4 ms·

Teachers do more work outside of their standard hours than most other professions. I dated a teacher for a long time and she worked much harder for her public s

by sjm 4y ago

Teachers do more work outside of their standard hours than most other professions. I dated a teacher for a long time and she worked much harder for her public school salary (waking up at 6am, prepping, lesson planning, grading, chasing up kids who aren't making it to school, dealing with social workers, etc.), than I do for my cushy six-figure tech job salary. Besides, why shouldn't teachers make six-figures? Why are teachers treated like this in the US?

ethbr0 4y ago
> Besides, why shouldn't teachers make six-figures? Exactly. Compared to what I do, educating 15-20 future citizens and adults seems on par. And to your broader point, indeed, the average US teacher at this point is 1/5 lesson planning, 3/5 instruction, 1/10 social worker, and 1/10 data entry/report filing.
option 4y ago
Teachers should make six figures, the best ones should make seven like couches do now. And it should be very easy to fire bad ones. Basically should be at will employment with school district.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  > at will employment with school district This is thorny, because it gets into the problems tenure was created to combat: school administration's goals aren't always student success. Especially now, they can be myopically assessment-focused or political. Subordinating teachers to the whim of administration wouldn't help this. Jury-of-their-peers is slightly better, but has its own issues.
  - option 4y ago
    school boards are (and should be) elected positions. So theoretically they are accountable to parents.
    - ethbr0 4y ago
      Parents definitely shouldn't be the primary source of authority. If you want to know how badly otherwise seemingly mature adults can behave, come to a local school board meeting in Florida. "For the kids" + average parent = asshole with no holds barred
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
chongli 4y ago
Why are teachers treated like this in the US? The U.S. has a large contingent of free-market maximalists. These groups are opposed to public services like education and health care across the board. They are allied with right-wing religious groups who oppose public schools on religious grounds (they want a religious curriculum and that’s unconstitutional). Their tactic is called “starve the beast.” They believe that underfunding and neglect will drive the best teachers out of the public school system and into private schools. Their goal is to bring about the collapse of the public school system and then ultimately convince voters to abolish public schools altogether.
lukas099 4y ago
Here is a thread on r/Teachers where teachers discuss how many hours they work [1]. From a quick skimming it seems to vary with new teachers working really hard, older ones having pretty easy hours, and some teachers doing things like extracurriculars which are not difficult but do take time. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/6f1m76/how_many_hours_do_you_really_work_a_day/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/6f1m76/how_many_h... I know this is a biased sample.

by sjm 4y ago

ethbr0 4y ago

> Besides, why shouldn't teachers make six-figures? Exactly. Compared to what I do, educating 15-20 future citizens and adults seems on par. And to your broader point, indeed, the average US teacher at this point is 1/5 lesson planning, 3/5 instruction, 1/10 social worker, and 1/10 data entry/report filing.

option 4y ago

Teachers should make six figures, the best ones should make seven like couches do now. And it should be very easy to fire bad ones. Basically should be at will employment with school district.

ethbr0 4y ago
> at will employment with school district This is thorny, because it gets into the problems tenure was created to combat: school administration's goals aren't always student success. Especially now, they can be myopically assessment-focused or political. Subordinating teachers to the whim of administration wouldn't help this. Jury-of-their-peers is slightly better, but has its own issues.
- option 4y ago
  school boards are (and should be) elected positions. So theoretically they are accountable to parents.
  - ethbr0 4y ago
    Parents definitely shouldn't be the primary source of authority. If you want to know how badly otherwise seemingly mature adults can behave, come to a local school board meeting in Florida. "For the kids" + average parent = asshole with no holds barred

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

chongli 4y ago

Why are teachers treated like this in the US? The U.S. has a large contingent of free-market maximalists. These groups are opposed to public services like education and health care across the board. They are allied with right-wing religious groups who oppose public schools on religious grounds (they want a religious curriculum and that’s unconstitutional). Their tactic is called “starve the beast.” They believe that underfunding and neglect will drive the best teachers out of the public school system and into private schools. Their goal is to bring about the collapse of the public school system and then ultimately convince voters to abolish public schools altogether.

lukas099 4y ago

Here is a thread on r/Teachers where teachers discuss how many hours they work [1]. From a quick skimming it seems to vary with new teachers working really hard, older ones having pretty easy hours, and some teachers doing things like extracurriculars which are not difficult but do take time. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/6f1m76/how_many_hours_do_you_really_work_a_day/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/6f1m76/how_many_h... I know this is a biased sample.