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Why in the world do physical education teachers get paid the same as academic teachers when their job is far easier and far less strenuous?
Seriously, what's so hard about throwing out a kick ball for kids to play, or ensuring that kids dress out? These teachers, beyond perhaps coaching a sport for one season, are able to leave when school is over. They don't have any papers to take home. They have no real lessons to plan. Yet, many of these same PE teachers make higher salaries than a teacher who has to plan instructional lessons, grade papers, and teach in an intense manner throughout the day.
Is it strange for districts to pay physical education and academic teachers the same?
Why in the world do physical education teachers get paid the same as academic teachers when their job is far easier and far less strenuous?
Seriously, what's so hard about throwing out a kick ball for kids to play, or ensuring that kids dress out? These teachers, beyond perhaps coaching a sport for one season, are able to leave when school is over. They don't have any papers to take home. They have no real lessons to plan. Yet, many of these same PE teachers make higher salaries than a teacher who has to plan instructional lessons, grade papers, and teach in an intense manner throughout the day.
Is it strange for districts to pay physical education and academic teachers the same?
My best friend is a coach, and I'll admit he does way more work than I do, sometimes work 84/wk. On top of that, it cuts into his weekends, and its no uncommon for coaches to get back home from games at 1am. they are also sometimes used as hall monitors as well. For example, I am off now, but my buddy has an 8 am meeting tomorrow, and sometimes the meeting are at 630 am during the school year. Their job is never done, especially since the work cuts into their holidays.
Your post is going to rile some... LOL... I've always wondered why P.E. teachers are paid as much as Math teachers. In my world, the Math/STEM teachers would all be paid the most (do some school districts do this?). The pay would be based on supply/demand. Those with more in-demand backgrounds are more likely to get higher paying jobs in industry, so need a higher salary incentive to teach. Also, their majors are much more intellectually challenging than P.E. majors (sorry P.E. majors!) so fewer can become qualified teachers.
My best friend is a coach, and I'll admit he does way more work than I do, sometimes work 84/wk. On top of that, it cuts into his weekends, and its no uncommon for coaches to get back home from games at 1am. they are also sometimes used as hall monitors as well. For example, I am off now, but my buddy has an 8 am meeting tomorrow, and sometimes the meeting are at 630 am during the school year. Their job is never done, especially since the work cuts into their holidays.
Now that is a very good point! If P.E. teachers have longer hours due to games/practices, they should be paid more. However, our school's basketball coach is the Science teacher, the Track coach is the History teacher - so it's not always the P.E. teachers who are coaching.
Your post is going to rile some... LOL... I've always wondered why P.E. teachers are paid as much as Math teachers. In my world, the Math/STEM teachers would all be paid the most (do some school districts do this?). The pay would be based on supply/demand. Those with more in-demand backgrounds are more likely to get higher paying jobs in industry, so need a higher salary incentive to teach. Also, their majors are much more intellectually challenging than P.E. majors (sorry P.E. majors!) so fewer can become qualified teachers.
Its not right to do that, the subkect may be different, but the work is basically the same. Thats why schools offer stipends
For science math and foreign languages
Now that is a very good point! If P.E. teachers have longer hours due to games/practices, they should be paid more. However, our school's basketball coach is the Science teacher, the Track coach is the History teacher - so it's not always the P.E. teachers who are coaching.
Funny uou mention that because my friend is a scie ce teacher lol
My best friend is a coach, and I'll admit he does way more work than I do, sometimes work 84/wk. On top of that, it cuts into his weekends, and its no uncommon for coaches to get back home from games at 1am. they are also sometimes used as hall monitors as well. For example, I am off now, but my buddy has an 8 am meeting tomorrow, and sometimes the meeting are at 630 am during the school year. Their job is never done, especially since the work cuts into their holidays.
Where I am, teachers are paid extra to coach so they make more for the extra time they put in.
As to PE teachers, they do not have the grading load of an academic teacher. I'll bet if you compared ALL the hours academic teachers spend grading to the ones PE teachers work beyond the school day, the PE teacher will still come out ahead (not counting extra coaching which they are paid extra to do).
Why in the world do physical education teachers get paid the same as academic teachers when their job is far easier and far less strenuous?
Seriously, what's so hard about throwing out a kick ball for kids to play, or ensuring that kids dress out? These teachers, beyond perhaps coaching a sport for one season, are able to leave when school is over. They don't have any papers to take home. They have no real lessons to plan. Yet, many of these same PE teachers make higher salaries than a teacher who has to plan instructional lessons, grade papers, and teach in an intense manner throughout the day.
Is it strange for districts to pay physical education and academic teachers the same?
