One of the consequences of the obsession over standardized tests is that it has completely robbed teachers of any classroom autonomy. Teachers are told what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it. And every year more "programs" get added by the district that teachers are expected to implement, which is basically a way of getting teachers to do more work but for the same pay. And each year it gets worse & worse. You can only squeeze so much blood from a stone. At some point something's gotta give.
@Lydia Green they have added a new program for us to use that the kids have to do a series amount of minutes per week called edmentum...it has mini lessons, practice, and all sorts of other things geared toward the level of each individual student. Sound great to y'all? Not me. I just graduated and I think with all this AI and technology it will be withing ten years before we are obsolete. Probably wont even get my damn student loans paid off
Absolutely! All my interventions I had to do with my students centered around what area the scored low in. Forget that some of my kids never master some skills to answer.
Personally, I don't want teachers to have autonomy around curriculum. I went to a private elementary school where as you described it, "Teachers are told what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it." When I arrived at public school in 5th grade, I was two grade levels ahead. Consistency in curriculum is SUPER helpful for students. However in my opinion as a former teacher, all the PROGRAMS you mentioned are what kills the profession. Administrative work is an absolute scourge.
No, they don’t “all” make six figures or more, I don’t know any who make that much. Many administers are just as overworked as teachers. It is a top down issue though, starting with politicians.
Tricia Roy So true... Even here in rural Texas where the cost of living and inflation is not as high as other states- There’s no real justification for the 6 figure salaries that the higher ups make all while budgets have never been tighter... It’s a shame-
I’ve been teaching for a long time. I teach at a university now. Admin pay is often twice as much as teacher pay or more. Go look it up. It’s all public record.
Teachers are trained, certified professionals just like accountants and engineers. They hold college degrees plus teaching credentials and many have advanced degrees. Most have completed extensive coursework in learning theory and educational practice and are required to continue their education throughout their careers. They deserve to be fairly compensated and treated as the professionals they are.
Karen Feldman so true that teachers are highly educated however the teacher’s union is the biggest obstacle they have, it causes teachers to act like and be viewed as blue collar workers. With advanced degrees and being intelligent people, teachers have more opportunities than most people in the country, to have their own business, etc.
Judi Mcmahon Well, I am a teacher and everything Karen Feldman said is true. It’s time to wake up. I’ve been a teacher for 20 years. Working on the dissertation now. That will be three degrees in addition to all the licensing rigamorole and professional development. Every year we are told that we won’t have a pay increase that meets inflation because of some reason. Meanwhile, the administrators live quite well. There is graft, but it is not in the classroom.
Tricia Roy omg you noticed this too! I’m a student and our principal makes well over 6 figures with a raise and bonuses every year while some of the best teachers make less than $40,000
I went to a elementary outdoor school function in an upper middle class neighborhood very few parents volunteered most were seen on the golf course or tennis courts. im a grandparent my wife and I volunteered sad to see what has happened to our community , our cities and our country . More attention is paid to gay causes, illegal causes, and criminal causes than our children . My sisters were teachers one loved it the other was scared of her students and quit .
I have no idea how teachers do it. Almost every teacher I talk to says they love teaching but the paperwork and discipline issues are getting to be too much. Let these highly trained, well educated people do what they are trained & educated to do! Administrators and politicians need to get out of the way.
Aimee- Excessive educational requirements and overbearing administrators have ruined public education. Let teachers teach. Thanks Democrats. They destroy everything they put their money grubbing paws on.
I read this and out loud I said “ugh the paperwork.” Lol You have to do paperwork for EVERYTHING. I do it and that’s why my class is “fun” but I get to the school an hour early and on MWF, I don’t leave till 6pm- that’s a 12 hour day right there, so that my class can be “fun.” I don’t blame other teachers for not doing that. The things they expect us to get done during the school day while also not being able to sit down because we need to be active teachers is astounding.
Like many things in capitalism, this is about money. Pay teachers what a masters degree is worth, period. Unfortunately, money equals respect in a capitalist system, so consistently low wages for teachers are a huge part of the disrespectful messaging of our society. Then we wonder why there is disrespectful behavior coming from students and parents. If excessive paperwork is a problem (and it is) hire administrative assistants and more teacher's aides. Would any high powered tech company ask their executives to work without an administrative assistant? If discipline is the problem, hire more deans. Not necessarily school resource officers; those are cops. People with an understanding of child psychology and cognitive psychology are needed as part of the classroom team to say, "Mary, come with me because you are not letting your teacher teach right now. Let's talk, you fix your behavior, and then you can come back to your class." When this happens smoothly without interrupting the lesson, the change in tone is huge. For too long, certain states have been starving their public schools. Enough is enough.
The biggest issue I have as a teacher is that we are constantly being told how to do our job by non- professionals. Every day we have people that know nothing about education making decisions for us and our profession just like the senator in this story (who probably hasn't stepped inside a classroom in over 30 years.) What's worse is that the public knows we're being treated and paid unfairly yet does NOTHING to change it simply because it's not happening to them. No one would ever tell a doctor how to do their job but EVERYONE is quick to tell an teacher that they're not doing their job correctly.
