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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Considering there are over 3M teachers and 5M nurses in the US that is going to limit the salary. I know most don’t want to believe it but they are common jobs that many many millions could do with some standard training.

What jobs with that type of quantity pay a high salary? Big tech is likely under 100k jobs that pay the big bucks.  How many high paid executives are there, likely under 1M. Who would pay these high salaries for 8M workers, the median wage is in the 60-70k range.[/quote]

Sorry, but that’s simply not true. If teaching really were a job that many millions could do with some standard training, it wouldn’t have such an incredibly high burnout rate in the first 5 years. The truth is, training only gets you so far. You can understand content, but you need to have a collection of personal and interpersonal skills to actually succeed in a classroom. Unfortunately, people who haven’t taught don’t grasp the emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual demands each day brings.

To be a good teacher, you need to be a strong communicator, listener, and collaborator. You need to be adaptable yet organized, patient yet timely, and understanding yet demanding. You need strong presentation skills that can successfully reach a wide variety of audiences. You need to be very good with data, including how to create opportunities to gather accurate data you can subsequently track and organize. You need time management and the ability to hold your hunger and bladder. You need the ability to be at your 100% A game each day, regardless of what is happening in your personal life. You need to be ready to be around (and responsible for) many other people each day without a moment to yourself. Teaching is a 180 day sprint with no real chance to relax until the summer hits. That type of endurance can’t be taught. You have the ability or you don’t.[/quote]

You have all that in the private sector AND the responsibility to deliver results.

XYZ are your goals.

Meet them? Bonus, promotion over time.

Don't meet them? Fired.

If teachers worked this way, the best ones at educating kids would stay and make much more money. The worst would leave.

But you prefer to work as in communist USSR, same for all, and there you have your consequences.[/quote]

Your argument is unclear. Are you suggesting teachers don’t have the responsibility to deliver results? What the heck have I been doing with all my tracked data and pass rates all these years? “A through Z” are my goals and I have to meet them each year. When I meet them, I am not put on a performance improvement plan and I am not fired. That’s all I get for performing well. What we don’t get are your promotions and bonuses. So we have all of your work and responsibilities with none of your perks.

As for “the best ones staying,” right now they are leaving because they are tired of the way they are treated. It seems you are arguing for bonuses and better salaries for good teachers. Bring it! As a good teacher, you have me on board! Now here’s my question: how will you evaluate good teachers? People within education have been struggling with that for decades. I’m sure you have a solution for them, however.[/quote]

They’ve struggled with evaluations because teachers have demanded a level of objectivity and accuracy that isn’t expected or achieved in other professional sectors. Do you really think teaching is the only job where it is hard to quantifiably assess performance in a fair manner? In most professions, performance is assessed subjectively by management, looking at a variety of imperfect objective and subjective measures, with reviews and processes in place to provide some degree of consistency.

Is it perfect? No, but it is better than not rewarding higher performers.[/quote]

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