Teaching does not require a degree from a highly ranked university. Degrees from a community college and state schools are more than adequate to get a job. Also, admission to teaching programs are competitive either and teachers are among the lowest with SAT score.
Add to this that teachers can work more years because they can enter the job market with a B.A. degree and if a masters is needed can often acquire this degree in off hours and during their generous summers....and again big name colleges are not needed for these advanced degrees ( that are the joke of the academic world).
If pensions and health plans,the reduced cost of their tuitions, and the extra years in their career that they can work, teachers are doing at least as well or better as many in medicine, law, and dentistry.
Teachers conveniently take the highest earning years of those in the professions, and IGNORE the years of lost income while in training, the lost income waiting for a new practice to make money, the 3/4 of million or more to start a practice, and the high malpractice, and the complete lack of pension and health insurance, and the 24/7 responsibilities that go with the job.
They have summer vacations that more generous than a European worker, and if someone points out that they work 185 days a year, they WHINE that they put in out-of-class room time. Well! SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE!
By they way,,,,when was the last time you saw a teacher wearing a beeper because they were on 24/7 emergency call? Never!
1. Salaries - Do not assume that ALL teachers make 60K a year. After 20 years of teaching, I make 43K a year. Not all states pay high salaries.
2. Generous vacations. Think of it as "comp time." True, I only work 39 weeks a year, but those are 60 hour work weeks. That doesn't include extra time and money I spend taking classes for recertification.
3. Every profession in America has its share of lazy bums, perverts, and liberals. Teaching is no exception. There are lots of us who are dedicated, hard-working, morally upright, non-union, and conservative.
4. Teaching has always had many challenges, but there is an extra challenge we face today: scorn and disrespect. Supposedly, all (or most) teachers are either greedy, lazy, studid, or are a pervert.
5. In spite of the heartaches and difficulties I have on the job, no matter the long hours, no matter the scorn and disrespect that is heaped on teachers on this forum, I still love teaching.
Tell you what. Go teach then. I grew up every summer watching both of my parents take summer jobs to supplement their 'exorbitant' salaries just to make ends meet. We didn't live in a mansion, didn't have the best vehicles, just an average middle class family. This of course was in part because teachers pay was frozen for close to 15 years here in NC. I remember watching my parents grade papers until late in the evening, PTA conferences and parent/teacher conferences where parents blamed their childrens' inherent stupidity on my parents.
Let me tell you they didn't do it for the money, they did it because they loved teaching.
Add to this that teachers can work more years because they can enter the job market with a B.A. degree and if a masters is needed can often acquire this degree in off hours and during their generous summers..
Yes let's not forget the required conferences teachers must attend during the summers to be re-certified, learn of changes in the curriculum, or work to supplement their salaries
..and again big name colleges are not needed for these advanced degrees ( that are the joke of the academic world)
And of course being the academian that you are you know this how?
Gee, South Dakota pays its teachers the least yet its students are typically among the top achievers. Go figure!
"Teachers are WHINERS:"
Hmm, so ALL teachers, everywhere are whiners. Gotta #$&king link for that?
"Teaching does not require a degree from a highly ranked university"
Gosh, this doesn't sound like liberal BS at all...
If teaching is so plum why don't you try it? Both of my parents teach at a public school and have to put up with kids whose parents are elitist morons like you all day. Oh, and combined they make about $78k a year...or 10K less a year than I make in marketing.
Great post, why don't you move along and attack some other hard-working Americans like firefighters. Like every profession there are bad teachers, but there are A LOT who work to make a positive difference in the lives of young people...and they aren't in it for the money.
"when was the last time you saw a teacher wearing a beeper because they were on 24/7 emergency call?"
Seen a lot of plumbers wearing pagers/beepers, but then again, it IS their chosen profession...
You *did* say teaching was looking better all the time, didn't you?
I am frankly offended at your comments.
Some teachers are whiners, but to say the degree is easy is ridiculous.
Not at my school. I may not end up teaching; I am considering going into journalism instead, both low-paying professions.
But, the idea that teachers are raking in the dough is absolutely insane. They DO have good retirement since they are a state employee. But, good salary?
Maybe in New York, but not HERE. I would be lucky to start at 24,000 bucks and it would take 10 years to crack 40 grand. At that point, the most a teacher outside of the high cost of living areas could hope to make would be maybe 65 grand at retirement. And even that is stretching it frankly....I don't know anybody around here who makes that much or even close. Maybe 50 grand.
