Should teachers be among the highest paid people?

Question

Teachers are trusted to teach our children how to live in the world we created for them. There is no job more important than that. And if they are highly paid, how do you stop people from doing it for the money?

Answer 1

This is a truly enlightening thread with some tremendously thoughtful comments. From my own experience, I have two Master's degrees and just left teaching (after ten years), feeling rather jaded that when I took into account my average 70 hour week (yes, I was one of those teachers whose weekends were a stack of 1800 word essays because I too cared about my students), I was earning somewhere in the region of $8 per hour. Do you think capable people are going to strive to join a profession that rates them this valuable to society?

Moreover, my own awareness, over the course of the last ten years, is that we are losing many of the more academic staff, who are being surely replaced by folks with big personalities (no bad thing in itself) but who lack some fairly essential skills such as spelling and punctuation, and the power to analyse, diversify, create and lead.

Talk of vocational commitment being reward enough is always a ruse to blind us to the fact that teaching is and should remain a profession, not a 'calling.' As with any profession, teaching requires those with the psychological capacity to enjoy and stimulate young people's learning, but young people also deserve teachers who view their own professional development and skills highly enough to develop further, to think more deeply about what they do and to fight for social recognition. Those with this sense of self worth are now looking to find social recognition and intellectual fulfilment elsewhere, depriving young people of the best and brightest sources of educational inspiration. Worries that teachers may be 'doing it for the money' are missing the point entirely. If you want skilled and talented people to consider this profession, it must be aligned with professional remuneration, ongoing training and promotional opportunity. If you want well meaning amateurs, then retain the status quo.

Pay teachers more? Well, you get what you pay for. It just depends on how highly you value your children's future.

Former high school English teacher & school principal

Answer 2

How do you stop people from being doctors just for the money?

Answer: you don't. If someone has the skills, the dedication and the work ethic to get through medical school and residency and make it as a doctor, then she gets to be a doctor. Do you think doctors or lawyers who go into their jobs for the money can't also be good at their jobs?

The same is true for teachers. If they are paid more, more people will want to be teachers. Hiring will be more competitive; schools will be able to pick from the best and the brightest. Who wants to go through the education and preparation to become a teacher, and work so hard, for such little pay? Only people who can't do anything else, or people who are crazy devoted to education. There are very few of the latter. Do you really want your kids to be taught by the former?

Answer 3

I am a teacher, and I agree with many that the pay should be higher. Our government keeps raising the standards we must meet, the education we must have, and the additional work we must do to maintain our positions. While I agree that having stiffer guidelines makes us better teachers, we cannot be expected to pay for it ourselves. I am from Ohio, which happens to have one of the worst systems for funding schools in the country, so I'm sure in other states the financial outlook may not look as bleak.

What I had set out to say was I agree with most of you, that if teachers are paid too much, we run the risk of having people in it just for the money. However, I would like to think we can trust our administrators to see through those just in it for money, that they will hire the "good ones" with true hearts.
I also ask any teachers out there - how long could a person survive in the teaching profession if they were only doing it for the money- not for the love of educating young minds. I think the burn out rate of the "money-hungry" would be very high.

Answer 4

Well, I think if teachers were highly paid then there would be much more competition and then the best candidates could be hired just like any other high paid job. I come from a family of teachers who are highly educated (Master or Doctorate degrees) and I know many talented and bright people who have left teaching for the business world because they just could not afford not to.

For those who say teachers are paid too much and that they get free vacations-- think again. Teachers get paid for their hours in school according to their contract. My sister who is an English teacher spends almost every weekend grading the 50-100 essays from her 6 classes of 30 students. She does not get paid for this. What corporate or business person would work weekends for free? We figured her hourly wage if we were to count her "unpaid hours" and she unofficially makes 14 dollars per hour with 6 years of education and 10 years of experience.

What corporate or business person would work with NO paid vacation? Teacher's wages are pro-rated so that they can receive a paycheck each summer. By this I mean that every month a part of their salary is withheld and paid during the summer. They do not qualify for unemployment during summers like a contractor does when not able to work winters.

If we were to better compensate our teachers then we would attract more quality people to the positions.

Answer 5

I think it was 20 years ago teachers were paid what the normal professional was paid to start........ today with COLA and everything else the normal professionsl jobs have outpaced teachers by a long ways. For example in 8 years of teaching I have gotten a totally of 8% in raises which is well below any form of COLA.

The fear that higher pay will draw more bad teachers is utter crap because anyone who has gone a year in the classroom knows that they kids will figure out you don't care or know what you are doing and chew them up big time. Weak teachers are the ones who end up crying every week so don't expect someone to hold on just for the money.

The new tests required to become a teacher in the public system would further eliminate the dweebs so fear not the good ones will out number the bad with out a doubt. The big problem today is as soon as you start having kids you can't afford to teach anymore. Example being my kids whom I love cost me an extra $480 a month for insurance..........as a flipping front desk employee at a casino my insurance only cost an extra $15 a month......... I have counted in my career 6 great teachers who quit because of pay and went tp business.....realtors, drug reps and a few book reps. Pay us what we are worth.

Answer 6

Are you saying this job is more important-than the Cop who faces life and death danger or the Fireman, or the women who cares for Cancer or other Patients everyday, or the Aid who cares for the sick-wiping when others can not, or the Nursing homes, there are many jobs that are very important. And many who don't get paid much. And many who don't have the benefits that Teachers do. I am not saying they don't have an important job---many do. And many don't make the money or have the Benefits that teachers do. There are jobs just as important and many have done great things-without an education believe it or not. And in earlier times we have had many who taught themselves and became great. Don't act like everything depends on them.

Sorry Teachers-I do respect you-I just hate a statement that said that others jobs are not as important. Many jobs should be paid the highest-where do you draw the line?

Answer 7

I think teachers and jobs that are similar should have higher pay, not necessarily the highest, but it should be higher. I mean, most teachers spend more time with our kids than their parents do. Teachers have the tough job of controlling kids for half the day (or at least the part of day when we're awake.). Teachers make sure our children will be able to get a good job, and make sure they stay out of trouble, and because of the amount of adults with full time jobs, teahers can be a childs main influence.

Answer 8

The nature of teaching itself should weed out those that don't truly love it. If teachers were the highest paid, then not only will you attract the idiots that are only doing it for the money, but you keep the burned out ones that stopped liking the kids.

That having been said, I wouldn't mind if we were paid enough to live comfortably. Which we aren't.

Answer 9

No, not anymoreso than brain surgeons, firefighters, etc. who can save your life. Teachers obviously have to be very smart people but they should not be among the HIGHEST paid. And you can't stop people from just doing it for the money. It just wouldn't work out.

Answer 10

I do believe teachers should have their salaries increased, but I do not believe they should be the highest paid. Unfortunately, if this were to happen, many people would elect to become educators for the wrong reasons; indeed, they are a valuable asset to our society, but this proposal could degrade our education system.