For quite some time now I have been considering the state of the education system and really can't understand how so many politicians think they have a greater understanding of the day to day functioning of a classroom than those who are in the trenches. Teachers are educated. All must hold a bachelor's degree and many hold master's degrees or higher. In addition, they continue their training and education throughout their entire careers. They deal with issues that would send the average 'joe' running away in tears. Teachers must be counselors, substitute parents, entertainers, psychologists, nurses, janitors, and much more in addition to trying to instill a passion for learning in even the most difficult child. They are the least respected of any profession and some of the hardest working. They're jobs do not end at 3p.m. when the bell rings. Most of the time teachers are still in their classrooms several hours later working on lessons, grading papers, in meetings, etc. And if they aren't in the classroom completing their work, they're at home trying to care for their own family and sitting in front of a stack of papers until midnight...sometimes every night.
Now, there are some who would argue that teachers get summers off and shouldn't complain. They don't get an entire summer off. That's bogus. They continue to work sometimes several weeks after the kids have gone on their merry way and begin working in their classrooms long before the next school years begins. Some of them even teach summer school or pick up a summer job.
The pay is not in alignment with the job. People think teachers are paid enough or even too much, but when you break it down it's rather pathetic, especially for the amount of education teachers are required to have. I personally spent about 8 years in college for a M.A.E. + 33 hours. I could have been a doctor in that amount of time and made 4 times the amount of money. A beginning teacher might make 34K depending on where they live...some places may be slightly higher, some lower. This is about 2800 month, a little over 700 a week before taxes and fees. Once my insurance was taken out, the taxes, union dues in case there was ever a lawsuit, I cleared the same amount of money that I had once made working for Wal-Mart as a support manager at 7.85 an hour. 8 years of college for a paycheck like that? Why did I do it? Because teaching is one of the most important things one can do. All other careers--doctors, lawyers, nurses, police, librarians, scientists, etc would not exist if it were not for teachers.
So why do we get such little respect? Everyone thinks they have a better way...whether it's parents, the community, the politicians, whomever....but none of them would stop what they are doing and take a position as a teacher. Why? First of all they couldn't handle it and they know it. Secondly, even if they could handle it, they wouldn't do it for that pay scale. No way, no how. And contrary to the popular saying "those who can do and those who can't teach" it's the other way around...those who Can -Teach, and those who Can't- work other jobs. It takes an incredible individual to walk into a group of highly diverse individuals without a bullet proof vest, a bodyguard, or some sort of protection and dare them to learn, control their behavior, and love them regardless of their story. Teachers don't do what they do because they don't have the ability to work other jobs successfully, they do it because in their hearts...they can't see themselves doing anything else.
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