Who is teaching your children?

[greybeta]

I am reminded of a story that changed my perspective on life. Let me be clear that I am not singling any one person out, but rather telling a story that gave me food for thought. It was told to me by my high school AP Chemistry teacher, Mr. Townley. He was a man statistics. He loved statistics. And one statistic he always beat down on us was average starting pay.

Surprise, surprise, teachers at public schools made the least amount of money. Heck, a high school graduate starting out at the post office made more money than a starting teacher in Arkansas.

Then he turned to the class. How many of wanted to be teachers? None. That makes sense because we’re going to be the doctors and engineers of the world. Why would we want to make $25,000 to start out when we could easily make double that? The top five percent of your class is naturally going to gravitate towards high paying jobs that suit their abilities.

Part of it is that teachers only work nine months out of the year. My AP biology teacher always said he had three reasons for becoming a teacher.
1. June
2. July
3. August

But let me ask you something, Mr. Townley says. Who do you want to be teaching your children? If your most talented people are elsewhere, who is left? The number of people who go against the grain are few and far between.

As the baby boom generation retires, who is replacing them? Just as important, who do you want to be replacing them?

And somehow I knew at that moment I would teach high school.

Comments

[tu-nenay-08.livejournal.com]

That story reminded me of a commercial I once saw. This little boy told his father that he wanted to be a teacher. The father asked "Why when you could be a doctor or lawyer?". The boy replied, "If there are no teachers, where will the doctors and lawyers learn how to do their jobs and do them well?". That commercial just strengthened my decision to be a teacher. It's not the highest paying, but to me it's the most fulfilling! :)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Just think, if you had TiVo back then, you would have never seen that commercial.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull said a long time ago that if we paid teachers and policemen what we pay athletes and politicians, the world would be a better place almost overnight. Pretty good thought from a guy who makes his living standing on one leg playing a flute, eh?

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but then we would be bankrupt because there are so many more teachers and policemen than athletes and politicians.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

true, but then again, we're almost bankrupt now, so we might as well spread the wealth around?

[force-of-will.livejournal.com]

Should we make a comment about our "market forces/laissez fair economics" idealism and our world placement on standardized tests in relation to teacher salaries?

Any way you look at it our schools are placed in a place outside of the way we think about normal economic society even as they remain one of our biggest businesses. I'm continually haunted by the clash of how schools are the focus of a clash familial altruistic idealism and the fact that schools are often the biggest businesses in a community that are forced to educate children under the constraints of dollar bean counting.

Will

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

So true. I suppose that's why I've heard that idealism makes the world go round and round...

[stealthcomic.livejournal.com]

I think it's cool that you're going to be a teacher, greybeta. One of my professors once told me that she decided to become a professor after working in the private sector because the academy was the one place that she would be encouraged to think and actually get paid to do so.

Part of it is that teachers only work nine months out of the year.

I'm actually on a ten month contract and I only get a week and a half for the December holiday break. I think we get less time now than we once did and likely through a combination of in-service and teacher work days. The students are required by law to have 180 day/990 instructional hours, but my contract stipulates 194 days. I'm ok with that, mind you--those teacher work days tend to fall right before grades are due! <⁄tangent>

I, too, thought I would be a university professor for a while. I liked teaching at the college level. Who knows? Maybe I'll go back for a PhD in a few years. :)

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't know they were working you guys harder than before. Perhaps I should reconsider my desire to teach. ;)