Why does no one acknowledge how overworked teachers are?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Thr time off in the summer IS THE ACTUAL win to the argument. It's the whole argument. Unpaid is irrelevant - just budget better. For most people in the workforce, The idea of having literal weeks, maybe even months of not working is an actual dream. An unlivable dream.



Yeah, it's great when you don't have enough money to pay your bills let alone do anything with the time off other than try to find work. It's fine if you have a safety net like your spouse's income or your parent's income to prop you up.

I actually take offense at this. I work full time, 50 weeks a year and make significantly less than a public school teacher in my state who has the same number of years of experience. I like my job, but find it really tone deaf and insensitive that you are complaining about your pay...while you make more than me AND have more time off.

And how do you know how much money I make?

We know how much teachers make in our areas. This information is usually not hard to find.

No one cares about how much exactly you individually make. This thread is about "teachers" generally, not "you" specifically, Susan, who I suppose lives in one of those unfortunate areas where teachers really do make peanuts, which would I guess be either Mississippi or South Dakota.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This generation of teachers is the most under-worked and over-entitled ever.

In the 1970s my mother would carry bags of books home with her every single night and sit up grading her HS kids French homework, putting in corrections and encouragement and grades. Every single night.

Homework just doesn't exist on that level any more. You'r'e lucky if the teacher checks its been done, but they don't engage with it at all.

I do this. Every single night. I work every Saturday. Every Sunday. I am comfortable estimating I work 70 hours at least one week a month and never under 60. My coworkers are quitting because of the workload and I’m seriously considering it.

I’m underworked and over-entitled?

You teach Elementary. there is a world of difference between Elementary and High School in terms of workload and rigor. You are basically spending your weekend putting smiley faces on bad pictures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Returning to this thread:

If you read the first 20-odd pages, there are a lot of people saying that indeed teachers do work hard. The first few posts are about how people DO, in fact, acknowledge how hard teachers work.

There are a couple of posters who did poop on teachers, true.

There were also posters that said, "hey we are all overworked." (Which is not saying that teachers AREN'T overworked, its' saying other people are overworked as well.)

There are also a couple of teachers who are ridiculously dug in to the narrative that they have the hardest job ever (worse apparently than poop scuba divers).

Oh yeah, there's the "parents suck" teacher as well, who always chimes in to just keep everything positive.

This is just a summary so no one thinks this entire thread is just "teachers have easy jobs."

Yet there are plenty of posts that refuse to acknowledge that teaching can be demanding, and the tired “but summers” argument is the usual go-to.

There are staggering misconceptions about teaching throughout this thread. I wouldn’t presume to know what it’s like to be a doctor or a “poop scuba diver,” but it’s clearly okay to assume what teaching is like. We’ve all been in classrooms, after all. We’ve all seen teachers in our daily lives. I guess that makes all of us on this thread clear experts in the education field. Sigh.

There is one (hopefully one) teacher who is suggesting that indeed they do know what every job entails, and that they do all of it as a teacher. And upthread there are plenty of comments where teachers presume to know what other jobs do or what the conditions are (and why their jobs are worse). This is part of why this thread won't die.

I think the main problem, as described numerous times upthread, is the phrasing of the OP. It's such a "what about me?" statement, despite the fact that there are teacher appreciation weeks, national news articles about teachers being overworked (suggesting they acknowledge that teachers are overworked), threads all the time here about how to appreciate teachers, etc.

DP. I'm assuming that poster is a troll, because I don't think anyone with more than a high school education would actually believe that poop divers and teachers have overlapping sanitation skills.

Not a troll and if you think I haven't had to clean up pretty much every bodily function out of my classroom you'd be wrong. I'm not diving 20,000 leagues to get it, but it is there on occasion.

Right, yes…this is a completely, COMPLETELY different story. Not even close to comparable. That you would imply that is laughable…what grade do you teach?

Also, like...it's not even unique? Most of us here are parents. We've all seen blowouts. Are we supposed to be impressed by the fact that you've dealt with poop?