This has always been a confusing element to me too. With the time spent in preparation, meeting with students with questions, and grading papers PLUS trying to meet all the testing requirements that a regular teacher puts in, how is it that a jumping jacks teacher gets paid on the same grid scale.
Most all of these PE teachers coach a sport or two, but like regular teachers they get paid extra for this.
It's so competitive for teachers to find jobs that politics runs rampant. This is especially true for those competing for PE jobs. Take a look at your school's PE teacher. He/she most likely got the job from who they know or from who they were. Examples being the local sports hero, son/daughter of the local sports hero, son/daughter of someone on the school board, big time college stud in the area, former teacher/coach with a big winning reputation that moves to a large program and administration wants all the concentration on coaching the sport, etc.
This discrepancy in pay versus responsibility is a negative result of the teacher's union and no one seems willing to change it. Once again, politics.
Keep in mind that I am referring to a PE teacher who actually teaches PE, not necessarily coaches. Though, almost all PE teachers will coach a team, unless elementary school (which I will mention later).
Regular education teachers, be they social studies, science, math, or language arts, do often coach teams. They receive a stipend for it. However, PE coaches also coach teams. They, too, receive a stipend. I'd say that just as many, if not more, regular education teachers coach as do PE coaches, though all PE coaches from middle to high are expected to at least coach one team for a season. It's usually not written into their contracts, but it is kind of an unwritten rule.
The typical middle or high school PE teacher will coach one to two teams per year, but at least half of them coach only one sport. Thus, if they coach football, they stay afternoons from around August to November. If they coach basketball, they stay afternoons from October/November to January. If they coach baseball or some other spring sport, they stay afternoons from February to April. All in all, it usually is no more than three and a half months. That's it. They also receive a stipend for it, as it is not part of their contract or negotiated duties. (Some districts do have those duties listed in their contracts, but most don't. For those that do, it's part of their salary. For those that do not, it is a stipend.)
Therefore, when one really looks at what most PE teachers do as coaching, it's often not any more than a lot of academic teachers.
Thus, why do they get paid the same as an academic teacher?
What do they do?
Here's what's often typical:
- Send kids outside to play on the field, letting them run around the track, play soccer, play kickball, etc., all their choice.
- Have them play kickball in the gym.
- Have them play volleyball in the gym after they pull out the nets and give a brief overview of the rules.
- Have them do jumping jacks and stretching
- Tell the kids to run around a certain area
You get the point. This job is in no way mentally demanding, and I dare say that it is not physically demanding. It seems like a job that is so cushy, in my opinion.
On the other hand, an academic teacher gets paid on the same pay scale, and has to:
- Plan lessons daily
- Grade hundreds of papers
- Make copies
- Have parent-teacher conferences
- Common subject area planning
- Grade level meetings
- IEP meetings
- Rigorously teach, day to day
- Provide extra help to students who are struggling
- Manage the classroom (less necessary for PE)
- Contact parents of misbehaving students
- Morning or afternoon duty in some districts
All of this means that whether a teacher stays at the school to complete their daily work, or whether they take it home, they're often working four extra hours after the school day ends, whereas the PE teacher who has had an easy job all day is out enjoying dinner with his/her family, and doesn't have to contend with any job activities after he/she goes home. That is, unless the PE teacher is coaching a team, and for that the coach receives a stipend. It certainly isn't as mentally draining as grading papers, granted obtaining a bus to the next game, if away, can sometimes cause headaches, just as parents who don't pick their kids up from practice on time can be a problem.
My point: Academic teachers should be paid more than PE teachers.
This is especially true for elementary PE teachers who have no coaching at all throughout the year. They simply throw out the cones and play kickball, or pull out the parachute and tell the kids to run under it, etc. Very cushy job, it seems. Meanwhile, if they've been with the district for 20 years, they're bringing home sixty thousand dollars, while someone with fewer years, but an academic teacher, is loaded up with papers and many other duties, while making only forty thousand or so per year. I'm not saying that teachers shouldn't be compensated for more experience, but this seems a bit odd, given the difficulty of both jobs.
All I know is that I want their job. Unfortunately, the jobs are few and far between and being that it's an elective area, their jobs are one of the first on the chopping block when cuts have to be made. After getting laid off and deciding to go back to school to get my teaching license, I was heavily leaning towards PE, but then common sense prevailed and after just being laid off, I decided I needed to get licensed in something more stable, which is why I chose Special Education. Anyways, I couldn't have majored in PE even if I had tried since the university where I went to get my license was doing away with their PE program. I asked them why and they said there just weren't enough jobs out there to justify keeping the major. I was kind of shocked to hear that as I've never heard of a university actually getting rid of a major.
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