A year ago, I completely agreed that teachers were at least adequately paid if not over-paid. Then, my best friend became one.
She now makes the same as she did working as an administrative assisstant for an accounting firm. The benefit is all that vacation! The trade-off:
She puts in a good 50-55hrs/wk of work in to her job while school is in session. She feels that to do an adequate job, she would have to put in 60-70hrs a week!She "teaches" special ed in an inner-city urban school. Most of the time, it's more day-care than teaching. Her after-school work starts with daily occurences of detention and additional help for her students who average 2-3years behind in reading and english. After that, she comes home to grade papers, develop lesson plans, fill out IEP government forms, and make routine calls to parents to try to keep them involved in their childs education.
If it's mostly day-care, why care so much, why try? Because her efforts some times pay off. A small fraction of her students show promise and improvement. On a good day, she sees this promise. On a bad day, a child shows the class his private part and two fights break out. There are a lot more bad days then good. The stress of this comes home with her, but it's worth it to make a difference. However, she is not properly educated for the job she has been given. Why? Because no one qualified wants her job, for her pay.
This doesn't even start to give a picture to you of how tough it can actually be. I don't know why I even try.