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Re: Another Perspective
Posted by Mark on 3/19/08

    On 3/19/08, ... wrote:
    > I am not saying it's wrong, it's just not realistic...

    If its not realistic, then why do we make good money in Michigan? Other states also manage to
    pay well. Friends in Chicago make about what I do, though their benefits seem a bit softer. I
    know suburban NYC and Connecticut pays well. Much of California pays well and has good
    benefits. There are other areas too that manage to pay their teachers a decent wage.

    You said you could make more money as a manager at a Wal-mart. Then you're not a public school
    teacher in Michigan, unless we're talking about managing a whole Wal-mart store, which they just
    don't take someone off the street to do that.

    Look, your 100 perent for the kids comment just gets me mad. Not so much at you, but at this
    mindset in our profession. I'm a teacher for a myriad of reasons. I love helping students,
    special ed students BTW, learn when they might not otherwise if I wasn't there. However, I'm
    not going to feel bad about being able to live in my district, which has homes, prior to the
    housing collapse anyway, in the $300,000 range (I don't live there, but I could). I'm not going
    to feel bad about wanting to lease a new mid-sized car every few years. Not an Audi or a Lexus,
    but I don't think teachers should have to hitch a ride in the back of a rusty pick-up to get to
    work either.

    My wife, a nurse, is in a field where caring and helping others is as much, or more, a part of
    her job as it is mine. She is not expected to stay for free when asked to do extra, and she's
    asked all the time! Still, teachers in some areas are expected to serve on comittees for free,
    chaperone dances for free, watch cafeterias for free, and coach or support after-school
    activities for very little compensation because its "for the kids." If we don't do it, we're
    bad teachers or not in the field for the "right" reasons. Never mind that I've helped a student
    with dyslexia read near grade level at 16 when he's spent his whole life being unable to get
    through a grade 2 book! Never mind that I got a kid with autism to not freak out when the
    lights get turned off. Nope, I'm a bad teacher because I don't want to sit on a comittee to
    study some stratagy that'll be tossed out in 2 years, or watch the cafeteria, or coach a sport
    that I've never even SEEN played before and have no concept of the rules.

    I just want teachers, as a group, to realize that we're professionals and TEACHERS, not lunch
    room attendants, coaches, or babysitters, and we're doing something important and should be paid
    accordingly.

     
     

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