I have yet to meet one, but there are people out there who believe
school teachers are paid too much. They are wrong. Everyone has a right to
their own opinion, even wrong ones, but this is an opinion that shouldn't be
allowed.
Why do they think
that?
In explaining this
we come across a multi-faced problem, the biggest ones are; the state, parents,
students, and teachers.
The state is the
eternal thorn in the side of every teacher. The state has in some form or
another provided free education, available to any child, so it is only natural
that they wish the institutions they fund to meet certain standards in quality.
The most popular form of this takes the form of state testing. The critical
flaw in this line of reasoning is in how the testing and the state mandated
curriculum overlap (I will use Texas as an example because I am the
most familiar with it). The state standards for the curriculum are set by the
texas board of education. A semi-civilian/state business who's role is to
oversee all school districts in the state (and in extreme cases, take over or
shut down schools or districts). There are fifteen people in charge of this
organization and the unfortunate part is they are all associated
to political parties. So instead of 15 people who wish to provide the
highest standards in knowledge and turn the student population into free
thinkers (whom are able to objectively review information, make decisions for
themselves, and synthesize new information), they want to redact Thomas
Jefferson's emphasis on the separation of church and state and emphasize the
importance of religion to the founding fathers. Anyone who simply reads some
basic history books will learn that the founding fathers were non
denominational or spiritualists and they designed the Establishment Clause in
the 1st amendment for that reason. The primary issue teachers take
with the state is the state testing. Because so much of our job security relies
on students passing it, teachers tend to suspend teaching the subjects in lieu
of teaching students how to take the test and what will be on the test. We have
to do this because it is all that we know that will be on the test, if we try
to go beyond the test, we risk the grades going down, lowering government aid,
and risk intervention from outside agencies.
The students are
the easiest problem to fix and are directly related to the issue of the
parents. Kids are kids, they will always misbehave and they will always find a
reason to do it as often as possible, but with the parents standing behind the
teachers the children will improve drastically.
The teachers as part of the problem invokes the classic adage:
"those who cannot do, teach". You can not fathom how wrong this
is. I have personally refused to accept
jobs I am qualified for because I desire more practical experience in my field
before I teach so I can expand the knowledge of my subject. Then there are the
few unfortunate teachers that prove the adage right, they have spent twenty
years a geologist for an oil company that just went out of business and need a
new job. They're too old to be hired at another company so they tell themselves
"well, geology is a type of science, so I'll teach!" so they get
their certification and begin to fail miserably at inspiring and teaching. They
do not understand how to teach children, they never had to manage a room of
thirty or forty kids without a safety net of any kind (the master teacher to
back them up or the assistant principal on standby). So they yell and scream at
the kids assuming that is how it works. This is a terrible idea, one of the most
important functions of a teacher is to impart the desire to achieve greater
things and yelling at the kids isn't going to work. Another BIG issue is one
teacher trying to teach a class of over thirty-five students. There are very
few fields of study that involve classes of that size (music and physical
education being two of them). Music teachers are used to classes of fifty and
larger because that is the environment they were taught their subject in. However
when a math teacher has to teach forty disinterested kids, it quickly devolves
to hell on earth. So why do we have classrooms with thirty plus kids on
average? Because of budget cuts. Schools know they don't have enough space so
they try to get a building expansion, but the taxpayers don't want to pay
anymore so the school has to make do. The school shuffles the room assignments
around to free up some extra space to hire more teachers but when the school
district proposes another tax hike to pay for their salaries, the tax payers
say no. These kids are the ones who will be running the businesses you shop at,
the backbone of your community and yet so few are willing to contribute what is
needed to make their education more valuable.
The last group that causes unmitigated pain in the word of
teaching is the most significant: parents. At some point in the 80's or 90's
parents activated some form of telepathic osmosis and decided that school
wasn't a place to learn, it was a free babysitter. "My kid dun need no
lernun', he gun be a tow truck drivr like mah daddy, and me." Well bravo
sir, you're now part of the problem. I have nothing against tow truck drivers,
they perform a necessary function, what I do have a problem with is people down
playing the importance of education just because they don't think they'll need
it later. Even the lowliest of jobs require math, reading, basic science, critical
thinking, and reasoning. There is NO reason for parents to tell a child that
education is not important, NONE what so ever. Parents, teachers aren't trying
to tell you how to raise your children, they're giving you tools to make it
easier and to give your child a better chance at being that famous doctor or
lawyer or scientist. No matter the economic background, if a parent is willing
to be interested in their child's life and education, the teacher will bend
over backwards and jump through as many hoops as possible to help, guaranteed.
Parents, YOU are the final say as to whether what we teach matters so please
PLEASE help your teachers.
Finally, we return to the subject that this article was written
for. NO your teacher is not paid too much. Teachers are willing to spend their
own meager earning to try and give their students a chance at success, something
the parents should be doing. We work hard to make the day's lesson a positive
and memorable experience, worthy of the student saying "Yes, this is
important to know."
I wish to impart one last piece of info before you return to your
daily routine, how much a teacher is paid.
about $46,500/yr
Lets break it down:
the summer break is on average 2-3 months long, some districts
allow teachers to take all their salary during only the school year, some get
it all 12 months. We will look at both types.
Monthly pay:
9 month: 46,500/9= 5,166/mo
12 month: 46,500/9= 3,875/mo
Daily pay:
9 month (30 day/mo avg): 5,166/30=172.20/day
12 month (365 days): 46,500/365=127.39/day
per student*:
9 month (180 students): 172.20/180=0.95/student
12 month (180 students): 127.39/180=0.70/student
*the average teacher has 6 classes of 30 students each (6*30=180)
That is before taxes (federal/state/local/social/etc.) which
varies from state to state. If you wish to get more accurate, then the final result
would be to subtract 7 to 13 cents from the per student numbers.
Conclusion: Your child's teacher is paid 0.70 to 0.95 cents a day
to teach them. If you think being paid less than a dollar a day per student is
a fair wage then you are wrong. Plain and simple wrong.