DP but are you really going to equate handling your own infant's diaper changes with the poop of an elementary schooler unrelated to you? Classic case of parents thinking they do everything teachers do... but don't you dare close the schools during a pandemic, we need that babysitting

I think you missed the original comparison being made. Let me help!!

Cleaning up the poop of a child by an adult, either a parent or a teacher: relatively similar task. Swimming in poopie while wielding a fiery tool: not similar to either of the above. Hopefully you understand now. You're welcome!

Not a troll checking in. The fact that you have to go as extreme as a scuba welder to try to find something we don't do is proving my original point. The fact that you think its acceptable that someone with a masters has to clean up strangers childs poop are comparing it to cleaning up after your own kid, aka parenting, is even better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This generation of teachers is the most under-worked and over-entitled ever.

In the 1970s my mother would carry bags of books home with her every single night and sit up grading her HS kids French homework, putting in corrections and encouragement and grades. Every single night.

Homework just doesn't exist on that level any more. You'r'e lucky if the teacher checks its been done, but they don't engage with it at all.

I do this. Every single night. I work every Saturday. Every Sunday. I am comfortable estimating I work 70 hours at least one week a month and never under 60. My coworkers are quitting because of the workload and I’m seriously considering it.

I’m underworked and over-entitled?

You teach Elementary. there is a world of difference between Elementary and High School in terms of workload and rigor. You are basically spending your weekend putting smiley faces on bad pictures.

Now this right here is a troll. I'd encourage others to ignore going forward

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This generation of teachers is the most under-worked and over-entitled ever.

In the 1970s my mother would carry bags of books home with her every single night and sit up grading her HS kids French homework, putting in corrections and encouragement and grades. Every single night.

Homework just doesn't exist on that level any more. You'r'e lucky if the teacher checks its been done, but they don't engage with it at all.

I do this. Every single night. I work every Saturday. Every Sunday. I am comfortable estimating I work 70 hours at least one week a month and never under 60. My coworkers are quitting because of the workload and I’m seriously considering it.

I’m underworked and over-entitled?

You teach Elementary. there is a world of difference between Elementary and High School in terms of workload and rigor. You are basically spending your weekend putting smiley faces on bad pictures.

Now this right here is a troll. I'd encourage others to ignore going forward

+1

[Anonymous]

I wish I became a teacher, especially in a LCOL area. 7:30am-3:00pm workday, a gazillion days off, summers off, weekends off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Returning to this thread:

If you read the first 20-odd pages, there are a lot of people saying that indeed teachers do work hard. The first few posts are about how people DO, in fact, acknowledge how hard teachers work.

There are a couple of posters who did poop on teachers, true.

There were also posters that said, "hey we are all overworked." (Which is not saying that teachers AREN'T overworked, its' saying other people are overworked as well.)

There are also a couple of teachers who are ridiculously dug in to the narrative that they have the hardest job ever (worse apparently than poop scuba divers).

Oh yeah, there's the "parents suck" teacher as well, who always chimes in to just keep everything positive.

This is just a summary so no one thinks this entire thread is just "teachers have easy jobs."

Yet there are plenty of posts that refuse to acknowledge that teaching can be demanding, and the tired “but summers” argument is the usual go-to.

There are staggering misconceptions about teaching throughout this thread. I wouldn’t presume to know what it’s like to be a doctor or a “poop scuba diver,” but it’s clearly okay to assume what teaching is like. We’ve all been in classrooms, after all. We’ve all seen teachers in our daily lives. I guess that makes all of us on this thread clear experts in the education field. Sigh.

There is one (hopefully one) teacher who is suggesting that indeed they do know what every job entails, and that they do all of it as a teacher. And upthread there are plenty of comments where teachers presume to know what other jobs do or what the conditions are (and why their jobs are worse). This is part of why this thread won't die.

I think the main problem, as described numerous times upthread, is the phrasing of the OP. It's such a "what about me?" statement, despite the fact that there are teacher appreciation weeks, national news articles about teachers being overworked (suggesting they acknowledge that teachers are overworked), threads all the time here about how to appreciate teachers, etc.

