Reply to Why does no one acknowledge how overworked teachers are?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My son's best friend's mom is a teacher, and I think she raises a good point.  Teachers need to be appreciated, yes.  However, something is off that, in our society, we think the way to show this is with a teacher's breakfast or luncheon, or mug, or small amazon gift card.  If we treated teachers like other government professionals, the way we would show appreciation is by higher salaries (within the confines of what the Government can pay).  I'm an attorney for a municipal entity, and while I am far from rolling in it, no one thinks they are keeping me in the profession by giving me free bagels and cream cheese once a month.  [/quote]

If you work for the federal government, then you are familiar with the fact that most government employees (regardless of whether they are federal, state, city, county, or other local jurisdiction), usually are limited in the types of financial compensation that can be grated, even when they are outstanding.  In most cases, there are rules for what constitutes not meeting expectations, meeting expectations and exceeding expectations and what can be awarded to the employees.  Teachers are the same way.  The union has negotiated the pay scale and pay raises, so it is very hard for anyone, even the school board or school administrators to give any additional monetary compensation that is not in the pre-negotiated agreements.  So, people try to give something to the teachers that will be nice, and will help them avoid spending money out of their pocket.  Breakfasts and lunches are one thing that teachers have to pay money out of pocket for and that they can save if parents, PTA or administrators provide for them, so it's a way to put a small amount of money back into their pockets.

An alternative is to buy the supplies the supplies that they often spend for out of pocket.  I talk to teachers and ask what supplies they are purchasing out of pocket and I'll buy those things for them.  Again, it puts money back in their pocket in a round-about way, by providing things that they no longer have to buy out of pocket.  Not the best, but sometimes that is what you can do when you have employees in unionized positions with fixed pay scales.[/quote]

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