Thank a teacher tomorrow. Or today. Really any time. We shouldn’t need a day or designated week to remind us of their importance.
I am passionate about education, teachers in particular. Most likely because I was one for 12 years. Technically, I still am one, just in transition, calculating my next steps. In my opinion (take it or leave it), teachers are criticized, judged, overlooked and persecuted in our society. This is one of the reasons why I left my job as a classroom teacher. In too many situations, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t.
I was very often put in a position of choosing spending time with my family, focusing on my mental and physical health or doing things for my job that I couldn’t get done during my work day. A work day might I add that included no ACTUAL breaks. Sure, there was lunch, but usually I spent my lunch with students or making copies or running around trying to do things I can’t do when I am in my classroom with students. Sure there is a “prep period” but that prep period would get taken up by a bathroom break, scheduled meetings with admin or parents or students needing help. In order to do some of these things, we have to walk in a hallway - there are students there. If something is happening or we are needed, we don’t just turn our heads and say “nope it is my break.” When you are eating your lunch in your room or the faculty room and a student knocks with an “emergency” we don’t just say - “nope, eating my lunch.” When the announcement is made that there is a “lock down” for security reasons, anyone on their prep period or lunch doesn’t just say “not my problem.” There is no time during the school day a teacher is actually 100% by themselves and “off.” Sure our day “began” at 7:30 and “ended” at 3, but did I ever get there at 7:30, or leave at 3? No. Impossible. Meetings before and after school, prepping materials, copies, troubleshooting tech issues, cleaning my room, catching up with coworkers in need, committees, coaching, tutoring, make up tests, club activities, frantically trying to get the grading done or, just being with students.
Yes, there are times students just need an adult to “be” with them. Teachers don’t just teach. They listen, they watch, they see things that many others don’t. They know when their students are hungry, tired, emotionally drained, encountering bullying, dealing with family issues, and so much more than you would ever imagine. Teachers sadly must pick and choose their battles. Often they know when major things are deterring a student from focusing on their education (they may not know exactly WHAT, but they definitely know when something is off) and they must decide which fire, or rather, whose fire to prioritize. Their own? Their family’s? Johnny’s? Susie’s? Their co-worker’s?
This is an inconceivable choice teachers make no less than 10 times a day; harshly judged if they choose the wrong fire to extinguish first. Tied to mandates and confidentiality codes so that when they encounter an angry parent about why their child’s paper isn’t graded or why they didn’t give so and so a detention for swearing in class- they cannot explain the circumstances. “I am sorry Mrs. Smith, I have not updated grades because I was here until 5pm last night with a student whose parent was taken to an addiction facility, and then I wanted to spend a few hours with my son before he had to go to bed. I will get to it tomorrow hopefully, but probably not because I have a meeting before school and after school.” “I am sorry Mr. Doe, I did not give Landon a detention because he actually suffers from a processing disorder and struggles in certain situations. He has an IEP that is legally binding and I have to utilize certain coping techniques with him. Furthermore, I don’t penalize students in front of one another and want to bring no more attention to Landon’s disability by ostracizing him. I assure you he was reprimanded privately and we are working hard to manage the stressors he encounters, including your child while also learning materials, meeting state standards and fostering human relationships.”
The above are rated PG. I can tell you from experience, cases like those are the easiest to manage. They barely scrape the surface of an enormous iceberg in a sea of drowning teachers. Teachers that are salaried, not hourly, but gosh, they get summer vacation! How lucky. Teachers who must use their vacation working another job, or taking classes they are mandated to take to keep their license or in order to get one step up on the pay grade. Classes they pay for out of pocket- in some cases they may get PARTIAL reimbursement... Yay. Teachers who, if you did the math, get paid less than a workable hourly wage.
