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Rising Star
I wonder how many teachers have worked outside of education?
Because the people outside of education who are making more money are rarely the ones who are best at their jobs.
Cont…
Busting their butt everyday to become a better and more creative educator and they are making half of what the other teacher is making. There is absolutely no incentive- other than keeping your job - to do better. To become better. And if you can do the bare minimum and still get your annual raise - then why not? I see it more and more with younger teachers. Work with people who sit on their phones when they should be working. An occasional text fine. But constantly texting. It’s ridiculous!
Teaching other people’s children isn’t easy. They come with all sorts of baggage. It can be frustrating and exhausting. Administration can often be no help or are a pain. But if you’re not willing to do the work and put in the time to further your skills- and you are just looking for a pay check and summers off - find another career. You are working with the future of our country. They deserve better. We deserve better.
And for goodness sakes put down that “F—-ing” cell phone!!!! Just saying 😩🤣🥰
This 100 percent!
This has been an age old argument. The thing is, we are not working with widgets, how are teachers supposed to be incentivized then? So the SPED teacher won’t get paid more if her students don’t take their meds and are low performers and/or don’t have the cognitive abilities to remember properly? How would gym, art, music teachers be compensated? People are so hard on teachers and just need to let them be professionals. Sometimes people burn out and need to regroup.
Who you know is huge in education as well, especially in NJ. I just read about a computer engineer that liked off 2 full time jobs that were close in proximity to one another. He answered the requests for service by pager/cell phone/work orders and only got found out after YEARS of being full time for each company because his boss came to the other place of employment to eat with a friend and saw him at one of the desks working!!
At the end of the day there will always be people who cut corners or do less than stellar work. Sometimes educators go through personal problems. Sometimes we get better, other times not. Sometimes the recharge comes from being changed to a different assignment. What I do feel is that people are so critical on teachers and this is a big reason there is a shortage. Teachers need to be given the benefit of the doubt as it took a lot to get in our jobs. Also, some teachers believe in a minimalist approach to decorations in their room. Decorating too much can be distracting to students. See that, anything can really be argued/defended
Why do we do this? No, seriously, why the hell do we do this? We wail night and day about not being valued, not being paid what we're worth. Yet, the second someone so much as hints at a different model, we go after THEM. We circle the wagons around our school boards and administrators that we've complained about a hundred times here, and mock anyone who thinks there might be a better way.
Look at this thread. The OP comes in with a legitimate observation THAT WE ALL AGREE ON, and what's the response? He (or she) gets laughed at, mocked, and accused of being a lazy garbage teacher. No wonder people don't respect us. We don't respect ourselves. We'd rather denigrate one of our own than simply HAVE A CONVERSATION on an anonymous forum about rethinking our pay system. We have got to be the weakest, most pathetic, self-loathing profession in the history of work.
You don't have to agree with the suggestion, but for God's sake, will you people stop tearing down other teachers for the sin of thinking differently? What, are we robots now? We just follow our programming and call it a day? We can never even talk about doing anything new ever? This is what passes for intellectual these days. I can't wait for the small-minded to throw the laugh emojis at me for saying what we all know to be true. Bring it on. You obviously have no influence on me.
Rising Star
There's one comment on here that's sort of snarky toward the OP. The others are just pointing out the flaws in the premise. Discussing, in other words. The thing you're claiming doesn't happen.
One more quirk: our society often considers college instructors to be on a high plain than K12 teachers, yet moving from K-12 to the college level usually involves a pay cut plus having to pay for more education.
What makes one better than your colleagues? I hope not test scores.
That is very subjective and would be abused by admin and their toady pets that agree with them. Educators need to have a voice where they can bring up concerns, many of which are better for kids.
That loudmouth (me) would never get more money. Admin is supposed to handle teachers that are lazy by following protocols outlined in ed code and contracts. Blame the admin for not doing their job.
It's because we are not here for the money (at least I'm not), we are here for the students, and people know it. They know we will give kids everything we can if it is within our power to do so. It certainly does not justify the pay scale, but it explains why we put up with it. I didn't become a teacher for the money, I was inspired by an educator and wanted to reach others. That's why I stay here. I could work from home and make more money, but I would MISS my students and my content. I try not to pay too much attention to the jokers who would otherwise bother me. Comparison is the thief of joy.
I know of two school districts who lost teachers because they went to "pay-for-performance." The other thing is, while we get paid for more education, sometimes it works against us as they go for younger teachers with less education so they don't have to pay as much.
It's like that for every position in a school. I have people that have been promoted in our office, make more money than I do, but have less experience and it's all because of who they know and if they say no to doing or knowing something.
Or you work for 30 years and make the same as the new teacher in your same class. Paid for the role. 🤷🏻♀️