You're right about schools not using their funds wisely. This was a constant complaint of my wife. They hired administrative staff workers and then count them in the student/teacher ratio to make it look like they had lower class sizes. Administrators buy high tech gadgets that seldom work right and hinder teaching rather than help. But it looks good on parent night. Teachers are expected to teach children who can't speak English and if the children fail then it's the teacher's fault. Administrators don't want the expense of keeping them or dealing with the complaining parents. So teachers past them on.
My wife just retired as a mid-school Physics/Chemistry teacher. Each teacher where my wife worked was given one ream of paper (250 sheets) for copying handouts, tests, worksheets, etc. to last them for the entire school year. None of this could be done with notebooks as the students seldom take notes. And if they don't give handouts, parents complain that no notes were given. Her last year she had over 200 students so you do the math as how long one ream of paper would last. Teachers are required (not asked) to decorate their rooms. So posters, back drops, borders were purchased at our expense. This also included the cost of tape, staples, glue, and anything else needed to hang the stuff. To keep up their teaching certificates, teachers are required to attend classes (in the summer) at their expense. As far as science experiments which she was required to do, the school would supply some things but we normally would have to cough up some money to offset the expense. We laugh at the $250 deductible that we got to take off our income tax which never came close to what we paid out.
Grant it, there are teachers that are not very dedicated to their students. Many of them simply don't care. And to be perfectly honest, I can be sympathetic to their plight. My wife was not one of them. My wife would go to work and then come home and grade over 200 papers or work on lesson assignments the rest of the night-every night. On the weekend she was busy recording the grades and preparing next weeks lessons. I cleaned the house and made the dinners while my wife worked on her school work. In the summer months, she was busy getting organized for the next year. She rarely had any time off. We were locked into the school season for our vacation and often had to juggle our schedule around her schedule in the summer when she was attending classes.
Last year we both had finally had had it and she retired early. We are both grateful that she made it.
I know teachers like your wife. And I blame Administrations that just push good teachers out the door because they expect them to make up for the bad teachers and make the school look good! It’s a lot of pressure and extra work with no reward.
At a recent BOE meeting, the Super spoke about cutting teachers, but Administrators were already cut to the bone. Really? Our Administrators have Administrators!
When I was in college, a group of us said about 40-50% of our graduating teachers would be good at it. That “other” 50% I see are still working as teachers. I left to help my husbands business. I like many things about my kids school. But I take a stand when I see an injustice. I don’t think the school likes me much, I know their “secrets” and I have my “contacts” within the school district, which is why my kids are still there.
That one's going to stick in my memory.
Thank you for this perspective. I have many teachers in my family and I know many others who have taught my kids, and your story rings true. Congrats on your wife’s retirement.
Shush up! You're spoiling perfectly good rants, bursting bubbles and generally raining on parades.
After 12 years as a teacher, my daughter decided to go for greener pastures and quit teaching, she has a much more lucrative job now than the $39,000 per year. She had 12 years experience and a Master's degree.