Just food for thought:
The average school year is 180 days. That is 1,440 hours (no out of school work is counted in that… just an 8 hour day). Many people would say, dang that is all they work? Think just for a second of all they must do in those hours?! How do you pay a babysitter? How do you pay a tutor? How do you pay for sports leagues or club activities for your child to attend? What type of price for not just the safety of your child, but their education, their mental health, so much more is feasible for you??!!! If teachers were paid just $10 an hour they would make $14,000 (and in some states this is not far off from a teacher’s starting salary).
Now look at it this way- let’s say a teacher should be paid $10 an hour for each student in their class. My average class was 25 students.
25 students x 8 hours = 200
200 x $10 per hour = $2,000 per day
180 days x $2,000 = $360,000
The above is an example of if I only had 25 students. But I had about 80 students per semester and even if I was not with 80 students for all 8 hours of the day, I surely was charged with being responsible for the students at all times of the day. In fact, each teacher is LEGALLY responsible for any student in that school at any time in the day. This does not count being charged with educating them, just for making sure they are “safe.”
When I calculated what my hourly wage would have been (assuming I only worked 1440 hours in a year) it was $34.72 About $35 an hour to not only educate my students every day, but keep them safe, grade all of their work, prepare new and engaging materials, buy materials, attend meetings to ensure their safety etc... and communicate with families, coworkers, and administration. Now just for fun, I divided $34.72 by 25 to see what each child in that class was worth. $1.38. If I divided it by 80 which is usually how many students I had each day it came out to a whopping $0.43.
I thought this to be an interesting, fact based way to look at it, especially for people in other professions.
I am not even going to touch upon the “bad” teachers here- because trust me, a particular “bad” teacher that I encountered in my career has soured my entire view of the system. It is easy to just look at those bad ones. It is easy to say, some don’t deserve what they get paid. I get it. Believe me, I do.
But this post is for the teachers who give a shit. The majority. This is for my friends that work their asses off. The ones who give every ounce of themselves and more, even when they think they can’t. This is for those who make their classroom’s welcoming physically by buying their own decor and supplies (do you really think the decor and bright colors and cool things are in the school’s budget?! HA!) This is for those who make their classrooms inviting figuratively by smiling through the tears, pretending as if they are not dealing with their own life’s struggles, pretending as if their heart doesn’t break when student’s encounter difficulties in school or at home, or offering advice, support, encouragement and love even when they feel as though there is nothing left to give. This is for the teachers who have sat in meetings, in person or virtually, where parents dictate to them how to do their job and belittle them for doing that very job. This is for the teachers that still try their hardest for that parent’s child. Everyone has gone to school of some sort, and everyone's an expert after all. How hard could it be? This is for the teacher who buys food and brings it in to their students they know are hungry. For the teacher that quietly supplies a student struggling economically with school supplies they just “happen to have extra of” or the teacher who anonymously buys a gift card for groceries for the family. This is also for the teacher that CAN’T do that, and is heartbroken over it. This is for the teacher that pushes their students, expects big things, setting them up for self confidence and the courage to step out of their comfort zone to dream big. For the teacher who lets their students fail gracefully and try again. This is for the teacher who attends funerals of a student’s loved one, or for a student themselves, for the teacher who grieves alongside families and students- who is there in the background holding hands and holding it together.
This post didn’t have a whole lot to do with “education” did it? Papers, presentations, projects, reading, writing, arithmetic, science experiments, field trips, health class, art class, music, gym… no. This was about humanity. So when you think of your school experience, what do you remember the most? Do you remember the book reports, the papers, the math tests specifically? Maybe. But do you remember how Mrs. Ruth treated you? Do you remember how you felt when you did something extraordinary for the first time, or when you failed miserably and were embarrassed? Who was there to help, give you feedback, support you? Perhaps a teacher isn’t present in your memory, but I guarantee you, they were there, in the background, clearing a path you may never even know they did.
That is my Monday Perspective. Happy Teacher Appreciation week to my teacher loves. You are strong and I love you.
Justin’s choice of song for today’s perspective is “Hold Me” by the Teskey Brothers.
https://youtu.be/86DAAATkTUA (Live version)
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