Can I have this as a sig line? It would also make a cool T-shirt to wear to Back-To-School Night (under my dress shirt, of course!) 
Sure, but first you have to write it on the blackboard 100 times.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. Teachers have the right to whine and complain all they want. Everyone can lobby as much as they want as far as I’m concerned. However, just as when the big corporation whine and complain about how they really need to be able to drill for oil in Alaska or they will wither away and die, when teachers start babbling about how they work through Christmas, work 80 hour weeks, etc., I call bullshit.
That’s right, it’s bullshit. At lunch today, I got together with 3 friends. Together, we were able to come up with roughly 30 teachers we know well enough (through family, friends, etc.) to know roughly how much they are working, what they are doing, etc. No one comes even close to what some of the people are saying in this thread. Everyone agreed that based on their objective observations and talking with the people, the teachers have damn good lives. One specifically mentioned listing to his aunt (a teacher) drone on about how she had to, for (god forbid) go back to school from 6:30-8:00 for two nights twice a year for parent teacher conference, and what an abomination it was. This was not very funny to the guy, who is an attorney and is routinely coming home from work at 9:00 each night. Yet that’s what we get out of our teacher friends; relatively light workloads that they somehow feel are 10 times greater than what the rest of the world has to bear.
I mean come on, when you write this stuff about how teachers are working 80 hour weeks, straight through the summer and all of the holidays, etc., don’t you think it strains your credibility a bit? People can see with their own eyes. It just comes across as absolutely ridiculous. I know the tendency of every human being to inflate how much they work and how valuable they are, and I know to discount it. It just doesn’t usually get inflated as badly as it does with teachers. It’s just not even close to credible.
And we have to walk to work in the snow every day. And it’s uphill both ways!
Hear hear! I read these horror stories, and wonder how a reasonable person decides to stick with a hideous job like this for decades, rather than explore greener pastures elsewhere. You know, where the work week is about 40hrs, where you’re not attacked and sued and actually have a valid contract for work.
It amazes me, with all these horrible things happening to them, with their advanced degrees and work ethic that they decide to go back to the hellhole year after year to earn their pittance.
They aren’t doing it for themselves, fuckhead.
Oh, it’s because they love it so much. Someone needs to teach the children. There’s not possibly any self-interest; the job consumes them, they could think of doing nothing else. If they can only reach that one child . . . Uh huh.
Then out of the other side of the mouth, you get oh, by the way, the jobs sucks, no one in their right mind would do it, it’s horrific, the kids are horrific, blah blah blah. I guess all teachers are just Jesus-like martyrs for our greater societal good (once again, another bit of spin you get from the teacher’s party line). We should heap cash at their feet, if only we heard their cries!
I know it’s hard for a completely self-centered fucking asshole to comprehend that some other people might give a shit about something or someone other than themselves but take my word for it, ok.
But as you said, you’ve never done it, so you don’t really know for sure.
So three people who know, maybe, 30 teachers, but have never done this full time themselves, it would seem, are qualified to estimate how much a teacher actually works. All the while you discount stories from people who ACTUALLY DO THE FUCKING WORK?? What a presumptious prick you are.
It’s not very funny to me either. It sucks, in fact. Split shifts can be a motherfucker.
Poor guy. I’ll bet he’s only making between $23,000-50,000 a year, too. Give him my regards.
Again, presumptious prick…
They don’t think they’re workloads are “10 times greater” than what the rest of us bear. But don’t presume to know what their workload is until you’ve experienced it firsthand.
Not if it’s true.
I know teachers who I don’t even see from late August until Christmas, and then again until Easter week. They’re swamped with activities Sunday through Saturday. But, you’re right, people in the education industry might not have it all bad; there are good things about being a teacher. And, yes, there is some down time. Similarly, maybe the “roughly 30 teachers” you know are just lazy, and going through the motions until retirement. The ones I know work long fucking hours most of the time-- like a lot of people, you’re right. But securing good contracts isn’t just about getting more, more, more. It’s about maintaining what you already have, and making sure the industry offers enough to attract quality people, as well as offer some degree of financial comfort.
Then don’t complain to me that you’re not making enough money or that the conditions you work in suck. Choose to jump up on the cross, don’t expect me to weep or throw money at you because your palms hurt.
I’m striking for the children!
They sure as hell are. That’s the hardest thing to get through to the morons in the community sometimes. They don’t get it that they’re fucking their own children up the ass.
I don’t work in the school system anymore but on behalf of those who do, all I’m asking you to do is shut the fuck up, get out your wallet and pay them what you fucking owe them.
Look, It’s a crappy situation, the schools suck, discipline is bad, the pay sucks, the hours ain’t great either. However, I think that many things contribute to it, not all of which is cheap taxpayers and bad administration.
Why don’t stock brokers strike? Because, if they don’t like their job, they find another one that’s better. I hear horror stories about terrible working conditions, and in the next a good school gets 3 resumes for 2 job positions. How does that work, where schools are scrambling to find decent teachers but thousands of teachers work in hovels with miniscule pay. Teachers strike because they’re not willing or able to go find another job. They try to shove their requirements down the throats of the district, stock brokers just take their needs to another employer who is willing to meet them.
There’s something fucking with this labor market. Maybe it’s the “charity” aspect of it, where teachers are loathe to leave because of the children. Maybe it’s tenure, where you get job security and don’t want to give it up. Maybe we need a teacher crash to force gov’ts to free up more money. If enough teachers leave the industry, they WILL start to pay better to lure them back.
Me too. But thank God they do. That’s why it’s important to make the hole a lot less hellish. If we don’t, many of the good ones will leave because they have no other choice financially or mentally. And that’s a shame. I know of two people in the past three years who left teaching because of the stress and/or lack of respect and/or financial burden. Having an emotionally rewarding job where you’re helping kids is great, but you can’t pay the bills with a few warm fuzzies.
