other professions and asked if other people actually get a free moment
to go to the restroom. I seriously lol’d. In my job as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse where I actually
bathe people and wipe human waste from them (many of whom have been teachers or
their loved ones) to aid in maintaining their dignity, my bathroom break may not happen in
my twelve hour shift. In fact, during my first year as a nurse I actually had to go to a urologist
to have my urethra muscle dilated because my urethral muscle had been so overused from holding
my urine during my 12 hour shift without bathroom breaks that the muscle had closed my urethra and
caused me to retain a full bladder. I had to take Flomax, a drug used primarily for older men
(24 year old young lady at the time) with prostate swelling for a year and have a Medical form
signed for my boss to see so that there wouldn’t be any issue with me leaving my patients for
5 minutes three times a shift to re-train my bladder. My Mandatory raise of at least 1% annually
stopped about 10 years ago for our profession and union representation isn’t present in my state. My hospita
is not government-controlled as most hospitals in rural settings are privately owned and are capitalist organizations.
This means the better your hospital performs financially (more patients to less nurses, no litigation),
the more the administration gets paid. While you got your full lunchtime, pee break, planning period AND got off at 4pm
break, a nurse is probably sleeping through breakfast and lunch with her family only to scarf down a protein bar
as they give a quick kiss to their loved ones and race to their fourth shift in a row which is a
mandatory overtime shift and the third one this month. They have a 50/50 chance of having a minute
at 1am to have an energy drink polished off in 10 minutes before they race to a CODE BLUE where CPR is performed
for an exhaustive 30 minutes to an hour. Possibly on one of YOUR colleagues so that they
can live to fight another day full of making mind-numbing lists of injustices done on teachers. While you
are worried about the possibility of an active shooter coming into your school the nurse considers this as she is
screamed at and threatened by a family member of the patient who is a paranoid schizophrenic and was brought to
the hospital by cops who tell you he is combative as they remove his handcuffs and walk out leaving him as he is
threatening to blow up the KFC because they wouldn’t serve him chicken McNuggets. The nurse has been bitten,
head butted, scratched and fondled this week and had an actual active shooter in the hospital last month.
So what if there are 23 pages of rants against teachers? Maybe it’s time for teachers to listen and
get over themselves and their petty complaints. Please enjoy your summers and major holidays off work.
Enjoy it for me, your friendly neighborhood nurse. I’ve worked the last 5 Thanksgivings and 7 Christmas’ and
delayed my children’s Holidays. Thank you for finally giving us nurses an outlet to rant and whine a bit.
Gotta get back to it...KFC is calling again because Bless him, my sweet patient just stuck his hand in the fryer
trying to fish out those pesky McNuggets.

Maybe you should learn to write using paragraphs before writing your novella.

I understood it just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Registered Nurse here. So you don’t get a “pee”-pee break? To quote Freddy Mercury...
“Is this the real life, is this just fantasy?” I cannot believe someone actually compared their
teaching profession to other professions and asked if other people actually get a free moment
to go to the restroom. I seriously lol’d. In my job as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse where I actually
bathe people and wipe human waste from them (many of whom have been teachers or
their loved ones) to aid in maintaining their dignity, my bathroom break may not happen in
my twelve hour shift. In fact, during my first year as a nurse I actually had to go to a urologist
to have my urethra muscle dilated because my urethral muscle had been so overused from holding
my urine during my 12 hour shift without bathroom breaks that the muscle had closed my urethra and
caused me to retain a full bladder. I had to take Flomax, a drug used primarily for older men
(24 year old young lady at the time) with prostate swelling for a year and have a Medical form
signed for my boss to see so that there wouldn’t be any issue with me leaving my patients for
5 minutes three times a shift to re-train my bladder. My Mandatory raise of at least 1% annually
stopped about 10 years ago for our profession and union representation isn’t present in my state. My hospita
is not government-controlled as most hospitals in rural settings are privately owned and are capitalist organizations.
This means the better your hospital performs financially (more patients to less nurses, no litigation),
the more the administration gets paid. While you got your full lunchtime, pee break, planning period AND got off at 4pm
break, a nurse is probably sleeping through breakfast and lunch with her family only to scarf down a protein bar
as they give a quick kiss to their loved ones and race to their fourth shift in a row which is a
mandatory overtime shift and the third one this month. They have a 50/50 chance of having a minute
at 1am to have an energy drink polished off in 10 minutes before they race to a CODE BLUE where CPR is performed
for an exhaustive 30 minutes to an hour. Possibly on one of YOUR colleagues so that they
can live to fight another day full of making mind-numbing lists of injustices done on teachers. While you
are worried about the possibility of an active shooter coming into your school the nurse considers this as she is
screamed at and threatened by a family member of the patient who is a paranoid schizophrenic and was brought to
the hospital by cops who tell you he is combative as they remove his handcuffs and walk out leaving him as he is
threatening to blow up the KFC because they wouldn’t serve him chicken McNuggets. The nurse has been bitten,
head butted, scratched and fondled this week and had an actual active shooter in the hospital last month.
So what if there are 23 pages of rants against teachers? Maybe it’s time for teachers to listen and
get over themselves and their petty complaints. Please enjoy your summers and major holidays off work.
Enjoy it for me, your friendly neighborhood nurse. I’ve worked the last 5 Thanksgivings and 7 Christmas’ and
delayed my children’s Holidays. Thank you for finally giving us nurses an outlet to rant and whine a bit.
Gotta get back to it...KFC is calling again because Bless him, my sweet patient just stuck his hand in the fryer
trying to fish out those pesky McNuggets.

