THE TEACHING PROFESSION
“The truth about teachers…
Until you have had the distinct privilege to teach, you will never fully know what goes on behind that closed (or even open) classroom door.
Despite what some assume, teachers are overworked and underpaid.
Despite that, some claim they have perfect hours and more than adequate time off. But teachers don’t clock out at 3p.m. nor do they stop working the first week of June.
Despite what some believe, teachers have arguably one of the most rewarding yet draining occupations there is. Period.” (The Huffington Post, “The Real Truth About Teachers” by Regan Long)
I grew up in South Dakota many years ago. During those formative years, the culture I encountered valued certain professions above others: doctors and nurses, police, firefighters and teachers. Those were considered the noble professions — individuals who had chosen a career of service to others.
My respect for those chosen careers has not waned. Oh, I’ve been made aware of some of the abuses: redundant medical procedures, strikes and union overreaching. But, a society void of committed people to these professions would impoverish us all.
School teachers are not overpaid! On the contrary, given their supreme importance to our youth and the nation’s future, they are dramatically underpaid.
Today’s uninformed still don’t get it. They spew pseudo arguments like, “Teachers have easy lives because they only work a 6-7 hour day and get a three-month vacation each year!”
Comments like that are ignorant, myopic and harmful. They even place the nation’s future in harm’s way.
Nicholas D. Kristof, writing in the New York Times offered an understanding that puts this issue into much better perspective. In a column entitled, “Pay Teachers More,” Kristof wrote, “If we want to compete with other countries, and chip away at poverty across America, then we need to pay teachers more so as to attract better people into the profession. . . . In 1970, in New York City, a newly minted teacher at a public school earned about $2,000 less in salary than a starting lawyer at a prominent law firm. These days the lawyer takes home, including bonus, $115,000 more than the teacher . . . When governors mock teachers as lazy, avaricious incompetents, they demean the profession and make it harder to attract the best and brightest. We should be elevating teachers, not throwing darts at them.”
Modify the union work rules and require greater contribution to pension and health plans, if you choose — but, stop dumping on the profession. Doctors and nurses, police, firefighters and teachers remain members of the noble professions. We need more of our best young people to choose these careers and we need to pay them higher wages in the process.
More on Wednesday – – –
— Bill Walton, co-Founder, ITC Learning
April 10, 2017
www.itclearning.com/blog/ (Mondays & Wednesdays)
“THE WORLD RELIES ON THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”