DP. I'm assuming that poster is a troll, because I don't think anyone with more than a high school education would actually believe that poop divers and teachers have overlapping sanitation skills.

Not a troll and if you think I haven't had to clean up pretty much every bodily function out of my classroom you'd be wrong. I'm not diving 20,000 leagues to get it, but it is there on occasion.

Right, yes…this is a completely, COMPLETELY different story. Not even close to comparable. That you would imply that is laughable…what grade do you teach?

Also, like...it's not even unique? Most of us here are parents. We've all seen blowouts. Are we supposed to be impressed by the fact that you've dealt with poop?

DP but are you really going to equate handling your own infant's diaper changes with the poop of an elementary schooler unrelated to you? Classic case of parents thinking they do everything teachers do... but don't you dare close the schools during a pandemic, we need that babysitting

I think you missed the original comparison being made. Let me help!!

Cleaning up the poop of a child by an adult, either a parent or a teacher: relatively similar task. Swimming in poopie while wielding a fiery tool: not similar to either of the above. Hopefully you understand now. You're welcome!

Not a troll checking in. The fact that you have to go as extreme as a scuba welder to try to find something we don't do is proving my original point. The fact that you think its acceptable that someone with a masters has to clean up strangers childs poop are comparing it to cleaning up after your own kid, aka parenting, is even better.

There were two original points invoking the poop scuba diver:

1) a PP said that teachers do *every single task* of every other job. (No they don't; aside from scuba poop diver, there were many examples provided)
2) a PP said that probably teachers don't have it worst, that scuba poop divers probably have worse working conditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of jobs require hard work and long hours. I don’t think teachers work harder than many other professional careers, most of which are salaried with unlimited work hours. Teachers get every holiday (plus several days surrounding said holiday) and summer off. That is a benefit no other job has- paid or unpaid. My DH works many holidays (in addition to M-F, sometimes all weekend, but always at least some weekend work, as well and has never been able to take off more than 7 consecutive days.

Then can we agree teachers also have it hard? I also work M-F, and all weekend, just like your DH. I worked 4 full days over spring break, and even more over the last winter break. I’ll work 3-4 weeks of my 7 unpaid weeks of summer writing curriculum, recommendation letters, etc.

I don’t need people to think my job is harder. I’d be content if I could be respected for the fact it is hard. This thread is filled with people who refuse to accept that, for reasons I simply don’t understand.

I think the question of this individual thread is why do we have to single out teachers for their hard work and long hours, if there are plenty of jobs that require hard work and long hours?

A big portion of comments on this thread are saying just that.

Yes this. A lot of people work hard. And don’t have the summer off. And don’t get an appreciation week or any other special thanks yous and praises. So what?

Well then I guess enjoy the great resignation. We're 56 pages in I really don't know what else to say. We're telling you how bad it is, do with it what you want.

Yes, you are quitting bc of comments on DCUM. Not bc of crappy admin, or conditions, or pay. Grow up.

DP.
I doubt that person is quitting because of DCUM. The point is there are now 56 pages. Teachers have attempted to explain working conditions and posters have shut them down. I just found out yet another coworker is quitting at the end of this year. My own kid has lost a couple of her teachers mid year.

It’s really bad right now. DCUM would prefer teachers to suffer quietly. They aren’t doing that. They are quitting. As a teacher and a parent, I’m worried. Who will be in the classroom five years from now teaching our kids?

No, you only focused on a select set of comments. People have said that teachers do work hard. Others have said they are appreciated and acknowledged. What you want is for NO ONE to question that (some) teachers are overworked (I say 'some' because there are teachers that have chimed in to this thread to say they aren't overworked). Demanding that every anonymous jackhole states the same thing is a losing cause. If it makes someone make career choices, that's really their own problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish I became a teacher, especially in a LCOL area. 7:30am-3:00pm workday, a gazillion days off, summers off, weekends off.

Trolling?

If it were this great of a job, would we all be leaving?

