Teachers are the educational experts
I'm missing class this morning and seeing you all this morning, and I hope the storms haven't caused any problems for any of you last night. I found this in the morning paper, and I thought I'd share. I've been following the Gazette's coverage of SB 5 over the past few weeks, and too many readers in past weeks have been SO OVERWHELMINGLY NEGATIVE that I almost stopped reading their comments (because it seems that most commenters have placed little value on what we teachers are trying to do for THEIR KIDS), but this one reaffirms The Courage to Teach. The way the readers' past comments have gone were pretty much like this, "throw all of the worthless lazy do nothings out" (and the consensus seemed to be that ALL teachers fit into that category). I remember reading those earlier comments and feeling so disrespected, so undervalued, SO BEATEN DOWN...
Now this article.
Thoughts?
Funny you should bring this up. I just had a similar conversation with my optometrist on Saturday. He was bemoaning the fact that no one else in business gets 60% of their salary when they retire. "My father retired from Goodyear, and he only made $600 a month." I asked, "How much did your father pay into his retirement?" Who, other than teachers pay 10% (soon to be 12.5%)? I said that if you pay more in you should get more back. Social Security is only in the 5.something range. He said, "I never thought of it like that. I guess you have a point."
ReplyDeleteYea, I have a comment. I feel that many people (not all) believe that because they were students that they automatically know how to be a teacher. Well, I flew in a plane once, can I be a pilot? Our jobs are very difficult and we deserve to be compensated for doing them. We already make less per year than most people with the same years of education, the same degrees. It's not like my education was cheaper than my friend's business degree. We spend a lot of time cleaning up parent's messes and trying to building something positive. If you have a problems with public education, home school your kid for a year. Do it the right way, like you think we should be doing it then see if you are getting a bargain with regards to your school. I've spent hours working with my child when she has had trouble with something from school and that's my job as a parent. If I thought I could do better, I'd pull her and home school her myself. Seriously, what would the people that are so down on teacher's change, specifically? Should we do work they are unwilling to do for free? Fine, but my car gets fixed for free, and I eat for free at any restaurant I want, anytime I want. grrr....
ReplyDeleteYou go Chris (A and B!). And we need to explain to people that we pay into that retirement. It is already our MONEY. Sheesh.
ReplyDelete