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Originally Posted by TheGoodTheBadTheUgly
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Ok. Let's get some things straight here.
My mom was a teacher. I know exactly how much she was paid because when I got my first apartment ever, she and my dad were co-signers, and they had to put down what they made per year. I knew we were doing fine, I didn't realize we were doing that fine, and they were just ridiculously frugal.
She got paid very well. What she got paid far exceeded the cost of living in the place we lived. I would say that she was in the top middle bracket of what people in that place made on average.
So, yes, she was paid quite well as a teacher.
However, she didn't just work 180 days a year, and it sure as hell was not 9-5. She would leave the house every morning at around 6:30 - 7am. School didn't even start until 8:30am. She spent that time preparing the classroom for her teaching that day.
I also recall that anytime we would go school clothes shopping for the new grade year, she would buy up all kinds of supplies for her classroom, and for the students who may not have had the means to afford everything. That was long before most teachers did that. She chose to do that, on her own, of her own freewill, not because she was required to do it. It was her own personal money that she spent because she wanted every student to have access to whatever they needed for school.
At night, she would come home at around 5 pm, even though school got out at 3:30pm. She spent the time in her classroom cleaning up, grading a few papers, talking to students or parents or both, etc. Once she got home, she made dinner, we all ate, and then she went to her desk and did work. I know this because her desk was in the family room where our video consoles were and the tv was that we would use when my dad took the other one to watch the shows he wanted to watch. I spent many nights sitting on the couch, watching tv, while my mother sat at her desk next to that couch, grading papers, preparing lessons, etc. She worked until 9, 10, or even 11pm every week day night.
So, from 7am to 11pm, with a small break in there to make and eat dinner with her family, she was working, every single Monday through Friday.
During the summer time, I remember very well, she would go off to another city to take classes to further her teaching degree, and to make herself a better teacher. She was gone for months. I remember it very well because she was very strict, while my dad was kind of easy. When she was gone, I felt free. My dad pretty much let me do what I wanted, as long as my chores were done, whereas she would always find reasons not to let me do things. So, yeah, I remember those summers extremely well.
Those classes were not paid for by anyone but herself. She chose to do them. She chose to improve her skills and learn new ones. The more that she took those classes, the more they paid her, but she sure as hell didn't get the summer off.
When she returned, she had a couple of weeks to do whatever she wanted to do, which was usually gardening or sewing and hanging out with our cat, but then she was back to it, getting prepared for the new school year, a couple of weeks before school even started.
So yes, she got paid well, but do not for one moment think that they "only work 180 days every year" or that they clock in when school starts and clock out when school ends. You have no idea how much work they put into their chosen profession.
Calculate all of the hours that she put in, despite how well she was paid, it was certainly not what she deserved, as she should have been paid far more. I'd like to know who out there would work 16 hours a day with a one hour break to eat dinner, for 180 days a year, plus take classes all summer long at no pay, and tell me that they get paid "too much".
If you were to calculate all of the hours that she spent working each weekday during the school year, plus the months she spent in class for herself, based off of what she was paid, it comes out to about $15 an hour. She has a Master's degree.
Tell me again how teachers are over paid.
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