Anyone sick and tired of teacher sob stories? (college, degree, county)
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I don't know about you, but I am getting sick and tired of how "teachers have it so bad" as if any other job that ever existed doesn't have it's own negatives that come with it. I saw the recent "Time Magazine" front pages about a teacher having to sell their plasma or how they are in-debt to their eye balls.
Usually I'm pretty tight-lipped about it, but I know teachers personally that aren't whining about how they aren't paid enough or whatever is going on. I had a teacher tell me he's a History teacher and he agreed that just as with any job there are some issues, but nothing to whine constantly about.
Basically, teachers act as if they are the only ones that have their tribulations.
I am usually tight-lipped when I see posts like this on my social media, but I know some teachers that are doing pretty good and even taking long vacations to Europe during spring break.
I mean, what are your thoughts? I could give benefit of the doubts as this may be a regional problem?
I believe teaching has one of the highest or the highest turnover rate of any profession. Most teachers leave teaching in three years. You may choose the believe that is just because the only people who go into teaching are super whiny. I know better.
Teachers are just like everyone else. Some are lazy, some whiny, some incredibly dedicated and hard working (both while teachers and after they move into some other career. However i know of no other profession where people spend five years in school, incur all sorts of debt and then most of them quit and go into something else within three years.
I can also tell you my daughter who is an apprentice with the laborers union. Makes considerably more both hourly and per year than my daughter who went to college for 5 years, works 60 - 80 hour weeks teaching and has 5 years experience (plus a bunch of awards).
My daughter has been punched hard enough she had to have a Dr. look at it. She has cleaned up spit, vomit, drool, pee defecation . . . both from floors/desks and form herself. She has classes filled with out of control kids and no discipline tools available to her. She can scold them and if that fails, send them to the office. If they refuse to go, she has to take her class elsewhere and leave them in the classroom to wait for the principal or vice principal to arrive. The special needs kids, who are the most problematic, have an aide, but they are untrained, underpaid and many simply do not care and do nothing. It is a terrible job with pay that leave you qualified for food stamps in many states. They are treated like criminals by the administration and like monsters by many parents (especially parents of problem kids). They usually get no respect, no appreciation, no real help.
Teachers do it because they love teaching and/or they love kids
The difference is that everybody knows a teacher or six. They comprise a huge portion of our population, and because they are, for the most part, public employees their compensation details and negotiation regularly get thrown up for discussion by the media.
We cannot talk about most other professions with the same level of information and interaction.
I do think that teachers have a reasonably difficult job, particularly in the early years when they are developing hundreds of lesson plans for the first time. I don’t think that they are the only people with challenging jobs.
My brother is a teacher. I work in the corporate world. He can’t do what I do and vice versa.
I do find some of the things he complains about interesting, because the politics are somewhat unique to academia. The dynamics of the district vs. school administration vs. teachers.
@tigermomma, superintendents are definitely well paid, but they are like the CEOs of a district. In some states that means all of the schools in a county, and they have to balance all the things at a high level - budget, community needs, staffing levels, working with the teacher’s union, etc. As such it’s not an easy job and they don’t get summers off.
No, I don’t. I’m sure that some teachers work experiences are truly awful. I couldn’t do it.
I wouldn’t mind being a teacher in a good school system, with parents who care, and an administration that supported me. I can see how fulfilling it might be to inspire and teach children.
I guess it can be argued that we can all live and work wherever we choose, so instead of bitching and moaning, I guess a teacher could find a better situation.
And BTW the income ceilings for teachers in my area are pretty high. After 20 years it's over 90k.
Because it's the teachers who are out there on the front lines all day long. The superintendent gets to sit in an office, go to meetings, travel to conferences--and they do not have to endure the stress and humiliation of being sworn at and talked back to by undisciplined kids.
The teachers have the definition of stress: responsibility without control. They are not allowed to discipline the kids. If they do, they get in trouble. How insulting is that? The teacher actually expected the kid to sit and listen and try to learn, to have some level of respect. But no, the teacher gets verbal abuse and has to be on the lookout for possible physical abuse all day long.
Then, if the kids didn't learn much, the teacher gets the blame. The teachers get to sit in long boring after school meetings when they need to get home and start the preparations for the next day. The teachers get to be on the receiving end of stupid "new" learning methods introduced by the superintendent. They are required to attend these idiotic lessons on how to teach with the flavor of the day brand new method. In reality, there is no new method--the superintendent just came up with it as something to put on his/her resume. Waste of time. Insulting to one's intelligence. Let the teachers teach.
And it's the classroom teacher who deals with every little thing. It can be reporting suspected child abuse, dealing with drug issues, learning disabilities, behavior problems, all sorts of psychological problems, needing to be aware of gang activity--the list is endless--and the teacher is supposed to do it all. And teach.
Many teachers burn out and quit after a few years. If someone wants to see what it's like, sign up to be a substitute. Enjoy.
(Oh, I forgot to mention the usual working conditions--in schools with leaky roofs and mold, over heated, not enough time for lunch, not being allowed to leave the building during the day, elementary teachers required to stand outside in freezing weather for recess, not enough money for supplies, etc.)
Last edited by in_newengland; 09-19-2018 at 06:32 PM..
Yeah, I'm getting fairly sick of it. For me, although I've met many great teachers, I've also met plenty of average and God awful teachers (like any profession). So I'm sick of people acting like it some hallowed profession with AMAZING people that DESERVE so much MORE, etc. I agree some do but not all. They also have great benefits, summers off, tons of holidays, unions that make it difficult for them to be fired, great retirement and health plans, etc. Salary is probably lower starting out depending on your state but the benefits are very good. When I was in college, a teaching degree was what the girls did who frankly weren't smart enough for other professions. It's well known as a soft major.
If they would agree to something similar to what Michelle Rhee wanted to implement in the documentary Waiting for Superman in which poor performing teachers were fired and high performers received higher compensation, I would be on board for everything they wanted. Of course, that proposal was shot down by the union.
Yeah, I'm getting fairly sick of it. For me, although I've met many great teachers, I've also met plenty of average and God awful teachers (like any profession). So I'm sick of people acting like it some hallowed profession with AMAZING people that DESERVE so much MORE, etc. I agree some do but not all. They also have great benefits, summers off, tons of holidays, unions that make it difficult for them to be fired, great retirement and health plans, etc. Salary is probably lower starting out depending on your state but the benefits are very good. When I was in college, a teaching degree was what the girls did who frankly weren't smart enough for other professions. It's well known as a soft major.
If they would agree to something similar to what Michelle Rhee wanted to implement in the documentary Waiting for Superman in which poor performing teachers were fired and high performers received higher compensation, I would be on board for everything they wanted. Of course, that proposal was shot down by the union.
Oh. Puhleez.
There are states in which teachers have to take on 2nd jobs just to pay the bills.
Soft major? Where the rubber hits the road is in the classroom. You either can teach, or you can't!
Michelle Rhee is a charletan who falsified data - and has little credibility left, except for those who want to corporatize education.
There are states in which teachers have to take on 2nd jobs just to pay the bills.
Soft major? Where the rubber hits the road is in the classroom. You either can teach, or you can't!
Michelle Rhee is a charletan who falsified data - and has little credibility left, except for those who want to corporatize education.
Yeah, I'd like to have been a teacher like Rhee was. Falsify test results, falsify results, falsify reports. I coulda been a Superintendent.
As a note, the firings by Rhee were found to have been illegal and the ratings system used to be neither fair or accurate and did not measure what it claimed to.
The teachers and administrators received back pay and full reinstatement if they wished to return.
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