Teacher Pay

[Politico]

I have a niece currently in college that wants to become a teacher. She understands the salary isn't going to make her rich but it's not really the money that drives her to become a teacher.

My advice to any teacher that dislikes their pay, quit and find a better paying job. Surely you were aware of the salaries before you decided to choose this as a career.

What they probably were not aware of is the nearly total, complete and profound level of disrespect and distain the American public has for teachers and the teaching profession.

Really? Why you hold such distain for teachers?

Because they only have to work part of the year for a whole years pay of course.

 

[Esmeralda]

I'm a Tory and I hold to that when talking about pay and conditions.

How about performance related pay?

If the kids get good results, the teachers concerned get a bonus but, if the exam results are rubbish, the teacher gets paid less the following year.

Seems fair to me.

Considering that the single biggest factor in whether a student does well is the effort the student puts in, taking away the teacher's pay seems counterproductive.

When I was in college as an education major, a mentor gave me some excellent advice. He said, "Some students will make A's if you give them a textbook and test them weekly and have a final exam. Some students won't do well if they have a tutor working one-on-one with them. The best that you can do, as a teacher, is to work for the rest of the students."

Both my parents died in hospitals. We still had to pay the hospital & doctor's bills. If I join a gym and don't get in shape, I still have to pay them.

Good post. Bottom line, education, like anything else, is based on what you put into it. I'm sure some kids who are gifted don't have to work too hard to do well, but that depends on the level. As they rise in the system, at some point, even if it is graduate school, they will have to work to do well, but most of their time up until then, they shine w/o much effort. There will also always be those who are slow or weak intellectually, but always try as hard as they can. The teacher may put as much effort as possible into this kind of student and still not get good results. There would therefore be, logically, every type of student in between. The success of the teacher cannot be easily measured. For example, if you determine the students' success by test scores, all you are proving is that a teacher can teach students how to take tests well and will teach them to pass tests rather than educating them and teaching them to be life long learners, critical thinkers, and people who are interested in and love learning.

If a teacher is an obvious failure, they will be let go. People have the wrong impression. In university there is tenure. Tenure does not exist in public education below college and university level. A teacher who is clearly not up to it will be let go. The administration and the school board determine if the teacher should be kept on. The parents have the right to have input into that decision by talking directly to school administrators and school board members.

It is completely appropriate for unions to negotiate salaries for teachers. This happens the world over. In the countries with the apparently highest level of success in education, there are teacher unions. Unions are not the problem in education. As well, being a teacher takes a lot of motivation. If you underpay teachers, you destroy a lot of their motivation. They are not martyrs.

 

[dr.d]

As one who has experienced the pervasive negativity against teachers and left for greener pastures...I feel I must emphasize that education in this country WILL NOT IMPROVE unless the general attitudes towards the profession improve.
Positive, bright people who are drawn to teach DO NOT stay in the profession if excluded from major decisions affecting them, forced to fulfill some Politician's wrong minded ideas of improving learning by endless testing, begrudged decent pay and benefits, and scapegoated for society's ills while being expected to sacrifice their own well being "for the good of the kids"...
It is also unrealistic for our heavily monetized capitalist society to expect that highly skilled and effective professionals with sound self esteem would accept substandard pay and treatment to remain in teaching...еven if they are drawn to it "for the right reasons"...i.e. to work to help our children and nation to achieve optimally.



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