I am frankly offended at your comments.
Some teachers are whiners, but to say the degree is easy is ridiculous.
Not at my school. I may not end up teaching; I am considering going into journalism instead, both low-paying professions.
But, the idea that teachers are raking in the dough is absolutely insane. They DO have good retirement since they are a state employee. But, good salary?
Maybe in New York, but not HERE. I would be lucky to start at 24,000 bucks and it would take 10 years to crack 40 grand. At that point, the most a teacher outside of the high cost of living areas could hope to make would be maybe 65 grand at retirement. And even that is stretching it frankly....I don't know anybody around here who makes that much or even close. Maybe 50 grand.
It isn't bad, certainly, at the upper levels. But, starting out, and even for most of the career, unless you marry a rich person, it is not going to be easy.
Plus, teachers put in long hours in the evenings planning and grading papers. Workers in other professions do have to do this often, such as book editors. But, they generally get better compensated for it than teachers do.
And, thank you very much, I got a real degree at my school. I will receive a BA in history, with a concentration in education. If I go on to get a master's, it will be in history, not in education. I personally would rather gouge my eyes out than go through more education courses. But, I probably will in order to stay certified. Teachers are required to continually get more education, and guess what...they do that in the summer probably when you say they are off scot-free. No, they aren't. Teachers have to plan for the next year and sometimes take second jobs to pay the bills. And, on top of that, due to government regulations, when they are in the classroom, it is not exactly easy to punish kids or kick them out if they don't want to be there. You have to get them to learn, even if they don't want to learn.
You have to go through an education program, and you can't do that in community college, contrary to your statements. You also must get a real degree in the subject you will teach in order to be highly qualified according to NCLB.
Teaching programs are not competitive? You had to have a high ACT score to get in at my school. I had no problem since I have a 3.9 GPA, but some simply can't make it. You also had to maintain a B-average in all education coursework and major coursework. Again, not difficult for me, but for some even fairly smart people, it can be if they are not good test-takers or have some sort of learning disability.
I am not saying teachers have it as bad as many teachers act. No, they don't. Despite having to often work in the summer or take more classes (which eats into the salary), teachers still do have more time off than people in other professions.
They get longer holidays etc. But, to say that teaching is easy, as you presume to do, is a punch in the mouth to hard-working teachers, including those on FR.
but mostly, they live charmed lives....don't get up as early as most people to go to work....have frequent breaks plus a nice lunch, get to finish work in 6 hrs...
they don't have to work any weekends...any holidays....and summers and spring break and all those lovely three and four day holiday weekends....let's not forget they also can take other Personal days just in case their time off which is extensive, is not enough....
remember also that they get these added "free" days designed specifically so they can work on all those tough issues like how to set up recess time with the kids or how to cram more stuff into even fewer days so they can go golfing or whatever they do....
education students have the easiest course load available..