It isn't bad, certainly, at the upper levels. But, starting out, and even for most of the career, unless you marry a rich person, it is not going to be easy.
Plus, teachers put in long hours in the evenings planning and grading papers. Workers in other professions do have to do this often, such as book editors. But, they generally get better compensated for it than teachers do.
And, thank you very much, I got a real degree at my school. I will receive a BA in history, with a concentration in education. If I go on to get a master's, it will be in history, not in education. I personally would rather gouge my eyes out than go through more education courses. But, I probably will in order to stay certified. Teachers are required to continually get more education, and guess what...they do that in the summer probably when you say they are off scot-free. No, they aren't. Teachers have to plan for the next year and sometimes take second jobs to pay the bills. And, on top of that, due to government regulations, when they are in the classroom, it is not exactly easy to punish kids or kick them out if they don't want to be there. You have to get them to learn, even if they don't want to learn.
You have to go through an education program, and you can't do that in community college, contrary to your statements. You also must get a real degree in the subject you will teach in order to be highly qualified according to NCLB.
Teaching programs are not competitive? You had to have a high ACT score to get in at my school. I had no problem since I have a 3.9 GPA, but some simply can't make it. You also had to maintain a B-average in all education coursework and major coursework. Again, not difficult for me, but for some even fairly smart people, it can be if they are not good test-takers or have some sort of learning disability.
I am not saying teachers have it as bad as many teachers act. No, they don't. Despite having to often work in the summer or take more classes (which eats into the salary), teachers still do have more time off than people in other professions.
They get longer holidays etc. But, to say that teaching is easy, as you presume to do, is a punch in the mouth to hard-working teachers, including those on FR.
Teachers are definitely overcompensated for the lousy job they are dong in most big city districts, where half the kids drop out before HS graduation, and the other half graduate not knowing how to read, write, or calculate.
If you need any proof that teachers have a great retirement (at taxpayers expense), just go and look at the cars in the parking lot at any Retired Teachers' Convention! All the latest and most expensive models of Lexuses, Caddies, Lincoln Town Cars, etc.
I think we can disagree with the NEA without bashing teachers personally.
You sound a little jealous. Failed to get into the College of Education, huh?
I think that Ann Coulter hit the nail on the head when asked about teachers pay... That some teachers probably ARE underpaid... The really good ones. But there are far more who are vastly overpaid, and those are the ones who need to be let go, or at least, paid what they deserve. She's a believer in "Merit Pay." And so am I.
Another problem I have are the exorbitant salaries paid to administrators in the school districts. It's shocking to see some of the salaries paid out in districts where the kids are failing at stagering rates. Again, merit pay needs to be brought in here.
When I was young, I had some teachers who were absolutely wonderful, who challenged the students, and made learning something that you wanted to do. I had other teachers who were miserable at their jobs, who couldn't teach worth a damn, and who had no interest in trying to motivate their students: While this certainly isn't a job of teachers at the college level, I believe that motivation of the students in gradeschool and secondary schools is extremely important, because that motivation, or lack there or, will effect the study habbits of the students for the rest of their education years.
Mark
Hey, guys, did you know we're rich? ;-)
Teachers pay should be compared to the industrial wage rate within each county. Start by calculating what that rate was in 1950. Then multiply today's industrial wage times that ratio. Their wages are currently WAY OUT OF CONTROL.
Not all teachers are. I'm a Rupublican teacher in a Democratic nest. I work my ass off all year. I get payed for 10 months only . I take home $557 a week and I've been teaching 10 years. I dont know who all these hight payed teachers are , certainly not me . I don't kiss the arses of the corrupt Democrats that run NJ so I have to actually work all day and I dont mind it at all.I tell the kids the TRUTH that they NEVER hear in school or the media . Most people who put down teachers wouldn't last 5 min. with the kids I have to deal with all day .Most non-teachers think the classroom is still like it was in the 50s "Leave it to Beaver " style problems..Anyway , I'm sure I'm wasting my breath here.
Teachers - the Millionaire Next Door. After working twenty years as a teacher, I retired and make slightly less than $1,000 a month in retirement pay.
But, I AM the millionaire next door only because I took my pittance of savings and invested well, very well. It has nothing to do with a retirement plan. The retirement plan my county held lost money.
I know you hate teaching as a profession, but you, too, can be a milllionaire.
I'd teach you but I hate rude clients.
That is putting it mildly. Teachers are well paid by any standard.
Their pensions are significant as well.
bump