I never work 7:30-3. Maybe 6:30-4:30, and again from 7-9. Daily. Weekends off? No, that’s grading time. Summers? Unpaid, not “off.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I became a teacher, especially in a LCOL area. 7:30am-3:00pm workday, a gazillion days off, summers off, weekends off.

Trolling?

If it were this great of a job, would we all be leaving?

I never work 7:30-3. Maybe 6:30-4:30, and again from 7-9. Daily. Weekends off? No, that’s grading time. Summers? Unpaid, not “off.”

Oh please. You are spending a few hours on the weekends grading papers in your sweatpants while you watch Netflix. Plenty of people have to put in overtime and weekend hours actually AT work, fully on the job, and they can’t take every holiday, weekend, and summer off, even unpaid. It isn’t even an option. You want to take 8 weeks off from most other job, and aren’t using FMLA, you’ll be fired and replaced. Teachers work hard, but not harder than most other job. They have a comparable workload to many many other jobs. Plus a lot more time off.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher who reached their breaking point and quit mid year. I never thought I'd do that, but at some point enough is enough.

Arguing about who works harder or more is irrelevant. We are having a teacher crisis, just as we are having a health care provider crisis. If something isn't done, it's only going to get worse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Returning to this thread:

If you read the first 20-odd pages, there are a lot of people saying that indeed teachers do work hard. The first few posts are about how people DO, in fact, acknowledge how hard teachers work.

There are a couple of posters who did poop on teachers, true.

There were also posters that said, "hey we are all overworked." (Which is not saying that teachers AREN'T overworked, its' saying other people are overworked as well.)

There are also a couple of teachers who are ridiculously dug in to the narrative that they have the hardest job ever (worse apparently than poop scuba divers).

Oh yeah, there's the "parents suck" teacher as well, who always chimes in to just keep everything positive.

This is just a summary so no one thinks this entire thread is just "teachers have easy jobs."

Yet there are plenty of posts that refuse to acknowledge that teaching can be demanding, and the tired “but summers” argument is the usual go-to.

There are staggering misconceptions about teaching throughout this thread. I wouldn’t presume to know what it’s like to be a doctor or a “poop scuba diver,” but it’s clearly okay to assume what teaching is like. We’ve all been in classrooms, after all. We’ve all seen teachers in our daily lives. I guess that makes all of us on this thread clear experts in the education field. Sigh.

There is one (hopefully one) teacher who is suggesting that indeed they do know what every job entails, and that they do all of it as a teacher. And upthread there are plenty of comments where teachers presume to know what other jobs do or what the conditions are (and why their jobs are worse). This is part of why this thread won't die.

I think the main problem, as described numerous times upthread, is the phrasing of the OP. It's such a "what about me?" statement, despite the fact that there are teacher appreciation weeks, national news articles about teachers being overworked (suggesting they acknowledge that teachers are overworked), threads all the time here about how to appreciate teachers, etc.

DP. I'm assuming that poster is a troll, because I don't think anyone with more than a high school education would actually believe that poop divers and teachers have overlapping sanitation skills.

Not a troll and if you think I haven't had to clean up pretty much every bodily function out of my classroom you'd be wrong. I'm not diving 20,000 leagues to get it, but it is there on occasion.

Right, yes…this is a completely, COMPLETELY different story. Not even close to comparable. That you would imply that is laughable…what grade do you teach?

Also, like...it's not even unique? Most of us here are parents. We've all seen blowouts. Are we supposed to be impressed by the fact that you've dealt with poop?

DP but are you really going to equate handling your own infant's diaper changes with the poop of an elementary schooler unrelated to you? Classic case of parents thinking they do everything teachers do... but don't you dare close the schools during a pandemic, we need that babysitting

I think you missed the original comparison being made. Let me help!!

Cleaning up the poop of a child by an adult, either a parent or a teacher: relatively similar task. Swimming in poopie while wielding a fiery tool: not similar to either of the above. Hopefully you understand now. You're welcome!

Not a troll checking in. The fact that you have to go as extreme as a scuba welder to try to find something we don't do is proving my original point. The fact that you think its acceptable that someone with a masters has to clean up strangers childs poop are comparing it to cleaning up after your own kid, aka parenting, is even better.

