09-27-2009, 05:43 AM
Scott,
I really resent someone stating that teachers don't work. I arrive at school at 7:00 every morning and then work ALL day until I leave at between 4 and 6 every night. I eat my lunch at my desk with a room full of students who need extra help outside of class. Then I go home and do more grading and prep work, plus all the extra paperwork mandated by NCLB. I do more planning and grading on weekends; yesterday I took my first day off since school started in August. I also take take online classes to stay current in my subject area and to keep my license. Summers and "vacations" are spent planning curriculum, taking professional development trainings, and creating a professional portfolio required to keep my job. For the privilege of doing this I invested 6 years of my life and $38,000 to get two degrees, plus the opportunity costs of being unable to earn an income while in school.
I do this because I want to do something meaningful and long lasting with my life, because I can think of no more important job than preparing the next generation for a full and satisfying life by helping them acquire the critical thinking skills and work habits they will need, and then you say I don't have to produce daily? On what facts and observations do you base that assertion?
You may not have children in school, but the taxpayers of the community you grew up in paid for your education, even if they didn't have children, and now it is your turn to repay that investment by helping to educate the next generation. You might also want to remember that the students I teach today are going to soon be your employees, and when you are retired they will be working to help support you through their tax payments.
Wouldn't you prefer that the next generation of workers of Hawaii are skilled enough to earn good wages, or do you want them all to just be cheap manual labor? I think you are letting your anti union, anti government worker bias cloud your thinking. Just because it takes forever for you to get some permit doesn't mean that teachers don't have to produce. In fact, I can think of few other professions where the negative feedback is so instantaneous as walking into a classroom of teenagers unprepared, they eat you alive.
Carol
I really resent someone stating that teachers don't work. I arrive at school at 7:00 every morning and then work ALL day until I leave at between 4 and 6 every night. I eat my lunch at my desk with a room full of students who need extra help outside of class. Then I go home and do more grading and prep work, plus all the extra paperwork mandated by NCLB. I do more planning and grading on weekends; yesterday I took my first day off since school started in August. I also take take online classes to stay current in my subject area and to keep my license. Summers and "vacations" are spent planning curriculum, taking professional development trainings, and creating a professional portfolio required to keep my job. For the privilege of doing this I invested 6 years of my life and $38,000 to get two degrees, plus the opportunity costs of being unable to earn an income while in school.
I do this because I want to do something meaningful and long lasting with my life, because I can think of no more important job than preparing the next generation for a full and satisfying life by helping them acquire the critical thinking skills and work habits they will need, and then you say I don't have to produce daily? On what facts and observations do you base that assertion?
You may not have children in school, but the taxpayers of the community you grew up in paid for your education, even if they didn't have children, and now it is your turn to repay that investment by helping to educate the next generation. You might also want to remember that the students I teach today are going to soon be your employees, and when you are retired they will be working to help support you through their tax payments.
Wouldn't you prefer that the next generation of workers of Hawaii are skilled enough to earn good wages, or do you want them all to just be cheap manual labor? I think you are letting your anti union, anti government worker bias cloud your thinking. Just because it takes forever for you to get some permit doesn't mean that teachers don't have to produce. In fact, I can think of few other professions where the negative feedback is so instantaneous as walking into a classroom of teenagers unprepared, they eat you alive.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb