Why is teaching a profession SO often looked down upon? (background, demand)

[undertheironsea]

Yeah, it's all those evil teachers that are making the education system crap.

It's not the government screwing them over with ridiculous programs. It's not the fact that some kids are so bad they make it hard to teach even 5 minutes of a lesson.

It's all the fault of the teachers. Those unkind, mean-spirited folk, what with their 30,000 dollar paychecks and such! They're out vacationing in Jamaica every summer while us working folk have to make it one week at a time!

For shame!

[InformedConsent]

Originally Posted by undertheironsea

It's all the fault of the teachers. Those unkind, mean-spirited folk, what with their 30,000 dollar paychecks and such! ...For shame!

Please don't generalize about teacher salaries. Teachers are paid very well in our area (Chicago suburbs) - plus they get multi-million dollar pensions.

"Suffice it to say that there are no teachers in the six-county metro area retiring at age 55 after 34 years that are retiring on pensions less than $1.25 million. Most of them are close to the $2 million mark."
Family Taxpayers Foundation - School Reform (http://www.thechampion.org/article.asp?id=2053 - broken link)

[One Thousand]

I look down on teachers and the profession because they're unionized. A group that is unionized has a sense of entitlement and is willing to use force (not necessarily physical) to extract from another a cost that is not paid of free will, but paid partially due to coercion.

Why in God's name would I have an iota of respect for an individual or group who is forcing money from my pocket rather than allowing mutual free-will to dictate the terms of a transaction?


I have no respect for teachers because they take an undue credit in the claim "we're molding young minds." A teacher is giving information and packaging it for consumption. A teacher molds a mind no more than Kraft cheese producers mold my stomach.

I have no respect for teachers because they don't understand their position in the world. They are babysitters who offer knowledge while they babysit. Their grand claims of what they are has lead to a universal dependance on them by our nation's fools and that has lead to the failure of America.

I have no respect for them because they're a significant party to the destruction of America in the 21st century.

Had there been no unionization, I could not make these claims. Hopefully, as deunionization happens, the "education bubble" will burst and people will recognize the true role of paid educators in our society.

[Beretta]

I've had to clean this thread up a bit. Please remember to debate the topic but not make personal attacks nor should you take what is written personally. Everyone's opinion is welcome here.

[missannie]

I have great respect for teachers. I think it should be one of the highest paying jobs.
Teachers in Minnesota get paid well.
I have only met 2 teachers so far that seemed like they hated their jobs...both in the middle school my kids attended.

[accept-logic]

As far as respect for teachers is concerned, it's been my experience that if someone deserves respect, they usually get it. In my eyes, teachers should be humble beings who feel as though they can learn just as much from their diverse clientel as their clientel can learn from them. They should have the ability to admit when they are wrong and to model good character in and out of the classroom. A teacher should be patient by nature and have good diplomacy skills. They should have the ability to empower kids and encourage them to be independent thinkers. They should be able to accept every kid that walks into the classroom for who they are and not have the desire to change them. They should recognize the value of having every child that walks through the door know they are welcome there no matter what. And, a teacher needs to recognize their class is one part of their student's journey and to not have it be the litmus test of how that child will turn out ten years from now.

There are good teachers who get bad raps because of those who should not be in the profession, but in my decade of teaching at the middle school level, if respect is deserved, it is usually given. I am not out to change education, but to do the best I can in my classroom and to hopefully have my students see value in their experience while there and when they look back in retrospect.

[TeaJay]

I think there are a lot of reasons. I have met more than one person who thinks that teaching is easy. To that I say, yes, it is easy if you don't care about doing a good job and don't care how your students react to the bad job you're doing.

It is hard when you work hard to plan interesting lessons, which is obviously important educationally, but also crucial from a behavior management standpoint. Kids who are genuinely intersted in a topic won't cause distractions with the exception of those one or two hard-core kids whose goal it is to get as much negative attention as possible and ruin things for the other kids.

It's hard when you have things expected of you that go beyond your basic duties. Time management is cake on paper- I'll grade during this prep, plan during this one. However, glitches are common- a parent shows up without an appointment, a kid's upset and wants to talk, the copier breaks, an administrator needs something from you right away.

Teachers are well paid in NYC, where I teach, as they are in other urban areas, at least on paper. However, most of us would be priced out of this area if we didn't make what we make.

But what do I know, I am just a babysitter with two master's degrees and $20k in student loan debt.

[Huckleberry3911948]

a fundamental hatred of authority figures.

[accept-logic]

Proving the perception wrong is one way to change the perception.

[One Thousand]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

a fundamental hatred of authority figures.

LOL. I was raised being told that was "American independance."