4 ms·

More like 35K-50K for teachers here in their early to mid 30s. Mid-sized midwestern city, so the cost of housing is low, but that's still not great, especially

by ashark 10y ago

More like 35K-50K for teachers here in their early to mid 30s. Mid-sized midwestern city, so the cost of housing is low, but that's still not great, especially considering that you need advanced degrees to approach the top end of that range. Compensation varies greatly by district—typically the worst districts pay the best, but they're still undesirable for teachers because the conditions are terrible—being cursed at and threatened daily by 5th graders (no joke) and witnessing assaults gets old fast. [EDIT] I should add that their healthcare plans tend to suck and are totally useless (1.5-2x as expensive as other options) for covering one's family, but the retirement's good. They're also better for people planning to take maternity/paternity leave than probably any other employer in the area, especially if you time it so your leave rolls over into Summer and are willing to be docked a couple weeks' pay—you can achieve near-parity with lower end of normal for parental leave in other OECD states that way! What a perk.

nine_k 10y ago
While we're at it: I think it's a terrible idea to confine 20-30 5th-graders together. This is the age when interpersonal relationships form, and hierarchies start building. 20 kids of same age have no other way to build a reasonable hierarchy except forming cliques and having fights. They are all peers, painfully pitted against one another. For most of the human history (and pre-history) kids grew in multi-age groups. This allows older kids assume roles of leaders, care about younger kids and protect them, and teach the younger kids what they already learned (the best way to learn something is to teach someone). The younger kids have some role models before their eyes who they can relate to more easily than to adults. This setup seems to work well in e.g. Montessori schools. It's sad that the majority of schools do not adopt multi-age groups.

by ashark 10y ago

nine_k 10y ago

While we're at it: I think it's a terrible idea to confine 20-30 5th-graders together. This is the age when interpersonal relationships form, and hierarchies start building. 20 kids of same age have no other way to build a reasonable hierarchy except forming cliques and having fights. They are all peers, painfully pitted against one another. For most of the human history (and pre-history) kids grew in multi-age groups. This allows older kids assume roles of leaders, care about younger kids and protect them, and teach the younger kids what they already learned (the best way to learn something is to teach someone). The younger kids have some role models before their eyes who they can relate to more easily than to adults. This setup seems to work well in e.g. Montessori schools. It's sad that the majority of schools do not adopt multi-age groups.