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And you are at the mercy of what people are willing to pay for your service.
My point is that both analogies are poor. It's so easy to point at one thing and say 'This is similar, why aren't they paid the same' without taking in to account all the differences. There is no overhead (also known as administrative) costs, babysitting is contract work with no benefits, etc. Most importantly, there are economies of scale. Why is it a private tutor makes whatever it is that a private tutor makes? Why not use that number to make some absurd claim about how much teachers should be making? Let's see, a tutor at $50/hour/student with 30 students: teachers should be making $2,000,000/year!
My contention is not that teachers make too much/not enough, it is that pointless analogies do not form a cohesive argument.
True but, what is being pointed out, is that people pay more for comparable services. When we call it baby sitting, it's worth $2.50-$5.00/hr/child but when we call it teaching, we complain about less than $2.50/hour/student. It's an interesting perspective. Why are we willing to pay day care providers, on a per child basis, but not teachers and if we do, what should that pay be?
I think breaking a teacher's pay down to an hourly per child rate makes a lot of sense. What is educating a child worth per hour if simply baby sitting is worth $2.50/hour/child?
The internet is not worth $7/hour to me. If you tried to charge that, the internet wouldn't get used much. I have too many cheaper options for what I do on the internet. I don't need to email, I can call. I can mail my bills. I can go the the library. $7 hr adds up too fast for something I don't NEED to even entertain paying it. Teaching my child is worth more than that to me. I pay dd's piano teacher $45/hour and she's giving us a discount. Also, if I were paying a per hour rate, what would I demand of the teacher? In dd's piano class, we pay about $15/hour but there are 8 kids in the class so dd doesn't get her teacher's undivided attention but the teacher makes more per hour because she teaches more students. There are efficiencies in teaching a group when you are teaching them all the same thing. The class and private lessons serve different purposes. The class works on the same material and in individual lessons, dd works on her own issues and her own level material.
So, here's the question. How much would you pay per hour for invidual teaching? For class sizes of 6, 10, 15 or 30? Obviously, the smaller the class, the more you'd be willing to pay and there would come a point when you'd be unwilling to buy the service because the teacher's time is stretched so thin.
As to your software, I'd suggest you do what my husband did and get royalty rights. While the software my husband writes is still only being used by the company (50 user system), if they ever sold it to 8000 users, we'd be rich. Let's hope he finds himself in your position sometime soon. Then I can hire a house keeper, a cook and a yard service and not have to worry about how many hours I work at school.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 07-26-2010 at 05:47 PM..
"Wow," is all I can say. I have 2 BAs, a Masters, and a doctorate and make 42 K teaching, uh, I mean, babysitting.
You're right; all I can provide those 30 HS teenaged kids is monitoring- No educational value, whatsoever. We all know how easy it is to make 30 teenagers listen and do whatever they are told to do and just sit by and watch it all happen. No extra effort at all. And like all good babysitters, I do lesson plans and grading and IEP writing on my own time. I would be remiss to mention that like with babysitters, parents are so active in their children's time with me thus helping that babysitting process be even more rewarding for me. When teachers say they feel like a babysitter, I think they mean that in addition to everything else.
But, as wise people have written before me, if you have never been a GOOD teacher, you cannot even begin to talk on the subject and will likely never understand.
Why do teachers always assume that getting lots of degrees will automatically earn them more money?
ALL Professions want to hire the person with the least qualifications in order to pay them the least amount to get the job done. For a teacher-- that's a bachelors degree. Why get anything more (unless you are getting it for your own enlightenment)?
For example, I'm an engineer. I only need one degree-- a bachelors. Going out and getting more degrees will not earn me more money in my profession (i.e. masters or phd)
The answer is that in most states teachers must receive a Master's at some point after hiring. If you don't you're fired.
Some states like PA require it to be done fairly quickly after intial hiring (it used to be 3 years) some allow a slower pace.
In addition, if one wants to move out of the classroom into, say, Instructional Specialist it doesn't matter how many years you have in the classroom. If you don't have that MA/MS/EdD after your name you're not qualified for the job. To be an Administrator or Counselor is a Master's requirement.
Why do teachers always assume that getting lots of degrees will automatically earn them more money?
ALL Professions want to hire the person with the least qualifications in order to pay them the least amount to get the job done. For a teacher-- that's a bachelors degree. Why get anything more (unless you are getting it for your own enlightenment)?
For example, I'm an engineer. I only need one degree-- a bachelors. Going out and getting more degrees will not earn me more money in my profession (i.e. masters or phd)
Teachers get a lot of degrees because that is the only way they get a pay raise and even then, after they have paid for their masters degree out of their own pocket, the raise isn't much.
Teachers get a lot of degrees because that is the only way they get a pay raise and even then, after they have paid for their masters degree out of their own pocket, the raise isn't much.
Then why get them?!?! It just doesn't make financial sense!
The answer is that in most states teachers must receive a Master's at some point after hiring. If you don't you're fired.
Some states like PA require it to be done fairly quickly after intial hiring (it used to be 3 years) some allow a slower pace.
In addition, if one wants to move out of the classroom into, say, Instructional Specialist it doesn't matter how many years you have in the classroom. If you don't have that MA/MS/EdD after your name you're not qualified for the job. To be an Administrator or Counselor is a Master's requirement.
I see the point if you want to move into administration or counseling... But if you want be a teacher-- then why?
I don't know how many states require teachers to have MA degrees, just speaking for Texas, they don't.
The problem with teacher salaries is that we are showing how much we value the people that spend the most time with our children. Teachers are the people that can determine what profession your child chooses and what kind of person they become. A good teacher is invaluable, yet we don't pay them a salary that enables them to make a decent living. Teachers in my state and district start out at under 4k a year. If we paid better, we could attract better teachers, and that would make our schools better.
Why do teachers always assume that getting lots of degrees will automatically earn them more money?
ALL Professions want to hire the person with the least qualifications in order to pay them the least amount to get the job done. For a teacher-- that's a bachelors degree. Why get anything more (unless you are getting it for your own enlightenment)?
For example, I'm an engineer. I only need one degree-- a bachelors. Going out and getting more degrees will not earn me more money in my profession (i.e. masters or phd)
Seriously? My masters in engineering came with about a 20% raise. As a teacher, it makes about $3K difference per year. Not enough to make a real difference but enough that employers prefer people with bachelors degrees so they can pay them less until they get their masters. In engineering the PhD is the preferred degree. Sometimes a masters will do. A bacehlors is an entry level degree. Here, you're expected to get, at least, a masters and they prefer a PhD.
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