Relative: Not bad for somebody only has to work 180 days on average a year Irishdave: don't get me started .......... (and it is 185 to 190 days) The average US worker gets paid for 260 days plus overtime and includes paid vacation of 10 to 30 days and 10 holidays so the worked days are 240 Average and no work from home Teachers get no overtime no matter how early or late they work, no paid holidays 185 days period. Plus they are required take 15 semester hours of course work, at their own expense ($868 per hour $2,170 per year and Total $13,020) and the payback takes 5 or more years. Meanwhile they have to start a new 15 hours every 6 years. the course work takes 5 to 8 weeks per 2 semesters hours per summer that adds 20 days of work up to 210 plus evening classes equals about another 7 days so the total is 217 days. The time a teacher puts in on lesson plans grading papers at home ads up to about 20 days over the year so we are talking about 3 days. Was my my math and rebuttal close to being correct?
I couldn't have put it better myself! I still haven't forgotten a comment a non-teacher friend once made to another teacher friend and me--that he would love to be a teacher since we only work "half a year."
I've pretty much given up trying to defend the profession. I have a very good friend who has a fairly low opinion of teachers (and anyone else on a government paycheck). It's hard hearing him share his opinions because obviously I am a teacher, so his opinions are about me. They sting and they hurt my feelings. I know that he isn't intentionally trying to hurt my feelings, but it still doesn't feel good. It's gotten to the point where I ask to change the subject when he starts in on the topic. In order to preserve our friendship, I need him to keep those opinions to himself when he's around me.
Universities have the useful concept of the "contact hour" or "instructional hour": a 3-unit course at the university nearest me is supposed to involve 45 contact hours or instructional hours, and it's understood that each contact hour will require between one and three hours of preparation (which generally doesn't count grading time). It seems to me that K-12 teachers might do very well to adopt this terminology. One may very well have six contact hours per school day - but those hours MUST be prepared for and graded after, and if one were to follow the university minimum of one prep hour per contact hour, one is already looking at a 12-hour day.
I got a little comment like that from someone in my family one day. I guess what drives me crazy is that I work for 10 months of the year and that is what I get paid for. Yes, I have two months "off" even though I spend a lot of it working on my own time. My dad and brother, on the other hand, both work for an agricultural company, and before that, my brother worked for a roofing company. While I have no doubt that both of them work very hard during certain seasons, when winter roles around, there is very little work for them to do. My brother was telling me how he slept in a recliner at the office all day one day and then said they had been taking turns staying late and signing everyone out since there really wasn't anything for anyone to do. My dad has emailed me about 3 hour lunches with clients in the winter. Not that I want them to get laid off, but there are plenty of jobs that have an "off-season." I know that some companies do lay off their workers in the off season, but teachers are the only profession I can think of who consistently actually stop taking a pay check for it. (Or at least have a 10 month salary spread over 12). Who's a bigger drain on the economy?
I have very seldom actually heard comments like those, only read about them here. But my stock response is along these lines: Yep, I live the easy life. Don't you wish YOU had been smart enough to choose to teach?? There's still time... there's that teacher shortage I keep reading about. Why don't you go back to school and get certified??? Those summers sure are nice. Let's go online right now and look up Alternate Certification. Maybe we can work it so you can student teach this semester.... Wait and see how fast they backpedal.
I get stuff like that all the time. Mostly from my dad. He doesn't do it to be disrespectful, he just likes to stir the pot. And, with me, my SO, my sister, two of his sisters, two of his nieces-in-law and countless of his aunts in the profession, it sure gets stirred! The latest was his saying that we (teachers) had too much time off after I commented on Facebook how tired I was after the first week. I replied that I didn't realize that teaching was such an unfortunate career path to choose in his eyes and that I was sorry I disappointed him. He wasn't long in back-pedalling and saying that I was a good teacher, that my students were lucky to have me and that he was proud. Shame them into seeing the error of their ways, I say
Yeah, I just don't think people get it unless they've lived with a teacher and seen extra hours 1st hand.
That's what my BF said. He said "Now I realize why they give summers off - It would endanger the children not to." lol. He actually calls me "Summer MyName" in the summer - he says my whole personality and attitude is different.
Unless a person's a teacher or is very close to someone who is & can see it very 1st hand, people still have no idea how hard it really is. They can't get past that "all summer off" thing that sticks in their minds. I think that's the MAIN thing they keep thinking about, so they think our jobs are easy. Boy, do I wish everyone had a chance to be a teacher for one solid month!
I wish everyone was forced to work in customer service for one month and be a teacher for one month. I think people would be a lot nicer that way
