This story aired on CBS Sunday Morning a few weeks ago, just in time for the start of the new school year.
You'll see references to Horace Mann and A Nation At Risk as contributing factors of one of the most time-honored traditions in American public education: paying teachers low salaries. Today, the idea of raising teachers' salaries is a non-starter. My question is, how might we use our powers as educators in order to convince the policymakers and the public to support salaries that will make life as a teacher sustainable - and, in turn, make life as a teacher attractive to future college graduates?
This video almost made me cry. I feel very strongly that education is a rewarding field. Teachers go into teaching knowing that the money isn't great, and it feels very self-less. In listening to these teachers in Oklahoma, I am fearful of what is to come in my own life when it comes to being able to support myself and make a lifestyle that I can enjoy.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the only power we have of making a change in our society in order to change their minds and help fund teachers salaries is to continue showing stories like these. Where you see real teachers struggling to "make it work." Once we raise enough awareness of the need to pay teachers more, I hope policies will change. Funding for schools are already not enough, so the problem is not focused on teachers in some districts. The various teachers unions that we have need to be our biggest advocate and help teachers fight. I suppose what teachers need to do so we gain power is have more time to plan ideas and implement them nationally. Instead we put the children first, hence why I think we have an extremely self-less job.
Molly Allister
ReplyDeleteI agree, teaching is a rewarding field in which you have the opportunity to interact and change children's view of education as well as their lives. Though, it is definitely lacking in the salary department. I believe, the only way this will change is when teachers unions as a whole standup together and speak about it. Ultimately, if schools are under supported, teacher will be too. There needs to be a theory change in the government if we as educators, expect a difference to happen.
This will also affect how future graduates view teaching as a profession. If it is not more attractive to future graduates, education will be lacking decent educators to guide children.
I definitely agree that teachers do not get paid enough and most of my friends that are teachers have a second job to afford their living cost. Personally, I am at school for over an hour of contracted time, have a second tutoring job, and also bring school work home. I feel as if I do not make enough money that balances out the amount of work that I do.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the best way for educators to convince the public that we should have higher salaries, is to work together and raise awareness to this situation. This is a real issue because there are some people that would make excellent educators and they are choosing not to follow that path because of the limited pay. If there were higher salaries, teachers (such as the one in the video) would be able to spend more time focusing on his or her classroom and lessons, rather than having to work a second job.
Christine Joannidis
Thank you, Paul, for sharing this video and opening the door for conversation. It is interesting to consider the idea that when public education began, women were "brought" in to do the work so that the pay didn't have to be as much. While I did not know this to be a fact, I had always believed that the lack of pay in education was directly aligned to the fact that it is a female dominated field. I found that point very interesting.
ReplyDeleteFrankly speaking, when I left my previous profession to become a teacher, I did so because I imagined that it would give me more time with my family. I knew that I was going to be taking a significant pay cut but I thought, "well, I'll work less and have summers off, so, it will be worth it." While I still believe that my work as an educator is "worth it", I very quickly realized that I was wrong about the amount of time and work that goes into it. Much more, in fact, than my previous job. I share this story because I believe that the general public, including parents of our students, do not recognize the amount of time that goes into being a good teacher. As with most things, I believe that this lack of knowledge leads to a misunderstanding and inaccurate viewpoint. As educators we must look at this inequity on a large scale. In my district, I feel as though too often, we fight over small issues, like missed preps and the amount of bus duty we're responsible for, when if fact, we need to be educating the public and raising awareness as to what goes on in our day-to-day and the expectations that are asked of us. It is my opinion, that the last quote in the video sums up much of our problem...
"Maybe that's why we're not seeing the changes, because we still make it work and still do what we need to."
Emily Lotwich
ReplyDeleteThis is also a career change for me, because I felt the job was more rewarding than being a counselor. I love what I do, and I keep striving to do more and more for my students. However, I find myself thinking: is this really worth it? very often.
I am in graduate school, main reason being, to go up on the pay scale -- though it's a minimal amount, it's something. But I take out loans for school, more than my pay raise will ever be able to cover. Truth is, I do it for my students, to be the best teacher I can be. I get told over and over by coworkers "stop spending your own money it isnt worth it trust me..." but to me it is worth it, if it means a piece of mind and a more managed classroom environment. I do my job without thinking, I want to do more without thinking.
But then when this conversation, that I hear often, comes up I can't help but be disgusted. You cannot get a job without an education anymore, and we are the educators... so why are we getting the lowest pay out there? Also, more and more is being asked of us in the classroom that there's barely time to improve our instruction because DATA DATA DATA.
I think educators as an entire sector understand the problem with pay, even our administrators. So the problem here is with the government or the state political sector. There is not enough funding, yet they want to keep making changes and giving us more work so the students perform better? Maybe they can get us to perform better if we get more funding, where are the resources coming from? The training? We are the resource to our students, so we should be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
In addition to everything stated here, by all of you, imagine that they also carry out what was suggested (I think in THE NATION AT RISK) about evaluating teachers according to students performance. It would be unfair because each marking period, at least in the district where I work, the honor students are 3 to 5 per class, if they are going to evaluate a teacher for the performance of 20 to 25 students what will happen? For me that would be like making one pay for what someone else did or didn't do. Very unfair!
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