Jaclyn B - My sister and best friend said the same thing. They had to follow the State Forced Syllabus to the very minute everyday. They were music teachers and extremely talented, but without any ability to use those talents they both quit within 2 years. My sister is a Professor at a Community College now, so the public school obviously lost an extremely talented teacher, All because of people outside the classroom
Absolutely. Would I like to be paid more? Of course. But mostly, I'd like to be treated like a trained and experienced (20 years in education) professional who is capable of doing my job without administrators and politicians who are not in my classroom and don't know my students dictating my every move.
Common sense would say; "Why would anyone in their right mind want to work as a teacher in a public school? Forget the pay...think of it as a job that is now considered dangerous.
@@KristyShey You are so right! We had a cabinet behind our desk that contained a safe that stayed locked...( except during an "emergency")! It contained equipment used for first aid (tourniquet material etc) and a type of spray. The spray was used to deter a shooter, but NOT pepper spray. It held blue dye inside to mark shooter or intruder. We had to have lock down drills twice every six weeks. It stressed the kids out...not to mention the faculty.
It’s so hard to explain, but like the woman in the clip, if we can make it work, we stay because we LOVE teaching and we LOVE the students. It’s like staying in an abusive relationship. Dumb I know, but teaching fills my emotional bucket and kids are so fun to be around. They make me a better person.
That "average' teacher salary is grossly exaggerated. Someone is fudging the numbers in order to dupe more people into going into the teaching profession. I started in teaching in California in 2006 at 40,000. I stayed in the system ten years and had worked up to $60,000 but only by moving to the Silicon Valley area, where rents were out of control. By living in that area I was far above average. I then moved to another state, because California is corrupt, and no, I do not vote for those same policies in my new home. But in my new state, I was offered three teaching jobs at 26,000 per year, 28,000 and 33,000. I taught for two more years until I could transition out. I was willing to try to work at the 33,000 per year job. But I easily found a job earning 10,000 per year more and now I literally work from 9-5 instead of 7:30-4:30 or 5:00 like I did as a teacher. And I am not asked to chaperone dances or sporting events because no parents are willing to do it. And I get a full hour lunch break, and two 15 minute breaks each day. I had a number of students tell me I was the best math teacher they ever had, but after serving 4 years in the military and 12+ years in education, I have done my part. I wish I could have stayed on and retired as a teacher but its not even just the low pay, its the corruption in the system. I took a lot of flak from administrators trying to pressure me to lower my standards and pass a failing student. I don't want to be in that place anymore when its clear most parents don't care. Young people should stay out of teaching; the system is not going to improve until it gets bad enough to grab the public's attention.
Your experience is the same as mine. Teacher pay in Oregon is awful, and I agree with your assessment tgatvsomeone is lying about pay to get new teacher's. An MS Education ran upwards of $30,000, TEN years ago. Thankfully, I had an MS Physics, which I didn't have to pay for, and they took that. But, I had to leave. Pay was stupid, demands ridiculous, and the only real teaching I did was when I had tutoring sessions for my students after school and weekends...
BLS data: the median elementary teacher salary is $57.9k and median high school/secondary teacher salary is $60.3k. the median household income is $59k
Thank you!! I am a first year teacher and I am at school from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and come home and work another four. It's a thankless job, except for the kids... you know they love you and you want the best for them so you survive on three hours a night of sleep EVERY night
There was a charter school another news story covered that pay their teachers high wages. The problem was the teacher would quit halfway through the school because of the amount of worked required.
Certainly not in Namibia,Africa. Have the same problems over here. High expectations, increase of work load, understaffed and a lack of respect in general. My 'normal' class size is 34 to 36 learners.....
In Thailand teaching is "respected", not prestigious. The pay is abysmal. Work environment is Hellish (38 celsius classroom temps + an average of 44 students per class). Admin types who have never taught telling you how to do your job or forcing you to do mindless paperwork all for the sake of someone at the top of the pyramid to look good and get promoted. Lastly...You have No voice; your ideas, input, and greivances are unwanted and looked down upon with extreme disdain.
I quit after 10 years and homeschool my kids. I enjoyed teaching, but I wanted my children to be educated and not schooled in an institution. The testing was my biggest complaint.
Here's another issue with all this- and all due respect to these wonderful people who really mean well and genuinely care about their students- However, for many, self education is there for the taking with the internet- in our county, specifically, our taxes are so high, I believe it's @ $19,000 per student per year that we pay here and then what do we get? Indoctrinated kids who may have had high test scores and a great transcript but in the real world can't hold a conversation or think their way out of a paper bag. I'm sorry, for those who really can't be homeschooled then there should be resources where they can learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. But many families can facilitate this- and we wouldn't have to pay these enormous amounts of tax dollars for something we could do better ourselves. Minus all the pointless bells and whistles and immorality as a bonus.