Cheesesteak, do you understand the concept that the better the working conditions, the better people you’ll attract to the industry? If these teachers feel they aren’t being offered enough resources to attract and maintain quality personnel to their district, then they are striking for the kids. If teachers in general strike, they’re trying to improve the industry to attract better people to it.
If Minooka Schools offer lower pay and benefits than surrounding districts, where are teachers/recruits gonna want to work? If teaching in general doesn’t offer as good of financial and health benefits as competing industries, where are the qualified people gonna want to work? Quality pay and work environment attracts quailty people.
My mother is in her 29th year of teaching public school in rural eastern Kentucky.
Last year, our newly elected Governor proposed a plan that would decimate the health insurance benefits of state employees, including teachers and all school personnel. The plan all but eliminated competition among health plans, and threw some pretty blatant bones to some of Fletcher’s cronies in the health care industry.
This plan would have raised health care premiums by several hundred dollars a month, not to mention that copayments and deductibles were much more and coverage was much less. Teachers just starting out in this area make about $20,000, so a few hundred dollars a month is not small change. (Mom sits at the top of the pay scale at about $40,000.) It was not clear how the low-wage workers, such as teachers aides and janitorial staff, were going to afford it.
Like many places in Kentucky, this area is desparate for teachers. The only hope they have of getting anyone to work there is the hope that some locals won’t be willing to live away from home, and that attitude is fading fast. Who is going to move to the butt crack of nowhere and teach a bunch of hellions for $20,000/year? This new health plan was, in effect, a pay cut, and it takes their chances of recruiting talented people from slim to just about fucking zero.
There were discussions, there were informational pickets, there were all the non-striking methods suggested above. The response to them from the state was, in effect, “tough titty”. Fletcher had cronies to pay off, by God, and he wasn’t going to let some whiny teachers stand in the way.
So they threatened to strike. The state pointed out that they are not allowed to strike, and the teachers (led locally by my mother) said, “Fine. Drag our asses to jail, then.” That’s what it took for the state to budge on the matter, and they finally worked out a far more reasonable plan.
Should the teachers have just quit? Mom certainly would have, if the plan had gone through–she has enough experience to retire. A lot of good, experienced teachers would have done the same, and the better and more mobile young ones would have high-tailed it to another state. They would have been replaced from the same pool of shitty applicants they’re dealing with now–if at all. How would that have been better for anyone?
I’m proud of Mom for what she did. (I made her promise to let me bail her out if they did take her to jail.)
Oh, and as someone who is occasionally a life-or-death employee, I think it is silly to put teachers in that same “essential personnel” category. Our school district had dozens of scheduled school days every year in which teachers didn’t show up–they were called snow days. Everybody found a way to deal.
So when a brokerage firm doesn’t offer competitive salaries to its best brokers, and they all go work elsewhere, what happens? The brokerage doesn’t make money, and possibly folds. Big fucking deal.
So when a school district doesn’t offer competitive salaries to its best teachers, and they go work elsewhere, what happens? The district falls behind, and the kids suffer. This is a big fucking deal, and it’s why the Minooka teachers are doing what they’re doing.
And this is why education is so fucked up. There shouldn’t be competiton to attract quality people within the industry like in business. Failure at the brokerage firm means the brokerage fails; failure at the schools means the kids fail.
Apples and oranges, asshole.
Happy, I understand the concept. The problem is that teachers as a whole seem to be willing to accept shitty pay and shitty working conditions. It’s hard to negotiate better conditions when you already are known to accept swill.
In most places, employees are willing to tell their employers to stick their shit where the sun don’t shine, because they’re getting a better job. My company takes great pains to analyze the labor market and provide “competitive” compensation and benefits. If they didn’t they’d never be able to hire and their workforce would vanish, they know this. Teachers stick around because of a higher purpose, so they get walked all over.
Cheessteak, Slyfrog: Fuck you. Fuck you sideways with a pile of rusty crowbars.
I’ll respond more to y’all later, when I’m not seeing red.
They are routinely expected to show up at things like school plays, football games, band events, community days and such that happen on weekends, supervise on field trips out of town for 3 and 4 days at a time, and my mom (fifth grade teacher) has participated in some of those community events during the summer, such as the annual community picnic. She’s there as Mrs. Six, the teacher, not as Mom Six, community person.
And they’re required to get continuing education in order to keep their teaching credentials. In Pennsylvania, they’ve got six years to obtain a master’s degree. Of course, after that they have to take so many Act 48 credits per year (which they often must pay for out of pocket) in order to merely keep their jobs.
This isn’t the United States of Soviet Socialst America, and in this country we don’t force people to work at jobs that aren’t paying the bills and putting food on the table. Anybody has the right to negotiate a contract, and if a mutual agreement cannot be made, leave the job.
Which is why you’ll hear of things like teachers working for years without a contract (Upper St. Clair) so that the students don’t suffer. Striking isn’t a quick resort, and happens when ‘harsh negotiating tactics’ are called for.
I work at the college level, so I am not entirely sure how this compares, but I can tell you in fiscal year 2004, I spent nearly 500$ on supplies that are not provided but are necessary for work.
Which might look just fine to you if you ignore the fact that teachers at the top end of that scale with 20 or 30 years in are often making triple what a teacher with 5 years in is making. Some of them are likely being paid in the low 20K range.
Another good point. My mother’s salary is for the actual days she works, term of the contract, not an annual salary. She has the option of allowing the district to pay her that same salary over 12 months or 9, but in all reality she’s laid off from mid June to the end of August.