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considering the treatment of teachers 2 weeks notice is all they are owed.
there is a reason the welfare department has so many employees with teaching credentials.
I consider it unethical for a teacher to leave in the middle of the year just to take a different, higher paying position.
I think it tells the students that money is more important than they are in the eyes of the quitting teacher. That may be true, but it sure isn't a message I would want to be giving the kids.
I wouldn't do it as a teacher. I wouldn't want it done to me, as a student.
I would feel incredibly guilty leaving mid-year and wouldn't do it (except of course for emergency situations). Actually, I freak out when I have to have a sub for even a day. I used to work with attachment disordered preschoolers, so am probably overzealous about the issue. But I figure that even in a mainstream kinder classroom, I'll have kids with histories and possible attachment issues.
But it happens the other way too - I also felt terrible for the kids when our enrollment grew so high that they pulled out 10 of my students and placed them with another teacher in November last year, with a day's notice. The kids did ok though.
Anyway... I guess I'd say it's within a teacher's rights to do what is best for themselves, as a person would in any career... but I'd also hope that a teacher would consider the effect a disruption like that would cause for the kids too, effects that are more than the inconvienences and practicality problems in other fields. That's my non-answer
Oh, but as for the OP, I would guess that most September hires, especially in these times, are teachers who didn't already have a position. And I've never worked in a school where a teacher left midyear for anything other than pregnancy or medical issues.
We lost four teachers after the year started last year. When you're scraping the bottom of the wage barrel, it happens.
I'm bummed. I just found out a district that I knew was going to have an opening interviewed today. I checked their website daily to find out when they'd be accepting applications (everything is on line now and most districts tell you not to contact them). It never posted. If it weren't for the fact the school is looking for a principal too, I would have sent a resume to the principal.
I'm teaching 11th and 12th graders BTW. I'd have more of an issue if I had younger kids but what's right for my family trumps anyone elses kids. My first obligation is to my kids and they've giving up too much because I made this job change. It wasn't supposed to be this way but it is.
Maybe this career choice wasn't meant to be. I'm, certainly, valued more by society as an engineer and I can provide a better lifestyle for my family.
I consider it unethical for a teacher to leave in the middle of the year just to take a different, higher paying position.
I think it tells the students that money is more important than they are in the eyes of the quitting teacher. That may be true, but it sure isn't a message I would want to be giving the kids.
I wouldn't do it as a teacher. I wouldn't want it done to me, as a student.
Are you kidding? Why are teachers assigned this martyr-like mantle that they work for a higher purpose? Teaching is a career, a job. No one looks out for a teacher's family's well being. If a teacher gets a better offer, I say take it. Do pediatricians have the same constraints? No. I don't think it's unethical in any way. Of course money is more important to a teacher and a teacher's family that the students- or a re the sutdents and their families going to make up the difference?
I see that your particular issue has resolved, but to throw my two cents in, I think it's unethical.
I'm working in an independent school where all employees are on annual contracts signed in March for the following school year. If you have signed a contract with an area independent school, no other independent school is supposed to hire you. A friend of mine interviewed for a job that was a sure bet, but didn't get hired because she refused to terminate her present contract unless she knew she had a firm offer from a new employer.
If you were being mistreated, and the administration didn't respond to your concerns or you had a personal emergency that your job prevented you from dealing with, then I would say that your needs trump your school's. But school hiring is unlike other areas of the private sector. Like you said, it goes in two cycles. Leave in the middle of the year, and you really shortchange your school and your students.
Originally Posted by jps-teacher I consider it unethical for a teacher to leave in the middle of the year just to take a different, higher paying position.
I think it tells the students that money is more important than they are in the eyes of the quitting teacher. That may be true, but it sure isn't a message I would want to be giving the kids.
I wouldn't do it as a teacher. I wouldn't want it done to me, as a student.
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Originally Posted by mimimomx3
Are you kidding? Why are teachers assigned this martyr-like mantle that they work for a higher purpose? Teaching is a career, a job. No one looks out for a teacher's family's well being. If a teacher gets a better offer, I say take it. Do pediatricians have the same constraints? No. I don't think it's unethical in any way. Of course money is more important to a teacher and a teacher's family that the students- or a re the sutdents and their families going to make up the difference?
When I was teaching in the public schools, the families in my classes invited me to dinner, to join them on vacations, etc. They knew what I was making and what I could have been making.
But, you seem to be missing the point.
I chose to teach. I embraced the responsibility of teaching children; it wasn't forced on me.
Teaching can be just a job, just a career - and if you feel that way, it's your right, though you should pardon me that I pray you don't go into teaching.