At the very least, public school teachers should have their student loans forgiven after 5 years. People say, "Thank you for your service" to the US military. They need to be saying that to public school teachers for sure!!!
why 5 years? does this apply equally to all teachers? if teacher x attends a private or out of state school and pays 5x the tuition and living costs as teacher z who stayed in state, why should the taxpayers be expected to forgive them both when they got basically the same skills and degree? what about students who use their loans to pay for spring break or weed, should they be forgiven too?
99% of loan forgiveness applicants are denied, and that's after 10 years. The tricks and traps set up are evil and wrong. And as far as picking apart what taxpayers should and should not pay back to teachers loans... that is the same attitude that has stripped teachers of their dignity and respect! Disgusting. Debt is debt and 10 years of service as a teacher erases anyone's right to say we're still not worth it.
Well said. I'm in the military, and so often hear "thank you for your service", which I, in turn, say, and let's thank teachers and police officers, too!
@@cerebralcaustic I said what I said. lol A teacher who attended an excellent private school is even MORE qualified to teach and could easily be hired at a private school. If they choose to teach at public school then YES their loans should be forgiven. And why 5 years? A teaching degree takes 5 years to get and thus, 5 years to work off.
I was a student teacher, I loved my students. We would laugh while learning geometry, I would sit with groups listening to them debating over different methods to solve a problem, I would hear their stories and relate to them with my own experiences. It was so damn rewarding. But I had to stop a month before the school year ended due to horrible burnout....I had so many lesson plans to write, create activities, listen to critique from my supervisor, etc... I was and still am so exhausted, there were so many responsibilities required from the school, parents, the math department, students, and my supervisor. I value teachers 1000x more now than ever before.
So sad Nano, the teaching experiences you described... I knew what was coming next. So sad. There is no time in America's classrooms for discussion, discovery, sharing, debating. Administrators ask " where is that concept in your objective?", if it isn't written specifically in the objective you don't talk about it! You are better off darlin' whatever you decided to do.
Same! I tried a teacher prep program in Sacramento. I had 27 credits the first semester....only 6 of which were student teaching. I also had 43 kids in my classroom. Isn't that nuts? Crazy! I also had kids ages 17,15, and 9 in the house. After one semester I quit....and felt like I had PTSD for awhile. I'm pretty tough ....but the long nights with little sleep got to me. No thanks! So sad....I would have been a great teacher. Teachers are human....superheroes.
@@virginiaoflaherty2983 Well there is time, just a matter of planning. It was primarily the speed of the set curriculum that really forced my hand (and the rest of the department) to get through many topics quickly given the time frame, which had to include the timing for the random fire drills, lockdown drills, student announcements, SAT/ACT pre tests, student activities fair (which took a massive chunk out of ONE class..ugh), etc..
Not necessarily true. I had to teach both my sons to read because the curriculum used at school was ineffectual. Luckily, MY teachers did teach me to read. There are wonderful teachers and horrible teachers.
I question you. I was taught to read by the look-see-memorize method. Students were punished if caught sounding out a word. It was conflict between parents and school. I was extremely stressed over this as a child. Adventually, I cought on, but it wasnt easy. Today, I still experience anxiety when I see a new word. I need to hide it and wait for another person to pronounce it before I will say it and memorize that pronouncement. I've tried to teach myself phonics, but it doesnt go well. This has caused me a lifetime of anger, frustration, lack of self confidence and held me back in my career. I'm brain damage, thanks to teachers. Why didnt you stand up and say this is the wrong way to teach reading? But, you didnt. Oh btw, the powers to be are bring this method back. Future teachers are being taught this in college now to teach this way. You will just do as you are told, never asking the survivors of this method how its gone for them. It's wrong. Eat your words, teacher.
Not true at all. I was taught to read before I even attended school. My mother, father and grandfather taught me to read and none of them finished high school themselves. They instilled a love for reading and learning and I went on to earn three college degrees and became a teacher. Phonetics is the natural, normal way to learn how to read. the look-see-memorize method is not only an inefficient way to learn to read, it is destructive!
I’m a teacher entering my 5th year in dc public schools and I’m already considering leaving the profession. Even though in dc the salary is pretty high but the demands are ridiculous.
I’m a student teacher in D. C. And I know what you mean. It’s the fourth week of school and my corresponding teacher keeps on getting slammed with new testing she needs to do.
I grew up in a very small town in the California desert. I graduated from high school over forty years ago. My teachers were excellent. I don't know how they fared economically, but I do know this: they were EXTREMELY RESPECTED by everyone and thus very effective at their craft. Today, I don't think you could pay me enough to teach in my hometown. It's such a shame.
