Do we teachers, do we get pay enough?

I completely agree with you msolga :-), once you start teaching, it becomes a part of you that you can never let go.

bubbly08, No you don't get paid enough. Thank god for those teachers in my life that gave me more then money could buy. I don't write the budget or I would give you a raise. The influence you have on your students can change the future and make better people.

If you are a teacher, I beg you to sharpen your language skills.

If you are a teacher, I beg you to sharpen your language skills.

Hello people! I have a question that was running through my head, do we teachers get paid enough? I've been thinking about it and sometimes we think that by putting more effort into the classroom we are going to get paid more than other teachers, but that's not true. I have a friends and we are all teachers and were talking just yesterday that we don't have to stress out about our careers because we all get pay the same amount of money. One of my friends, hardly teaches, she is always absent and leaving substitutes, and I'm always in school. Now we have a lot of stress, especially now with the students taking the TAKS, we have to make sure that we are teaching our students the right material, and that they are learning. I feel that now a days, we teachers have to work twice as hard. 20 or 30 years ago school was pretty easy. High school students didn't need to have "enough" credits to graduate. So now, my question is : Do we teachers get pay enough?

Stormwatch wrote:

Also on March 11th will be the vote on teacher's contracts. I'm sure that will not pass, so will likely be working w/out contracts next year. People feel that teachers are over paid and under worked

Ha - 'aint that the truth girl... izzn't it strange..... k - here's Izzie on her soapbox now ... good teacher's can never be paid enough in my humble opinion, especially Special Ed ones (though obviously that is a little close to my heart). All children have to be educated (edumacated in my world!) - - I believe that's the law - and it can be the driving force behind how these little kids are going to head out along in their life journey and become, with a hope and small prayer, useful and worthy members of society, in whatever form that is. It's not about always about the child's "academic" ability - it has so much to do with the child's "emotional well being" - if a child is happy - the child will learn more - academically and pastorally. An "out-of-the-box" teacher can sometimes help a child to look at the world in a way that no other person can do. It can make such a difference to their life.

Oh, don't get me wrong - I don't place "all" teachers on a pedestal - but the folk who I know, who are in the "profession of teaching" are wholly there, in my opinion to make life a better world for the children they teach. I believe very much in paying a workforce what they are worth….. there's izzn't enough money in the world to pay anyone for the input that a "worthy" teacher can have in a child's life.

If teachers are unhappy - then a child cannot be taught to the best of that teacher's ability, therefore………

Oh, could ramble on about this subject - but won't bore the rest of the crew. Children are the future - they need "teachers" as well as their parents to show them the way into that future.

K - maybe simplistic to some…but then this thread is not the thread for a soapbox. Thatsme living in an ideal world....or in a Castle On A Cloud!

(The education system, in my world, has let my son down - I will try to find a peace with that at some stage. For the most part, the "teachers" who I know - need more than a pat on the back - they deserve a lot more than a derisory pay cheque at the end of the day).

K - really - back in my box now!

bubbly08 wrote:

Hello people! I have a question that was running through my head, do we teachers get paid enough? I've been thinking about it and sometimes we think that by putting more effort into the classroom we are going to get paid more than other teachers, but that's not true. I have a friends and we are all teachers and were talking just yesterday that we don't have to stress out about our careers because we all get pay the same amount of money. One of my friends, hardly teaches, she is always absent and leaving substitutes, and I'm always in school. Now we have a lot of stress, especially now with the students taking the TAKS, we have to make sure that we are teaching our students the right material, and that they are learning. I feel that now a days, we teachers have to work twice as hard. 20 or 30 years ago school was pretty easy. High school students didn't need to have "enough" credits to graduate. So now, my question is : Do we teachers get pay enough?

Absolutely not. Teachers get paid no where near enough.

I was high school science teacher for three years. After this I burnt out and went back to software development (this was some 6 years ago now).

I am now paid a little more than twice as much, with less stress, better working conditions, and significantly less work.

Teaching is not only a very important job... it is also an extremely difficult job that demands you to be enthusiastic everyday, to deal with intellectual concepts at the same time as dealing with snotty teenagers. To do creative work and the drudgery of paperwork on the same day.

I speak from experience having worked both inside and outside the classroom.

Teachers should be paid much much more.

Hey Stormy

a couple weeks ago...

Izzie wrote:

My lovely boss, Ali, turned up yesterday and bought me the biggest bouquet of flowers from the school and the children. She is such a star and it was fab to see her. She's one of those people who is always genuinely smiling and just warms you inside. We make a great team and have got such huge plans for the school. We want to take an afternoon each week, get the kidlets to build a "cover" from willow, and make a firepit (our school is in the middle of nowhere so we have a lot of space for them to do this). Then once a week each class (our kidlets are age 4-11 - only 46 of them in our lovely school) will go into the cover, light a fire and we will show them a different form of education.

Communication with their peers but with the basics of nature surrounding them. Singing and just talking - just for a little time each week, but out of the confines of the school building. English, Science and Maths - heck - that's classroom stuff - we just want to give them a little more "natural" education. We also want to take them and do forestry skills - we all live in the country but kids these days know so little about taking care of themselves outside - so we plan to try and give them, and their parents, a back to basics. Should be so much fun and we think the children will benefit enormously. Children love this sort of stuff - so who knows a?


So basically, mud, "bogs", fires, trees, bugs and stuff - cooooooool)! Making, doing, laughing! Even little things like making a "dream-catcher" from twigs, raffia, leaves and feathers outside in the "cover" will open up their imagination and get them to see what surrounds them - if you get what I mean.

So, can is a decent "pay check" pay for that sort of educaction - for some children, that is "priceless"!

What subject(s)?

I don't want to deny cops the right to extra earnings, but if they are able to earn overtime, we should be able to as well. Every teacher I know has spent nights and weekends preparing and finalizing the progress reports that get sent home three times per year. They aren't allowed time during the day for that. And this is just one example of many.