A pediatrician is not quite in the same position, because it is not an everyday interaction with the children, the way it is with a teacher.\
And before you start on "but it's just a job like any other job," I would remind you that there are clear differences in the eyes of the law.
There are behaviors that a teacher cannot engage in appropriately that any other field can and does. We were always cautioned not to go to bars in our own school neighborhoods, for examples.
Teachers have a disproportionate impact on students and are held up as role models, quite understandably.
If you aren't prepared to shoulder that load, then you should not be a teacher - in my opinion.
Are you kidding? Why are teachers assigned this martyr-like mantle that they work for a higher purpose? Teaching is a career, a job. No one looks out for a teacher's family's well being. If a teacher gets a better offer, I say take it. Do pediatricians have the same constraints? No. I don't think it's unethical in any way. Of course money is more important to a teacher and a teacher's family that the students- or a re the sutdents and their families going to make up the difference?
I so agree with this. None of the people who will tell me it's wrong to quit once the school year starts are putting up penny one to make up the difference. Unfortuntely, opportunties come when they come and if you don't answer the door when opportunity knocks, you may end up left out in the cold.
I don't like the idea of leaving mid year but jobs don't wait until next summer and my family deserves better than this. It would be one thing if my wages and benefits were reasonable but they're not. I would not leave one district for another because while some do pay better, every district I know if pays a decent wage (they're union so they do) but we're talking about going from red ink to black ink here. From an unreasonably low offer to a reasonable one not from one reasonable offer to a better reasonable offer.
The day they want to make up the pay difference is the day someone else has the right to tell me I have to stay in a low paying position. What's hard is you have to take what you can get until something better comes along. We just don't control when it comes along.
I see that your particular issue has resolved, but to throw my two cents in, I think it's unethical.
I'm working in an independent school where all employees are on annual contracts signed in March for the following school year. If you have signed a contract with an area independent school, no other independent school is supposed to hire you. A friend of mine interviewed for a job that was a sure bet, but didn't get hired because she refused to terminate her present contract unless she knew she had a firm offer from a new employer.
If you were being mistreated, and the administration didn't respond to your concerns or you had a personal emergency that your job prevented you from dealing with, then I would say that your needs trump your school's. But school hiring is unlike other areas of the private sector. Like you said, it goes in two cycles. Leave in the middle of the year, and you really shortchange your school and your students.
Which obligation is greater. My obligation to provide a decent life for my fmaily or my obligation to a school that offers wages that scrape the bottom of the barrel? I have to disagree with you. The school could stop teachers from leaving by simply paying them a decent wage. They choose not to. They count on attitudes like yours to make teachers feel trapped once they sign that contract.
If the school cared, they'd fix the problem that is causing teachers to leave. In our school that's pay and benefits. Both are lousy.
I consider it unethical for a teacher to leave in the middle of the year just to take a different, higher paying position.
I think it tells the students that money is more important than they are in the eyes of the quitting teacher. That may be true, but it sure isn't a message I would want to be giving the kids.
I wouldn't do it as a teacher. I wouldn't want it done to me, as a student.
Yes, it says money is more important to the school. It says the school won't pay teachers enough to stay. Why do some schools pay enough to retain teachers and others do not? It's not the teacher's views on money that are off here. We all expect a fair wage for what we do and feel moral indignation when we are denied that but who causes that indignation and, ultimately, employees to leave?
I wouldn't want it done to me as a student but I would not expect a teacher not to take a better position because that's the only way they ever will get ahead and if they're a good teacher, they deserve that just like any good employee.
Yes, it says money is more important to the school. It says the school won't pay teachers enough to stay. Why do some schools pay enough to retain teachers and others do not? It's not the teacher's views on money that are off here. We all expect a fair wage for what we do and feel moral indignation when we are denied that but who causes that indignation and, ultimately, employees to leave?
I wouldn't want it done to me as a student but I would not expect a teacher not to take a better position because that's the only way they ever will get ahead and if they're a good teacher, they deserve that just like any good employee.
Why bother asking your question if you already knew your answer?
I agree that the schools are behaving inappropriately.
"It's not the teacher's views on money that are off here.
It's not ONLY the teacher's views on money that are off here. Two wrongs do not make a right. I would not compound the school's error with my own.
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You students are suffering because your school is unethical. Well, so am I, and I can get out of here! Buh-bye!
I was pleasantly surprised when I saw you had asked the question. I should not have been.
You and I already know we have different perspectives on this. I live by mine. You are free to live by yours.
I have been labeled a sucker for many years by people for my approach to my work - but I am the person I have to answer to when I wake up in the morning.
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