I retired for that exact reason and now volunteer in a classroom on my own time reading with children which I love 💗 Teachers are only human and can only take so much stress. My last year I suffered PTSD from all the pressures and mandates that were falling on me as a teacher and thankfully my husband and I saved like crazy which gave me the way out of being responsible for a classroom so I Retired! We are not being treated well in schools and sometimes are being bullied by coworkers and parents😔
As a student I never understood why parents, administrators and the government are so terrible to teachers. Even as a high schoolers a decade ago, I saw how parents saw school as a cheap babysitting service and would have the gall to demand their class skipping kid get an A or demand personal texts for updates. All the while i knew half my teachers had second jobs and didnt deserve the treatment they had. I would gladly pay higher taxes if it was a guaranteed that they'd go to the school district and to the teachers and not some weird and lying town/city/nation "yeah yeah we got money" flex.
I'm not one of those teachers whose 1st job was teaching, I worked retail "full-part time" for over a decade before entering the classroom. The thing ppl don't understand that I wish they did about the weekends, holidays, and summers off thing is that it's nigh impossible to leave work at work. Even if it were possible to have my 'to-do' list done for school, the mental baggage is relentless. I can't leave it at school b/c teaching comes from the heart and I take that home. Teaching is a lifestyle choice. At many jobs you can "hide" for a bit..smoke break, check facebook in the bathroom, "look busy", disappear into your own thoughts for a minute, zone out...that doesn't happen at school. You are ALWAYS "on" from the minute you get there.
Amen. 100% true and this is why I burn out. I love the actual teaching part, I just can’t handle the part of it being constantly on my mind. You’re never done and finally it wears you down. It’s so intense. People that have never taught just don’t get it.
zaram131 my own students tell me I’m so patient and that they could never be teachers... they see what we put up with and what we do. I’m so glad I have really wonderful students for the most part. And yes. They sometimes keep me up at night, worrying about something that happened to them at home or problematic students. It’s mentally draining oftentimes.
Yes. My daughter was a 1st grade teacher. I told her I could not do it. She was busy with kids every moment she was there. The kids are very demanding. She was totally stressed by the time she got home. She quit after the birth of her second child. Now she babysits a child at home and homeschools her 5 year old. She is still busy all day, but much happier.
And not only are teachers always on, they are also always under surveillance. The two other adult parties in the form of administrators and parents will always take the word of the students over the wisdom of the teacher. Teachers have zero job security, zero protection on the job, and no workers' rights at that. If a teacher is lucky, they will get to use the bathroom, eat their lunch, sit down, and have even one minute to themselves throughout the course of a school day. By the way, I worked retail also (for two years at the end of college). Because the business was a small hole-in-the-wall establishment, my supervisor and I were the only two employees. Often times, I was working whole eight-hour day shifts entirely on my own. It was brutal. I sometimes had to tell customers that I needed to close the store for half-an-hour to take my lunch break per the law of employees working no more than 4.5 hours at one time without being granted a 30-minute paid lunch break. Can't do that with teaching though! If somebody needs you, you have to be there for them even if you are famished and your bladder needs to be emptied.
I taught for one year in rural Missouri during the 2010-2011 school year and my starting salary was just under 27K a year. I looked around at my colleagues that had been teaching 20 even 30 plus years with one, sometimes two graduate degrees and they were only making around 35K to 40K a year. Most of them worked second jobs just to support their families. Our art teacher had to buy her own supplies for her classes, in fact all of us had to work around the lack of funding in one form or another. My 10th grade World History books were from the 1980's and still had the USSR in them! That one year was enough for me, and I heeded the advice of all the veteran educators around me and got out after one year to make a better future for myself. I wasn't the only one to leave education out of my 2010 graduating class, hardly any of my college classmates remain in the profession for the reasons mentioned above and many more. It's sad that there is such a lack of respect and funding invested into our national education system. As a nation we will be reaping the negatives of these ill thought out decisions for years to come.
I mean, my mom actually taught me how to read before I started school. She’s also a teacher, so technically I am thanking one lol. Many parents are involved in their children’s education, it’s not just teachers. I still appreciate teachers tho
Thank you for your service. Some of the 10% do wake up years later and say to themselves "I had some really great teachers, but I really gave them a hard time. I wish I hadn't done that." I will never forget this student who told me that he still remembered a lesson I did on the dictionary, and that he felt that he improved his spelling because of that. The dictionary, who knew?? 😎 Stay awesome! Stay hopeful.📚📓
@@nobackhands It is such a difficult job. It would nice if our society would realize that and do a better job of supporting schools and teachers. Imagine if we paid them more, because, let's face it, that's how a capitalist economy demonstrates love and respect. Imagine if every teacher had an administrative assistant/teacher's aide so they are not consumed by paperwork. Imagine if we had a nationwide school system with uniform academic standards instead of this patchwork of low performing/low tax states versus high performing states. I'm sure you tried your best.
How do you justify a teacher's wages in this day and age in a world where a person can get $6,000,000-50,000,000 million contracts for throwing or shooting a ball? Unreal....🤨smh.
callie ford You can’t correlate the two. Sports are a multi billion dollar producing industry. I’m a teacher and yeah there are millions of teachers that need higher pay but those two things aren’t comparable.
Alejandro Juarez but on the other hand without us...the teachers and the coaches those athletes wouldn’t be where they are. The fact of the matter is the priorities in the US are pathetic. When a priority is to pay a man 6 million to throw a damn football there is something very wrong.
