My very good retired Illinois teacher friend, Gerri sent the following to me this morning and I had to share it with all my very good blogger teacher friends in cyberspace.
Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year!
It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do--baby-sit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked, not any of that silly planning time, time spent grading qualitative papers, organizing, purchasing supplies the schools don't provide, additional meetings, setting up in the morning, and so on.
That would be $19.50 a day [7:00 AM to 3:30 (or so) PM with just 25 min. off for lunch].
Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.
NOW...
How many do they teach in a class, 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! We're not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET'S SEE....
That's $585 x 180= $105,300 per year.
What about those special teachers and the ones with master's degrees?
Well, we could pay them minimum wage, and just to be fair, round it off to $7.00 an hour.
That would be $7 x 6 1/2 hours x 30 children x 180 days = $245,700 per
year.
Wait a minute--there's something wrong here!
Average teacher salary $50,000/180 days = $277/per day/30 students = $9.23/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student. A very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even try - with your help - to EDUCATE your kids!
WHAT A DEAL....
And the parents don't even have to buy us pizza!
Thanks for this fun post idea, Gerri!
I should tell everybody out there that Gerri was a Behavior Disorder teacher. She was worth her weight in gold in the classroom and as a friend. When I returned to teaching after a dozen years away, Gerri was the one who showed me the ropes and taught me how to hold on to my classroom with a velvet gloved hand and to smile through every day.
Oops, got so carried away I had a typo...had to delete. What I said (corrected was this.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good one, Kay. Made me laugh out LOUD and I quit trying to keep up with the math involved. Why? They can't "print" enough money to pay a good teacher what she/he is worth, no matter how they fiddle with the numbers.
All teachers are priceless as far as I am concerned!
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I totally agree. Teachers are so under payed and work with our most precious "commodity"!
ReplyDeleteI was one of those teachers and never got a paid holiday, it was one of the days we didn't work or get paid for. lol!
ReplyDeleteYou're preachin' to the choir, girl, preachin' to the choir! Ha!
ReplyDeleteI guess it's a good thing we weren't doing it for the money, but a little more would have been nice.
ReplyDeleteGerri sounds like a wonderful mentor, one every new teacher could use to learn how to find that "velvet glove". That is a skill not easliy come by.
I give credit to anyone who succeeds as a teacher and remains one until old age forces her to retire. I would find teaching fulltime very strenuous, to say the least. Kudos to you and my daughter for sticking it out -- with a smile on your face and happiness in your heart.
ReplyDeleteValid point in my opinion! and do teachers really only make that???? My god!
ReplyDeleteKay, I once had someone comment that I got paid to much for "only teaching school." I smiled at her and said, "If I put you in a 15x20 windowless room with 30 ten year-olds, could you get them all to sit down quietly and do the same thing at the same time?" She didn't answer me, but a couple of other people nearby clapped.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the math lesson. I'd laugh, but it hurts too much - especially knowing that there are places in the world, Germany to name one, where they've done the math and pay accordingly.
ReplyDeleteTeachers and scientists are two professions that struggle with their history - a history that says "no one who needs an income need enter into these fields." Scientists were wealthy Victorian gentlemen (the profession "scientist" didn't exist before the 20th century); teachers were ditto or were subsidized by parents, spouses, or other benefactors.
I remain surprised that anyone who needs the money wastes their time in either field, the costs of entry can never be paid back by what's on offer for wages. But until teachers (all teachers) get this message and withdraw their labor, their abuse at the hands of society will, I think, continue.
Teaching is an underpaid and usually underappreciated profession. No doubt about it. To go to the opposite extreme, become an athlete or a rock star, and teach our kids all the wrong lessons.
ReplyDeleteMy humble thanks to all the teachers who took such good care of my kids.
teaching life has never been easy..i was a teacher before..
ReplyDeleteWait, what? Something seems off about that math. Let's try it another way. Let's pay teachers about what a police officer or say a FIRE FIGHTER makes - about 12 dollars an hour. And we're not going to pay for EACH KID, just per hour like everyone else out there. Firefighters don't get paid by the fire and cops don't get paid by the number of arrests they make right? So $12 x 8 hours a day would be 96 dollars a day. Let's round up to $100.(that's a free paid 20 minute lunch!) Multiply that times only 180 DAYS A YEAR... yikes. That's only $18,000. Now it seems like teachers are being paid WAY TOO MUCH!
ReplyDeleteJust kidding Mom! I know what you teachers do is important and teachers are underpaid,under appreciated, under valued, under etc.
But seriously, I don't know if I would call $50,000 a year "an abuse at the hand of society."
Well, well, my dear son. I didn't realize you were reading my blog so carefully. I'm very touched to see that. I'm also very pleased to see what a great job my collegues in our school district did in teaching you math skills and reasoning.
ReplyDeleteNot every teacher is paid $50,000. Some are paid less.... and yes some are paid more. Whatever the case, most teachers are definitely underpaid for the stressful work they do.
And yes, firefighters are also underpaid. Is that why you're going back to school again?
Great post, Kay! I taught because I loved what did and loved the kids. I taught mostly in Catholic schools and made half of what public teachers made, but it was the kids I cared about, not the money -- still, it would have been nice to be able to live a little more comfortably than I did when I was single. Wasn't quite so bad once I married, the difference in pay was pretty absurd. And yet, even getting more than Catholic teachers did, public school teachers didn't get what they deserved or needed and still don't and yet look what is expected of them!
ReplyDeleteAnd ooops! I got carried away, too! Have a great weekend, Kay!
Sylvia
What a great post Kay and a super photo of you in the classroom. Really enjoyed both. A good teacher is most definitely worth their weight in gold.
ReplyDelete$245K? Bargain.
ReplyDeleteI say we do it.
My best friend Elizabeth is a teacher; it's opened my eyes to how many 'off' hours teachers are actually 'on', and how much they deal with. Teaching seems less a job than a calling.
Had to laugh with the not-so-'Anonymous' Firefighter. LOL I've decided to go back to school too; it's now or never! But I don't think I'll be up for teaching.
Yeah, cause the bankers and wall street geniuses and sports figures sure need more money!
ReplyDeletealoha
Comfort Spiral
I get so angry about this issue.. so much misinformation out there...
ReplyDeleteLOVE love love that picture of you teaching, Kay!!
ReplyDeleteThose lucky kids!
Love this post! I used to make this point periodically when folks complained about how much teachers get paid and it DOES change perceptions ... at least for a minute.
ReplyDeleteHugs and blessings,