Posted on 05/14/2014 6:47:00 AM PDT by blam
Public School Teacher To North Carolina Senate: 'I Am Embarrassed To Confess: I Am A Teacher'
Caroline Moss
“I am embarrassed to confess: I am a teacher.”
That was the subject line of an email Sarah Wiles, a science teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, sent to all 170 members of the North Carolina General Assembly last week.
Wiles talked about her concerns that teachers were not being paid enough. She says she personally has only seen a pay increase once in six years, even though she says she loves her students and has always gone above and beyond to do her job well.
"I am also sick and tired of politicians making my profession the center of attention and paying it lip-service by visiting a school, kneeling next to a child, shaking my hand and thanking me, telling the nightly news that I deserve a raise," she wrote.
In short, she feels like the state doesn't care about educators like herself, and is embarrassed for and by her politicians. (You can read her full email below.)
On Monday morning, North Carolina Sen. David Curtis (R) hit "reply all" and sent a message back.
The email basically says since she's so ashamed to be a teacher, she might as well get a new job.
In his email, he offers Wiles four suggestions for what she should tell her potential new private sector employer, including asking for eight weeks paid vacation per year because that's what taxpayers gave her. (He is misinformed, as teachers are not paid for the summer months when school is not in session, leaving many teachers working summer jobs to make ends meet.)
Though he does say at the end of his email that he supports pay raises for teachers, it was a pretty harsh reply.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Interesting comment.
They literally can’t relate to “normal people”; and their sense of entitlement would sicken any taxpayer.
Teachers don’t really work 9 months a year. That’s a bit misleading.
Think of it this way: they work about 180 DAYS a year.
With all the vacations and breaks throughout the school year, the typical teacher only works about 180 days, or 1/2 a year.
1/2 a year!
And they make $40K, $50K, and more. Some of them are even in the $70K range.
Teachers are the most overpaid, under worked people in our society (well, except for school administrators maybe).
And look at the results! The kids haven’t learned a thing in the past 20 years. Scores haven’t improved a wit. Unbelievable.
…and yet. so many unthinking taxpayers are all in on every single pay raise and this absurd out of date notion that teachers are underpaid…..it’s that ignorance that sickens me.
you are 100% right…..and yet, so many are convinced of the opposite.
When colleges are forced to provide remedial reading for high school graduates, when some high school graduates cannot read and/or cannot qualify for low-level jobs, and when intellectually advanced students remain unchallenged and/or bored in their classrooms, then the argument of teachers' unions and politicians on behalf of higher teacher pay are weakened.
A favorite quote from several years ago:
"Teaching and learning are so intertwined that it is almost impossible to separate the two. . . . I don't think teaching takes place until learning occurs. . . ." - Sy Fliegel, East Harlem High School
At another time, his words included the observation that, "teaching and learning are inextricably intertwined. . . ."
Wise man, that Sy Fliegel!
The vast majority of teachers I have met - I do not care if this offends teachers or those related to teachers - are about as dumb as a bunch of rocks. Also extremely bossy and overbearing. They talk to people as if everyone is a child. And get extremely frustrated and upset if people do not follow their instructions, as they are so use to children having to follow their every command.
Thomas Sowell has a great book - Inside American Education - that I am now reading. Copyrighted in 1993, it is very scathing in the chapters about teachers, educators, and those seeking an education degree.
The vast majority of teachers I have met - I do not care if this offends teachers or those related to teachers - are about as dumb as a bunch of rocks. Also extremely bossy and overbearing. They talk to people as if everyone is a child. And get extremely frustrated and upset if people do not follow their instructions, as they are so use to children having to follow their every command.
I thought that was so on the money it was worth re-posting!!
I was a schoolteacher in NC for five years, and they are among the lowest paid in the country (in the bottom five). I was allowed to be paid for ten months or for twelve months, and took the job because I divorced someone who lived in Europe and wanted to be at home with my young-ish children as much as I could. I never made over $30 K a year, (I haven’t taught for over five years, but it looks like I would now be making $33K in the school district I used to work). For the nightmare of dealing with a lot of troubled kids who we were not allowed to discipline, I decided the compensation wasn’t worth it.
Summers off were great, but I wanted to make money based on how hard I worked, and not just based on how long I worked. Haven’t regretted the decision for a minute.
IMO school should be year around, split into four 12 week quarters with a one week break between each quarter. Kids forget too much over the summer and much of the first weeks of school is spent on review of the previous year. If a holiday falls during a regular school quarter, just give that one day off.