I agree that our pay is too low and standardized tests are too high, but I’m surprised more teachers didn’t mention the biggest problem - out of control discipline issues, esp in cheating, and the lack of parental involvement to help correct the behavior. It’s just a lot. Sadly, I had to step away.
They pay you well and even give you a house plus holidays! Teacher teacher here in China. A friend of mine said that America has the best education school but doesn’t know how to treat the teachers properly.
Mine did, too. She told me she was amazed at how much respect teachers get in other countries. She said one country, including the parents, where she worked taught their students that the order of respect was God...teachers....then parents.....because without teachers, the parents would not have the skills to work to support their children! I was shocked!!
@@AugustHawk That's exactly how it is. I am blessed beyond measure to teach in Asia. I am so in awe of the respect I have from students and parents AND ADMINISTRATION.
It takes a special person who is filled with love and passion for their schools and students! I went to public school and teachers were cussed out beaten by students and underpaid! One of my teachers would have to buy supplies for her students who’s parents couldn’t afford them but she had to purchase out of her own pocket! That’s not her responsibility but she loved her kids so much she didn’t care and that’s a teacher who should be given a raise! Every teacher is special and makes students education worth it!
I love teaching. I never imagined that after 34 years of teaching I would still be living paycheck to paycheck. For the past 9 years my paycheck has been less every year due to rising insurance costs and small salary “increases” that don’t keep up with the cost of living.
Maureen Culbertson Yes- my husband has been in education 23 years and his salary is one of the 1/3 they talk about on this clip. It’s pitiful. And so very discouraging. He has 2 Master’s degrees. People saying just get another job- it isn’t that easy. He also won’t get a pension and coaches basketball to help with his salary but the amount he earns for that is peanuts. It’s horrible that a great teacher with loads of experience and 2 Master’s doesn’t earn enough to make ends meet. He also works in the summer until school starts again. No family vacations, no idea what would happen if a car breaks down, no savings for medical expenses. Something has to change!!!
Maureen Culbertson oh my, so true. The teachers in my building were so excited to get a salary increase. That is until the cost of insurance exceeded the cost of the raise. My paycheck was less than the previous two years 😑
The salary in the beginning of this video is highly inflated. In KY most beginning teachers start out well under $30K per year. The future of education is online classes.
@@m5roberts I work as a social worker at an elementary school (26 years). I do taxes for teachers. 10 year teachers are not over $45k yet. So the quoted salary may be an average nationwide salary for teachers in schools in California or affluent areas. My point is still that the majority of the teachers in America do not make $60-$65K a year even after 10 years. Rich areas are skewing that number upward. The median household income in America for all kinds of jobs is right about $60K and that includes all the 2 income families as well. A single person making $65k would be considered above the median income in America.
It's really sad. Teaching is an extremely demanding profession! Teachers are under so much pressure to perform up to school district, state. and Federal standards. They have to take a lot of flack from parents and school administrators. Even at the end of the day, their work is still not done They have to grade papers. They have afterschool conferences with parents. They have to do lesson plans. They have to teach their classes according to schedule. They don't have time to deal with special needs students; nor to give them the individualized attention that they really need. And that's why a lot of teachers today are just simply leaving the profession!
I'm watching this at 8:13 pm. I am a teacher and have been working since 7:00 am and still have about an hour more of work to do today. Teachers do not get summers off--they make up a small portion of the extra hours they work during the school year.
Parents used to teach their children before this welfare education system was invented. Some still do and the kids excel in more ways than one. A teacher collapse may just wake parents up on just WHO is really responsible for their children's education!
if teachers hold the future in their hands, is there any consequence for teachers when the future turns out bad? or do teachers only get credit if the future turns out positively?
There is no respect to the teachers. I once had control over my classroom... that quickly changed and then I was micromanaged to the point of insanity. My students appreciated me, admin took that away.
I always thought of it as my calling. I love the kids & I see great things everyday. I also hear parents blaming, complaining, and draining the schools. I also have students that disrupt the right to a public education. My school had 4 code reds in a month. One where we ran a mile to the high school & hid for 5 hours. I have 7 7th graders that are changing their gender & their issues outweigh their academics. 70% of my students are being raised by grandparents or relatives. I'd say more than half of my students label themselves bi-polar, ADHD, ODD, On the spectrum, etc. The mental health needs are blocking academics. Social media has provided them a false sense of friendships, beauty, intelligence, and emotional strength. We are in big trouble. My job has always been to be many roles to these kids. My ongoing trainings never end. But raises & benefits ended years ago. Proud to say I've worked with great people. Ashamed to say I've seen teachers be labeled as bad by out of touch parents. I have made teaching my life. But at age 49, I might've made a huge mistake. But now, what options do I have?
They did that in my old district in Maryland. It didn't solve much. The teachers were treated as poorly as the rest if us. Many were too scared to stand with us and speak up. They had trouble with transportation to get to their buildings. They had to find carpool. They were so far from their families. Then they quietly weeded out the Filipino teachers within 3-5 years. There are a few left, but not like there were. They treated American teachers badly, what makes you think they would treat teachers from another country any better?
