kunilou, not so fast yourself.
1. Most public and even private schools have a salary schedule based on the teacher’s experience, degrees and/or academic certification. Yes, there are inequities, but there are inequities in any field where the practitioner does not set his/her own salary.
Here’s the salary schedule of a nearby school district.
It’s not about inequities, kunilou. Salaries are too low. Our salaries are not determined – not by the quality of our teaching, or our experience, or market forces – but by what taxpayers are willing to bear depending on how long we’ve worked.
The only certification with any strong prestige is national certification, which earns you a whopping $10,000 per year more. But you can’t take National Certification exams unless you’ve had a minimum four years experience. And according to most statistics, the average beginning teacher has left the field for a better paying job by then. To be honest, so might I.
And contrary to what you might think, most private schools pay teachers LESS than public schools, not more. The main advantage to private schools is that you deal with less discipline problems and have more active parents.
2. Medicine is still based on the antiquated notion of interns working 48 hours straight. Firefighters regularly work similar schedules. There are a number of professions that retain practices that made more sense a century ago.
Those other professions still work year round, no?
I was talking about the length and start/end of the school year/day, which affects everybody in the system, from the administrators to teachers to the students. Not just medical interns every 48 hours.
This is changing. The 9 month teaching year is slowly giving away to an 11 or 12 month year. I myself went to year round school in Michigan my first two years in school and every student/teacher should have the benefit of 6 weeks in, 2 weeks off. It cuts down on burnout, absenteeism, boredom and loss of retention of knowledge.
This antiquated practice of ‘summers off’ is a disservice to our profession, and public perception of our profession, the children we serve in our profession, and our national standing as compared to the school year students experinence in other countries.
We don’t need seasonal unemployment. With respect to agricultural workers, we’re not migrant workers.
3. That’s principally because they’re in a bureaucratized system. Public defenders, military physicians and corporate scientists also have such a structure imposed on them. The structure does not define the profession.
Maybe not, but if it looks like a duck…
4. Which professionals are you talking about? I know lawyers with no more support staff than a receptionist. Members of the clergy commonly do not have “paraministers” trailing behind them. Some teachers do have aides and assistants in their classrooms.
Exactly.
Lawyers at least have a receptionist to take calls/ file briefs/ type letters/ organize billing/ make appointments/ assist clients… even in a small practice. I have 20-25 students (or clients, if you prefer) per day I need to teach, monitor, assess, test, discipline, guide and plan for. Where’s MY aide? I have never known a clergyman of an organized religion that didn’t at least have a church secretary to help out.
Yes, some teachers have aides, you’ll agree that this is not the case for the vast majority of teachers.
Any ‘para-’ “trailing behind” anybody is not doing their job.
5. I have to admit I’m not up to speed on the makeup of the various states’ boards of healing arts, but every profession is subject to some sort of governmental oversight. In fact, oversight by an outside licensing body is one of the criteria that separate professionals from craftspersons.
Ah. But the ‘outside licensing bodies’ are usually made up people IN the profession. Not historically so with school boards or licensing agencies. But it’s gotten a lot better in the last 30 years. I also think that this is perhaps my weakest argument, which is why I threw in the word ‘historically’, there. 
6. Pop culture marginalizes and trivializes everything it touches. Do you want to be represented in court by anyone from Ally McBeal? Do you want your house fire put out by "The Fighting Fitzgeralds?"
Pop culture often marginalizes, but it has also seen to exalt and revere a specific number of occupations, too. Teaching isn’t among them.
It’s fine with me if there’s a ‘Ally McBeal’ if there’s other shows that dramatize, say, the legal profession in an enlightened way, as do ‘Law & Order’ and ‘L.A. Law’ in its heyday – but when has there ever been the educational equivalent to ‘ER’ on TV or in the movies? ‘Stand By Me’, ‘Stand and Deliver’ and ‘Mr. Hollands’ Opus’, ‘Dangerous Minds’ came close, and I thoroughly enjoyed ‘Dead Poets Society’-- but these films are not pop culture phenomenona. They also tell the same old story (dedicated teacher enters impoverished school environment and through trials and tribulation, improves the lot of his/her plucky students) and teaching is way more complicated than that, and not always satisfactory.
I also prefer it if TV shows told a straight story about school from the perspective of teachers, instead of students, as is usually the case. As it is, I watch ‘Boston Public’ because I’m hoping it’ll tone down the hysterical theatrics by next year.
For the record, I’d want my house rescued by a firefighter from ‘Third Watch.’
7. I agree, but there are gender imbalances in other professions. That does not negate their professionalism.
I never said it had anything to do with professionalism (behavior) but it has everything to do with why it’s not a profession (prestigous occupation). Gender imbalances are a large part of teaching’s perceptions as an inadequately paid profession, mostly because it’s filled with women, and women have never been paid their worth in the marketplace. Same with nursing. Same with corporate business.
If you want more equitable pay, you need to get more men in teaching, especially at the elementary level. I’ve been in schools where the only adult male was either the custodian or cook, sometimes both.
If you’re arguing that teaching is not RESPECTED as a profession, you’ll find no one who agrees with you more strongly. But to argue that you’re not a professional because you do not comply with a theoretical standard (that no profession complies with 100% anyway) is the wrong way to tackle the problem, and only gives more ammunition to those who would further trivialize your training, duties and dedication.
We are obviously in deep agreement that teaching is not respected. What I’m arguing is that while good teachers aspire to be professionals, conduct themselves professionally, and yearn for the respect attached to professional fields – but the harsh hard truth is that Education, as a whole, is NOT yet a profession.
Educators would only benefit as a profession if they had better pay/ or benefits tied to merit, classroom assistance, worked a year round school year, and were seen in the popular culture as the hardworking and undervalued group we are.
My other point is that those who criticize teaching have a couple of damned good points, and it’s time we teaching professionals acknowledge them. Yeah, we may not have it quite as good as ‘real’ professionals, but dammit we WILL get there.