It’s way past time we got serious about education. Glad I’m not in my 40’s and won’t be around to see the uneducated masses that will be attempting to run the country in another 20 years. It’s bad enough now.
I agree with you 100%—most of the teachers (and administrators!) I worked with were utter morons. I used a history degree to get a teaching certificate, and then only because it was a great job for a single mom, time at school versus at home with my own kids. But, it wasn’t a calling for me, and dealing with kids in gangs was not worth the money I got paid. Instead of whining, I left and got a new job.
See how easy that was?
>>They get three weeks off at Christmas and summers off. Pretty sweet deal.
I love it. I get to grow a garden over the summer and sleep in until whenever I want. I do, however, have to daily micromanage 3 classes of 25 teenagers that don’t want to be there.
School should start the first week of September and ends June 10. That is total of 283 days. Minus all weekends – 81 days – and we are down to 202 days.
Kids have these days off as holidays –
Labor Day – 1 day
Columbus Day – 1 day
Election day – 1 day (because schools are used as voting places)
Veterans Day – 1 day
Thanksgiving – 3 days (day before Thanksgiving off for travel)
Christmas/New Years – 8 days (start on 23 Dec and back on 2 Jan)
MLK Birthday – 1 Day
Lincolns Birthday – 1 Day
George Washington Birthday – 1 Day
Easter – 5 days (start on Monday before Easter and back on Monday after Easter)
Memorial Day – 1 Day
That is a minus of another 24 days and the school year would be approximately 178 weekdays. Begin first weekday in September and end June 10. For each grade level, the student must show a passing grade in each subject. Set standards, set a mission. Read at a first grade level – if that is ‘run, Dick, run’ than that is it. The teacher has 178 days to get the student to at that level. No makeup days due to anything. If the student misses school because of snow, so be it. The school does not make up that day but continues with the mission.
Each school district is given leeway to allow other days off as they see fit – teachers day, first day of hunting season, first day of the fair, whatever; but the days off do not take away from the mission.
Teaching and testing? Return to how it used to be. Comprehensive test every 6 weeks Return grading that passing is anything from 70 to 100 is passing. 69 and below is an F. Bring back reform schools for those who do not to be there or those who disruptive.
Grade the teachers. Performance is based on how many students pass. If a teacher has a combined 100 students during the day and 95 are able to pass that class, the teacher achieves a 95 percent rate of achievement. Sort of like certain questions we use to get in tests we took in our past. If 23 out of 25 students got a question wrong, the question is ef’d up. Every year, remove the lower 5 percent of teachers. Reward the good teachers. Teachers with A rating gets a 4 percent raise down to a 1 percent raise for those with a D rating. Set goals for the teachers.
This is a rough draft. We can bang out the details.
In short, she feels like the state doesn’t care about educators.
BS the education system is one of the biggest scams working the money pit always needs money and what do we get in return educated idiots.
Perhaps you might reread the thread. There was no defense there or one intended.
Not only are teachers in many states paid for the full year, Winter, Spring, and Fall breaks, but also their ~20 year retirement packages that amount to ~70% of their final year salary.
Yeah, teachers should be embarrassed.
“Move all schools to the private sector.”
That is harder to do than it is to say.
73% of all black children are born to families where there is no father living in the house.
How, exactly, are you going to find an insurance company which will protect you from the numerous lawsuits which will result from any school servicing this population?
No insurance, no indemnification of teachers. No indemnification, no teachers.
Charter schools work where ever they are tried. This is a solved problem, for the most part.
I remember when Newt Gingrich was excoriated for saying there was a place for orphanages in America. You know how many kids are shacking up with friends because they’ve been kicked out of their homes? These are honor students, mind you.
Kids don’t vote, and as such, we are bending them over and sodomizing them fiscally, culturally, morally, and politically every chance we get.
It does not begin with the leadership though….it begins with the silly notion that government should be in the education business.
There is no such thing as a good leader of a massive bureaucratic system, unless it’s a leader who is shutting it down.
You have made my point. It is the leadership that causes either success or failure. In this case, it is failure at all levels.
No, I disputed your point. You have not yet admitted that government control of schools is the main problem. Teachers as a protected class of government workers is the main problem. Monopoly of education is the main problem.
Has zip zero nada to do with who is “leading” this Titanic at the time….
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