I left teaching after 11 years and was rated highly effective 9 of those 11. I just couldn't stand being poor anymore. Since leaving, I work where I'm paid more than double but don't have the passion that I have for teaching. What this episode didn't mention is the lack of support that teachers get from parents and administrators. So many students are below grade level yet admin and parents force the teachers to pass the students. There are incredibly challenging discipline problems. We need to spend money on smaller sized classrooms in neighborhood schools (not the mega thousand-plus kids per graduating class) and pay teachers commensurate with their expertise and expectations we have of them. Public education is the great equalizer. As Ben Franklin stated, "... a good school in every district--all studied and appreciated as they merit--are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty".
Just look at Mississippi. Thier top superintendent makes 300k a year. While the teachers make 35. A state that spends the least amount as possible on education. Corruption
nice try, but the median teacher salary in Mississippi is $49k, with most teachers between $43k and $57k. www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/public-school-teacher-salary/ms the teachers are underpaid propaganda never stops...
This TYPICAL EVERYWHERE! Admin WILL CONTINUALLY LIE about how much more they make! There is SO MUCH SKIMMING off the TOP by ADMINISTRATORS, but, they are SMART and hide it from PUBLIC VIEW in various SUPPLEMENTAL pay they ALWAYS GET. That NEVER SHOWS up on the pay scale that the public sees!
I’m teaching in New Mexico- same deal. Now we are expected to pay for our own photocopies at my district since they slashed the budget for our copy accounts to a ridiculously low amount. Congratulations for being 49th in education this year. We took your spot at 50th this year.
This is an amazingly accurate piece of journalism. We need mainstream media to bring this issue to the forefront. Teachers continue to be overworked and under paid. It's an absolute shame. The current philosophy of education in our country includes inefficient and excessive meetings, paperwork, and most importantly, avoid law suits at all costs. The excessive and inefficient amount of meetings, paperwork, and threats of lawsuits is detrimental to both teachers and students. Major changes in education are desperately needed. Let's start with common sense and teacher input. Politicians, who have never been educators, should not be developing and implementing education policies and curriculum. Stay tuned for more. I apologise for the lengthy comments.
My kid's teacher calls me late at night because that's when she has time, I mean she has her own kids too, and I'm just amazed she's still thinking about work at 9pm!
@@Preservestlandry Yea. I had to start setting limits for myself because I would the same thing and miss family/me time. Sometimes we care so much and it's easy to lose self-care. God bless her!
nice try, I worked as a custodian at an elementary school. the teachers didn't stay one minute past their obligated contract time. students went home at 3.30 pm, teachers were out the door at 3.59.59 pm. and stayed late only 2 times a year for parent teacher night. teachers are the biggest crybabies in the USA. they all think they're victims and picked on.
@@cerebralcaustic Key word at an elementary school, not my elementary school. Just because one group of teachers did it doesn't mean all teachers do it. That's my experience I was referring to. If you don't like teachers (or crybabies as you called us), don't watch a video about us. Good day.
I’m a teacher and have been for 4 years. I’m now going back to get my masters degree in a different profession to change my career. I know many teacher are done with being under payed and leaving the profession now.
Autobot Diva I taught online for the district and it was worse. You have no work-life balance. The pay was even lower than in a regular school, you work much longer than in a regular school, plus they don’t let you travel and teach. If you left the state, they’d fire you immediately, even though you’re still working. Not seeing students daily and being alone at home all day can also make you feel lonely after a while too.
I've been teaching sped for 21 years. I'm in my last year of Occupational Therapy school. I actally make good money teaching. But I cannot do that classroom anymore. I've put my time in and dont feel bad at. I'll work with sped students from a different angle.
I graduated from high school just under a decade ago and I could definitely see how grueling it can be to be a teacher. So many teachers would only pass out busy work and sit at their desk because the rest was just not worth it.
Going to a local Community College. I have had some great teachers who helped me succeed in classes. Those are the ones who deserve $80k or more because they care !
And yet, many of them are in a worse plight than public school teachers because their salaries often times are about the same as public school teacher salaries. However, half of your instructors are likely adjuncts and may have to have multiple jobs to stay afloat. As someone who almost taught high school and adjunct for several years at a community college, I wouldn't recommend anyone go into education rather K-12 or higher education for teaching. It's best to either work in online education, start a business, or go into industry.
