Last night I overheard a conversation from a couple of college students regarding teaching. It seems that the young lady is an education major. Her friend was loudly proclaiming how teachers were really over paid. He thought that teachers had a very easy job because they only work 8 to 3 with a lunch break and an hour off period. Further teachers get two months off a year. The young man had obviously never been on the other side of the desk.
There are many who think because they have been students that they must know about teaching. Further there are still many misconceptions about teaching. First teaching is not an 8 to 3 job; those are just the hours that students are there. For me teaching was more like 7:30-5:00 and then I took several hours of work home each night. While teachers are supposed to get a half hour lunch and conference period each day there is often so much to do during those time that it is rarely free time. I was always doing good to get fifteen minutes to inhale my lunch. It is ironic that the gentleman thought teachers were being over paid was in the one of the, if not lowest paying counties in Florida. Florida’s teachers are some of the lowest paid teachers in the country.
One of the things that has always frustrated about teaching was that those who made the policies (ie politicians) had for the most part never taught. In our society grown men are paid millions of dollars to play with a ball but teachers barely make a decent wage. In many areas education is so underfunded that teachers must spend large amounts of their own limited resources for classroom supplies. In Florida, the education funding situation is so bad that many school districts are looking at drastic measures to reduce spending including shortening the school week to 4 days and reducing electives.
If we really wanted to improve education in this country maybe we should provide better funding instead of just adding more regulations. Give teachers the respect that college educated professionals deserve rather than always blaming teachers.
The Dee Zone 
I have always felt that teachers didn’t get paid enough especially in the higher grades. I have never seen them as any different than a college professor in that they are teaching things that you need to know not only to be a productive citizen, but to live period.
Granted, I had some pretty lousy teachers in my day…some played favorites and if you weren’t a fav then you didn’t get grades, others were just lazy and useless (I had a health teacher that never checked tests…as long as you had something written it was graded as correct). BUT….I have also had some pretty awesome teachers in my day as well that taught me a lot and cared about me and my success.
And for the record…I have known of many teachers that have had to PAY…they never got enough budget to cover any supplies they needed so they always had to pay out of their pocket for some things for their classroom.
I totally feel that you also get what you pay for. Where I lived in TN they didn’t pay the teachers crap (barely above poverty wage if you can believe that) and my education SUCKED. There were schools that my nieces/nephews went to where the ceilings were falling on them and the city/state said they had no money yet they spent a couple mil on a frakkin football stadium.
Where I live now the teachers are paid a lot more and and the education is really good (granted they also expect more out of their teachers…where I grew up all you had to do to be a high school teacher was graduate high school and sub for 2 years). We do have to pay high property taxes…but it is worth it to have decent schools for my kids to go to.
I think that especially in places where the education is lacking instead of putting more tests out there to try to bring students up, they need to pay to get quality teachers instead…I would much rather my tax money be spent towards education than something like a football stadium.
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Sandy,
You are correct. If we want better schools start by treating teachers as professionals. Teachers pay the same tuition costs for college as other professionals but have a lower earning potential.
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I agree!
I’ve never been a teacher, but I see what they have to deal with. They are definitely underpaid. And I have to hand it to the people who are called to perform this job. I know I couldn’t.
I guess the money goes where the priorities are. Sad!
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That is right and it sees priorities in our society are a little out of whack.
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