Maybe you should learn to write using paragraphs before writing your novella.

I understood it just fine.

Yeah, it was pretty good writing for a nurse. More coherent than I expected based on the four ladies caring for my dad currently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we have to deal with entitled parents like the above poster, who think that they are The Boss and their child is The Most Important Child. Sorry, Billy isn't that special and he gets an equivalent portion of my time and concern as all the other students in the class. The loudest parents think that they get the best treatment, but I'm an advocate for all the children, not just yours. Being demanding and obnoxious makes me much less likely to devote extra attention to your child.

But you know what, teacher? When the room parent collects gift cards for you we bet it is done with the sole purpose of receiving special treatment....and you deliver. If you care about all children...then don’t accept gifts, my dear.

Actually, we don't have a room parent and I don't accept gifts. Per my contract I'm not allowed to accept any gifts over $5. You can't buy special attention for you child! You can't buy grades. You can't buy my time at all and I dole out special attention as I see fit. I will sit down and work on phonics with kids who need it, or provide extra support in math instruction when a child is confused. I will NOT sit down and work with your child on my prep time just because you want him to have a leg up. That's what you pay a private tutor the big bucks for, dear.

[Anonymous]

My mom was a teacher for 30+ years and there is a lot in whining about things that corporate America would just say “suck it up, buttercup”.

That said, while the pay may be adequate, I think it is particularly demoralizing to work in an environment where everyone is on the same pay scale and the mediocre performers doing the bare minimum get the same raises as the best performers. It’s demoralizing to work with some slackers and know that they will never get fired.

It’s also tough to work in a place where all of your pay grade and seniority is tied to the school system. As an executive in corporate America, if I leave my company, I will likely have the same or higher status at my next company. I’m not tied to my workplace because I will have to start over at a new workplace. I think a lot of the complaining comes from working with the same people for 20+ years. I have been at the same company for 18 years, but lots of people come and go.

I see the same type of complaints teachers have from my government clients who have worked with the same group of people for 15+ years. They don’t get pay or bonuses to differentiate stellar performance, they are stuck with some duds for coworkers, and they are stuck in their agency or in the GS system.

Also while teachers get time off, the time they have is dictated to them. They can’t take a trip on a whim in February or take a full week off for a sister’s wedding in November. That has got to be annoying. I have a lot of flexibility to run errands or work out at lunch and come in late or leave early as needed. Teachers have no flexibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom was a teacher for 30+ years and there is a lot in whining about things that corporate America would just say “suck it up, buttercup”.

That said, while the pay may be adequate, I think it is particularly demoralizing to work in an environment where everyone is on the same pay scale and the mediocre performers doing the bare minimum get the same raises as the best performers. It’s demoralizing to work with some slackers and know that they will never get fired.