I teach at the high school level. I'm starting my 12th year and have my Master's. Including teaching, I have four jobs...four!!!! My house is only 50k, my car is paid off, I don't go to the movies, I don't go shopping (occasionally used), etc. I don't have a spouse to split the cost of living with. I'm still paying student loans, even though I lived at home during college, a VERY 'affordable' college (and I've been paying well over the minimum payment). I am able to make it fine, but if the car breaks down, I need to call a plumber, etc., there goes the little progress I had made with saving. I wouldn't say I have the three extra jobs to make ends meet, one would be enough. I have three extra jobs so that I am able to take a cheap vacation once a year, go out to eat a couple times a month, and not feel the impact as badly when I have to pay for an emergency. My raise this year is finally enough, by my standards, but only because I am teaching an overload, meaning I teach an extra class period. Our maximum class size is 32 or 33. There is know way to keep up with that many students. I'm considering leaving, but not just because of the money, but because of administration and parents. I followed my school's policy last week with an issue that arose. They didn't follow through, leaving me less powerful than the students. I had a parent show up, after my contract time, to yell at me because her son was failing. She hadn't even spoken to her son (he had been absent and chose not to do his make-up work). She kept going on and on about what I was going to do to change his grade. On top of this, I have to worry about whether or not I'm going to get shot at work. I do worry when I have to write a kid up or if they earn a bad grade about how they might retaliate.
I think about retaliation all the time too. It’s so stressful with all the code reds and all the trainings for active shooters. And I know it won’t help at all. We’re sitting ducks in a classroom with nothing to save us in an emergency.
* Lotusblume * Yes, you’re so right. What helped me survive was my faith in Jesus. Couldn’t have made it without Him. The stress was unbelievable and the constant multitasking was exhaustive too. There were never enough hours in a day. I knew that I was in a war zone - spiritually and physically. Drugs, gangs, fights, rude behavior from parents and students, betrayal by administrators. It takes its toll on you. God bless you and keep you. One day soon Jesus is coming back for those who love Him and then corruption will finally come to an end. Read the Book of John in New Testament. It will truly bless you. ❤️🙏
M Lamber- You're retired. You can rest now. Imagine how exhausted you'd be if you'd worked year round verses the nine month work year you enjoyed as a teacher.
I teach in one of the few communities in the US where teachers are well paid and compensated. Here on Long Island, NY we are well respected and compensated and you’ll never hear me complain. My heart bleeds for these teachers who work so hard and are deserving of a salary that at least a bachelor’s degree would earn you!
My confusion is WHY there has to be more taxes. Cut the budget in other areas of the state. I was a teacher in CA the richest state yet spends the least on education. They spend more on prisons 😂 Our priorities are messed up. Invest in our kids and teachers!
There are teachers in my family. Years in the classroom. From Preschool through High School. Public, private and charter school employees. I thought about using my degree and getting my certificate to become a teacher in my state. I love to see children learn. I just couldn't deal with the politics and the pay. Teachers are amazing. Shout out to my 6 the grade teacher. Ms. Haynes. But they are overworked, underpaid and under appreciated. I bow down to anyone who who goes into this field. It truly takes a certain type of human being to become a teacher. I applaud and Thank You.
Began my 26 year teaching career bursting with pride that I had become a teacher ❤️ 👩🏼🏫 ❤️ Left the profession embarrassed that all I became was a teacher. 😢
I have so much respect for what teachers have to endure. I have several friends/family that are educators that are well educated with inadequate pay. They deal with unlimited meetings, paying for certifications, paperwork, disrespect, violence, horrible parents, and abusive administrations. Let's not forget, they spend their private time working off campus and spend their own funds as well. They have to navigate so many personalities and issues with the students themselves, it's crazy. It just never ends. People tried to get me to go into teaching in college, saying that I would have the summers off. It just wasn't my thing. I went into finance instead. After seeing what's become of my teacher friends 25 years later, no thank you. I always joke with friends that given the amount of people avoiding teaching and the pressures of it. They will begin to hire anyone with a pulse to put up with this nonsense.
That’s already happening “…….hiring anyone with a pulse.” For now, it’s in the ranks of substitutes. Many don’t have any background/qualifications in education. But, it sure relieves some stress for the permanent teachers. They don’t have to cover the classroom for an absent teacher if a substitute is there. The kids don’t have to have 6 different teachers in one day.
Of course the "gubmint" is in charge of your paycheck. Who else is going to pay you? It's that same "gubmint" that picks up 95% of your health insurance subsidy, gives you fifteen paid holidays, unlimited sick leave, and provides you with lifetime income through a pension. So what's your point?
Spoken like a true teacher.. “ We still make it work..”... As a 23 year teaching veteran, I totally agree with this news story. The profession has changed so much in the time I have been there. I love what I do.. I just wish there was more respect for this profession.
I'm an educator abroad, I recently got qualified as a teacher. However, even though I would love to, I will never teach in my home country (the US)... for these exact reasons. 1. Low pay 2. Public perception of teachers in the US 3. I have no desire to be a political puppet. Things need to change. The US needs to make teaching a realistic career and not demand that all teachers be martyrs.
@@mlamber7780 It is pretty unfortunate. The system strips everyone involved of their dignity. All in the name of profit. As an AP at where I taught said, it is a business. From my perspective, its the business of self preservation for a system whose only measurement is money in, money out. Sad.
Saw this today and yes, I moved from Oklahoma to another state that pays much higher. Teaching can be extremely stressful but that doesn't mean I should receive crappy pay.
