RANT: Teachers, why are you so whiny?

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03/16/2018 11:38

Subject: RANT: Teachers, why are you so whiny?

Anonymous

Teachers, it's not that I dislike you. I don't. I have 3 school-aged kids and I work as a para in an elementary school, so I am around teachers and work closely with them all day. Most of my friends are teachers. I just get so tired of the whining. I am speaking from my own experiences with elementary teachers in a good school district. I realize other teachers' situations can be much different

The pay thing. I'm gonna say it. Someone has to. Teachers, I think your pay is fair. I'm sorry, but I do. First of all, your degree was not that hard. It's not rocket science. And you only work about 180 days a year. You get summers, spring break, winter break, as well as many other days off. I know you all claim to work all summer on lesson planning. I'm sure that's true for the most dedicated teachers, as it's true that most dedicated employees do some work off the clock. But the teachers I know walk out of school at the end of the year vowing to not even think about their job until the last two weeks of summer. I heard one teacher suggest to her team that they meet once over the summer to plan. They all said forget it, and that it's above their pay grade to waste a summer day thinking about work. For my job, I have to time in/out and leave at exactly 4:15 every day. ALL of the teachers are already gone by then! They usually arrive after us as well. And no, they are not taking papers home to grade. Those days are gone. Kids self grade most of their work. Often it is actually just a completion grade and nobody even grades it. Teachers have parent and HS volunteers who come in to help with copies, project prep, grading, etc. They also get an hour of plan time each day and other times when kids are at recess, reading quietly, or working independently at stations. I spend my entire day in classrooms and I can tell you that these teachers spend about two hours per day actually teaching. Again, just my personal experience and all of this will vary from one school to the next.

Side note: The other paras that I work with complain about our pay as well. I actually think our pay is pretty fair. I get about $15/hour. It seems about right for the amount of work I do and the hours I work. Before kids, I had a job in my field utilizing my degree. It didn't actually pay much more than I'm making now and was MUCH harder work. Much more intense, tons of travel, stressful. Granted, I would be making good money by now if I hadn't left to raise my kids. But still.

Teachers, I get soooo tired of hearing you complain about parents. One minute you are whining that you get so many parent emails and the next minute you are claiming parents are just not involved and don't care. I wonder if you could survive one day in the corporate world, dealing with emails from clients instead of parents. Maybe we need to have a Take A Teacher To Work day so that you can see what your students' parents do all day instead of fretting about whether or not they should email you regarding their kid's 4th grade math test.

When a student has an issue, you automatically blame the parents. you say he must get away with that at home. That's not usually the case. Whatever issue you are having is likely the same issue the parents are having at home. Let's work together instead of pointing fingers. We can't program our kids any better than you can. If we do say that we have not seen that behavior at home, we are not lying or claiming that you are lying. We are saying that we really had no idea and we are grateful that you brought it to our attention. A sudden change in behavior is cause for concern. Now let's work together to figure out why it's happening at school.

You also complain about parent teacher conferences and having to talk with each parent for 20 whole minutes twice a year! Did you not realize this would be a part of your job when you chose this career? In the corporate world, you would be spending a lot more time than that meeting with clients. Or how about being in the med field, talking with patients and families about serious health concerns? Please do us a favor and make the most of those 20 minutes. We made arrangements to be there. Parents take time off work and find babysitters so that they can speak with you. Don't just tell us the info we can get online and then try to push us out after 5 minutes.

And finally, it really makes me cringe every year around the holidays when teachers start the Just Buy Us Gift Cards campaign. you complain about all the candles, lotions, stationery, etc and you just want gift cards. Well, here's the thing. Most of us let our child pick out your gift. The point is for them to do something nice for you and show their appreciation. They get excited about this. Kids think it's boring to give gift cards and they think you will find it boring as well. It makes them feel good to see you unwrap a pretty candle. If you don't like it, donate or re-gift it. No other profession leaves work with a carload of gifts for a 2-3 week holiday break so just BE GRATEFUL for what you get. I realize you don't know what to do with all those candles, but guess what. I also have no idea what to do with the pipe cleaner cat a student made me for Christmas. But I love it anyway because it's thoughtful. I won't request that he give me a gift card instead next year.

One last thing, I get so tired of you guys gushing about how awesome you are. My fb feed is full of teachers posting about how amazing and hard-working teachers are. Please stop embarrassing yourselves by posting these self-congratulatory memes. I know you want to tell everyone how grueling and difficult your job is. Think about the people who read your posts - doctors, nurses, military. Lots of people do good and important work without pointing it out every day.

Rant over. I really do love you, teachers. I just wish you could spend more time focusing on all the positive aspects of your job. Thanks for all you do for our kids. Just stop complaining about it.