Is anyone else tired of teachers complaining about being underpaid??????????

Question

Have you seen the test scores of many of todays students?????? Other countries are doing better than our kids!!!!!!!! I was in high school less then a year ago and we hardly did anything there. The classes were about 50 minutes long. The teacher spent about 20 minutes teaching and then we waited 30 minutes for the bell to ring so we could go to our next class and do the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!! When the test scores go up then they can get a raise!!!!!!!!! Anyone agree????????

Answer 1

" I was in high school less then a year ago and we hardly did anything there."

This explains why you do not know why the Federal District is not a state.

BTW...teachers are well paid. Their hourly wage is higher than most people with the same education and experience.

Interesting that Steve says he put in 100 hours per week as a teacher. That equates to over 14 per day, working 7 days a week. If he only worked 5, that's 20 hours per day.

Guess he didn't teach math...or accounting.

Answer 2

At my school people don't get every Thursday afternoon. I think teachers say that they are underpaid b/c we do a lot of stuff outside the typical day, especially elementary teachers. We have to do report cards (we actually write out lengthy comment sections unlike middle and high school teachers), we plan, and come in early or stay late. All of these things take place OUTSIDE of the typical day. So although you think you are calculating our hourly rate, you really aren't. As an elementary teacher I have around 40 minutes of "planning" a day. That time is spent using the restroom (we can't go unless someone is watching our class) checking email (a receive at least one a day from a parent) checking my mailbox, meeting with other teachers, making copies, and just taking a breather! So when do I plan? At night. When do I correct papers? At night. People need to know that teachers do a lot of work outside the typical school hours. How much is your child's education worth?

Answer 3

Yes. The teachers in my school district start at $36,000 first year. The teachers that have been there for years are making well over $90,000 a year. They get all their health insurance paid for them and their family. Yet,my district had some of the lowest test scores in the state. I'd say,they aren't starving.
Our senior citizens are being forced to sell their homes because they can't keep up with the yearly staggering property tax increases.
My son graduated two years ago. Most of the teachers he had didn't seem to care what the kids did. He did have a few good teachers through his high school years,but most just seemed to be there for the paycheck.

Answer 4

I was in high school about 40 years back,,we had teachers and you didnt wait for the bell ,,you were still making notes at the bell most of the time,,
good teachers today are underpaid
the other 90% just suck the system and wait for the bell
private schools or home schools are the only outs i see

Answer 5

I know a few teachers, they are all in their early 30's. They make about $35,000-$40,000 a year. That's about $17 an hour for someone that works 40 hours a week all year round! They don't work all year round and even if they did, I wouldn't consider that underpaid. There are a lot of people who would be happy making $30k for the year, without a summer vacation!

Maybe if they taught at private schools or if we got rid of government run schools all toghether, they'd make more!

Answer 6

Which came first, the chicken or the egg. Should their pay be low because you're test scores are low. Or would being adequately funded raise your test scores?
School funding issues and the issues of teacher salary are huge in this country. And what you are proposing is what is being put into place. If kids do well, then the schools get money. Rather than, the schools get money, which they can then use to help kids do well.

Answer 7

Compared to other jobs that college grads can usually garner, teachers ARE underpaid! $30,000.00 for nine months is not $40,000.00 for the year, no matter if you use "new math" or old. School lasts 10 months in most communities, and the teachers are NOT paid during the summer months they have off. Often they must attend school to maintain their certifications, and that is not part of their salary either. Most are not able to get work for the two months that they are "off".

I've known many dedicated teachers who spent morning, noon and night either teaching, preparing to teach, or correcting papers. They put up with abuse from the kids they teach, from the parents, and from the groups who try to judge their competence by the results of tests taken by the students.

Many complain that they spend all their time teaching for the standardized tests. When I went to school, in the 50s and 60s, my teachers often went off on whatever tangent the group discussion led us into. Oftentimes that was the best education I received. It taught me how to pursue answers, how to learn! Now the teachers have to make sure that their students are "ready" to take MEAPS and MAPS, etc. etc., leaving little time for individual concerns and tangental learning.

I got a degree intending to become a techer, but never received my certification because I was "burned out" before I began. I can remember saying that the whole educational system needed to be torn down and set up again--and that was in 1968!!! I still feel that way.

I used to write to cousins of mine in Belgium, and their standard classes were much more difficult than those I was taking. They studied their own language and English, and often a third. They had many science classes, along with the basics. Even at my young age, I realized that we'd have a "revolt" in school if we were required to take anywhere near as many classes or to spend near as much time in school as my same-age cousins.

Pay teachers more!!! What can possibly be more important than the education of our children!!?? (Who is going to be YOUR doctor when you're 80???) They have the most difficult and the most important jobs in the country!

Answer 8

Yeah. They only have to work for 9 months and get a three month vacation. Now, don't get me wrong. I love teachers, but who in the public school system is representing the kids? They only have a short time in school. Why aren't we fighting for vouchers? The only way we are going to improve education is take it away from the educrats and give it back to the parents.

Answer 9

Yes, teaching is becoming a paper-pusher's job and good teachers are so overloaded with tests and revisions and forms, they go to sleep with anxiety and worry.
Others work as much as they need to get the check and little more.
They are well paid, but i no longer want to be teaching for institutions that turn education into a casino of competition and internal politics.

Answer 10

Perhaps if we paid the position better, we could attract better people. If you want to get the best people, you need to offer a reason for the best people to become teachers -- and since we are a capitalist society, the way we reward people is with income.

Additionally, as a former teacher, I think the suggestion that they're overpaid is a joke. I put in about 100 hours per week when you counted lesson planning, professional development, and most of all grading. Even with summer break, I put in more hours per year than a full-time 40 hour/week worker with only two weeks of vacation per year.

I will agree that we have far too many under-qualified teachers, but the main reason for this is just that the top people pursue the top money -- and that isn't teaching.