???? There were SO many other examples provided (…at which point the teacher PP - who kept demanding examples of skills people performed in other jobs that she doesn’t perform as a teacher, INSISTENT that she does everything every other jobs does - slunk off with simply “I don’t have time to respond to this, I have papers to grade”…lol). Please read the context, as you would - I sincerely hope - teach a student to do.

The poop scuba diver point is here because the teacher claimed that since she occasionally deals with poop in her (…above water. Lol.) classroom, she does the same thing as the poop scuba diver. Idiocy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I became a teacher, especially in a LCOL area. 7:30am-3:00pm workday, a gazillion days off, summers off, weekends off.

Trolling?

If it were this great of a job, would we all be leaving?

I never work 7:30-3. Maybe 6:30-4:30, and again from 7-9. Daily. Weekends off? No, that’s grading time. Summers? Unpaid, not “off.”

Oh please. You are spending a few hours on the weekends grading papers in your sweatpants while you watch Netflix. Plenty of people have to put in overtime and weekend hours actually AT work, fully on the job, and they can’t take every holiday, weekend, and summer off, even unpaid. It isn’t even an option. You want to take 8 weeks off from most other job, and aren’t using FMLA, you’ll be fired and replaced. Teachers work hard, but not harder than most other job. They have a comparable workload to many many other jobs. Plus a lot more time off.

I'm not a teacher or anything but have you heard current teachers who are career switchers say that their current jobs are far more demanding than the white-collar office jobs they had before? And former teachers say that their current jobs are much easier than teaching was? Because I've heard people say that a lot and I wonder how that plays into your opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I became a teacher, especially in a LCOL area. 7:30am-3:00pm workday, a gazillion days off, summers off, weekends off.

Trolling?

If it were this great of a job, would we all be leaving?

I never work 7:30-3. Maybe 6:30-4:30, and again from 7-9. Daily. Weekends off? No, that’s grading time. Summers? Unpaid, not “off.”

Oh please. You are spending a few hours on the weekends grading papers in your sweatpants while you watch Netflix. Plenty of people have to put in overtime and weekend hours actually AT work, fully on the job, and they can’t take every holiday, weekend, and summer off, even unpaid. It isn’t even an option. You want to take 8 weeks off from most other job, and aren’t using FMLA, you’ll be fired and replaced. Teachers work hard, but not harder than most other job. They have a comparable workload to many many other jobs. Plus a lot more time off.

I'm not a teacher or anything but have you heard current teachers who are career switchers say that their current jobs are far more demanding than the white-collar office jobs they had before? And former teachers say that their current jobs are much easier than teaching was? Because I've heard people say that a lot and I wonder how that plays into your opinion.

There have been several prior posters in this thread who have expressed that they previously taught and their current jobs are as hard as teaching, with similar hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish I became a teacher, especially in a LCOL area. 7:30am-3:00pm workday, a gazillion days off, summers off, weekends off.

Trolling?

If it were this great of a job, would we all be leaving?

I never work 7:30-3. Maybe 6:30-4:30, and again from 7-9. Daily. Weekends off? No, that’s grading time. Summers? Unpaid, not “off.”

Oh please. You are spending a few hours on the weekends grading papers in your sweatpants while you watch Netflix. Plenty of people have to put in overtime and weekend hours actually AT work, fully on the job, and they can’t take every holiday, weekend, and summer off, even unpaid. It isn’t even an option. You want to take 8 weeks off from most other job, and aren’t using FMLA, you’ll be fired and replaced. Teachers work hard, but not harder than most other job. They have a comparable workload to many many other jobs. Plus a lot more time off.

I'm not a teacher or anything but have you heard current teachers who are career switchers say that their current jobs are far more demanding than the white-collar office jobs they had before? And former teachers say that their current jobs are much easier than teaching was? Because I've heard people say that a lot and I wonder how that plays into your opinion.

There have been several prior posters in this thread who have expressed that they previously taught and their current jobs are as hard as teaching, with similar hours.

Indeed. So what about those who have had different experiences?