It’s also tough to work in a place where all of your pay grade and seniority is tied to the school system. As an executive in corporate America, if I leave my company, I will likely have the same or higher status at my next company. I’m not tied to my workplace because I will have to start over at a new workplace. I think a lot of the complaining comes from working with the same people for 20+ years. I have been at the same company for 18 years, but lots of people come and go.

I see the same type of complaints teachers have from my government clients who have worked with the same group of people for 15+ years. They don’t get pay or bonuses to differentiate stellar performance, they are stuck with some duds for coworkers, and they are stuck in their agency or in the GS system.

Also while teachers get time off, the time they have is dictated to them. They can’t take a trip on a whim in February or take a full week off for a sister’s wedding in November. That has got to be annoying. I have a lot of flexibility to run errands or work out at lunch and come in late or leave early as needed. Teachers have no flexibility.

My district decided to change the "step" scale a few years ago. Now you go up faster for highly effective EOY evaluations instead of just effective, etc. You can go up faster for taking coursework, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher. I will retire within the next ten years. I am ONLY staying because of the pension. The pension is the only thing that makes teaching worth it.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why my kids are all in private school. $hitty teachers only doing it for the pension.

I’m a former private school student and a former private school parent. You’d be surprised how many people are teaching private because they do not qualify to do anything else and they will work until forced to retire because the pay is so low with no pension.

Private school salaries will leave teachers without family money or high-earning spouses near poverty in their old age.
Don’t be so smug. It’s appalling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because we have to deal with entitled parents like the above poster, who think that they are The Boss and their child is The Most Important Child. Sorry, Billy isn't that special and he gets an equivalent portion of my time and concern as all the other students in the class. The loudest parents think that they get the best treatment, but I'm an advocate for all the children, not just yours. Being demanding and obnoxious makes me much less likely to devote extra attention to your child.

But you know what, teacher? When the room parent collects gift cards for you we bet it is done with the sole purpose of receiving special treatment....and you deliver. If you care about all children...then don’t accept gifts, my dear.

Actually, we don't have a room parent and I don't accept gifts. Per my contract I'm not allowed to accept any gifts over $5. You can't buy special attention for you child! You can't buy grades. You can't buy my time at all and I dole out special attention as I see fit. I will sit down and work on phonics with kids who need it, or provide extra support in math instruction when a child is confused. I will NOT sit down and work with your child on my prep time just because you want him to have a leg up. That's what you pay a private tutor the big bucks for, dear.

Surely you are aware that there are other schools that a) have room parents and b) allow their teachers to accept gifts, and they do so.

So what is the point of your post?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom was a teacher for 30+ years and there is a lot in whining about things that corporate America would just say “suck it up, buttercup”.

That said, while the pay may be adequate, I think it is particularly demoralizing to work in an environment where everyone is on the same pay scale and the mediocre performers doing the bare minimum get the same raises as the best performers. It’s demoralizing to work with some slackers and know that they will never get fired.

It’s also tough to work in a place where all of your pay grade and seniority is tied to the school system. As an executive in corporate America, if I leave my company, I will likely have the same or higher status at my next company. I’m not tied to my workplace because I will have to start over at a new workplace. I think a lot of the complaining comes from working with the same people for 20+ years. I have been at the same company for 18 years, but lots of people come and go.

I see the same type of complaints teachers have from my government clients who have worked with the same group of people for 15+ years. They don’t get pay or bonuses to differentiate stellar performance, they are stuck with some duds for coworkers, and they are stuck in their agency or in the GS system.

Also while teachers get time off, the time they have is dictated to them. They can’t take a trip on a whim in February or take a full week off for a sister’s wedding in November. That has got to be annoying. I have a lot of flexibility to run errands or work out at lunch and come in late or leave early as needed. Teachers have no flexibility.

My district decided to change the "step" scale a few years ago. Now you go up faster for highly effective EOY evaluations instead of just effective, etc. You can go up faster for taking coursework, etc.

Does that provide an incentive for the district to rate fewer teachers as “effective” as a cost saving measure? What criteria is being used?

I can see paying more for those who sponsor after school clubs, create the yearbook, serve as team leader, subject leads, mentor, etc.