To all the teachers I absolutely admire and respect you. We desperately need you. I wouldn’t mind paying higher taxes. That’s money well spent. God Bless you 📚😊
It's family breakdown that is causing this. When the family breakdowns, it affects student everything. Then admin ties to fix it with new education theories, meetings, and paperwork to track student behavior and progress. overwhelming the teacher, who cannot, take the place of a loving, stable 2 parent home.
I'm a substitute teacher. yesterday I worked a half hour before school with no pay and I worked a half hour after school got out on my own time. I'm paid $90 for a full day of teaching. I do some planning and cleaning up on my own time. I taught at a school for half a day--$45 and then got a terrible review from the teacher. I left the classroom messy. I was mean (she didn't say how I was mean) I didn't follow the lesson plans. (You should have seen them full of stickies, cross out and writing over and inserts. ) I was to teach six things in one hour. There were things marked "If there's time" and there wasn't time. She said the students complained to their parents about me and they were really upset. She still didn't state what I did. I have been blacklisted from that school. All that terrible treatment and abuse for $45!
Considering that teachers are highly skilled workers, they should demand more of a wage premium in rural areas. Teachers also need more faculty support staff such as psychologists and in some places security to give students all the kinds of support they need
One of the BIGGEST problems in the profession in my oppinion AS A TEACHER is TEACHERS who will ACCEPT LOW PAY FOR THE GOOD OF THE KIDS. You cannot do best by the students if you cannot do best by yourself. I WALKED out of 3 interviews when they told me I was going to make in the low 30's starting. I told them flat out I am worth more than that and if that was the starting point I saw no reason to discuss anything further with them. I now have a teaching job in an urban school making over 50k. TEACHERS cannot be afraid to walk or find a different school to teach at. So long as teachers will accept low pay, it will be offered. This issue goes deeper as professors in ed school indoctrinate ed students to believe low salaries are acceptable because WE DO IT FOR THE KIDS. That culture needs to fundamentally change. Ed schools are training teachers to be saviors at the expense of themselves. PS I am NOT conservative and I went through ed school AFTER 8+ years of teaching college as an adjunct. I truly believe MOST the problems in modern American education can trace back to education school and how it trains teachers.
I left teaching 13 years because we'd had a baby and the cost of childcare was going to take my entire monthly paycheck. Why pay someone else to raise my baby? I miss teaching, but I will never go back- I am not the type to shut up and do what I am told, I thought that trait would make me an excellent teacher, but in reality it just made my life in the school harder because of administration and policy.
There are two issues here, pay and workload. What I saw happening was my workload gradually doubled to a point where I was doing the job of two people for the same pay, another way that school districts and school boards keep costs down. I typically spent an additional 15 hours a week doing paperwork and prep for students as well as meeting time. You don’t really make a living wage until you have been in teaching for 10 years and it really depends on the school district. Smaller districts pay quite a bit less than the larger ones. I loved my job as a public school speech therapist but retired earlier than I planned because the workload just became impossible. Ironically COVID hit 6 months later. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be now for teachers to have to deal with that on top of everything else. One last thing, mental health issues have become common place and I’m talking moderate to severe mental issues. We need universal health care so that kids get the help they need before they end up in the criminal justice system. As a taxpayer I would much rather support schools than prisons.
This is heart breaking. I come from a family of teachers and after I graduated college I seriously considered teaching in the public schools where I was raised, I even started teaching adults Spanish at a private company. As my sister left the country to teach abroad I quickly realized that we here in the states do not value teachers anywhere close to where they deserve to be. Long story short I stopped teaching and dropped my aspirations after hearing many many nightmare stories. It shouldn’t be this way. Dealing with parents and politicians, the list of problems comes from so many angles that we’ve lost sight of what’s truly the most important thing here, America’s future. We’re robbing these kids and hard working adults from their pursuit to knowledge and happiness by being entangled in the endless web of greed and entitlement.
Teachers are involved in the development of our most valuable and precious resource ...our children. They should be paid to reflect the enormous value to society they provide.
Interesting how not a single, “teacher” talked about their IAs who all make less than half what a teacher makes. IAs who change 12 year old SPED student diapers and are hit, kicked, spat on and punched by the students they serve. Your average IA makes $11 an hour.
Thank you!!!! The exact reason I’m leaving at the end of the school year. Administration don’t care about the teachers, and they definitely could care less about their non-certificated staff.
Thank you soooooooooooo much for your comment! I was an IA for 6 years and when I started this school year, my first check was $497 and I was only being paid twice a month. We got a 1% "raise" that I didn't even see on my check because our benefits went up. I already had a second job and would have needed a third had I not QUIT after Labor Day. I'm now full time at what was my second job and I make more there every week than what I was making in the school system on the 1st and 16th. I miss my students so much, especially since I've literally watched a lot of them grow up, but I refuse to sleep on the sidewalk because I'm underpaid. My co teacher was amazing and always made sure I had everything I needed, but the amount of work that I had to do, was insane. I had small groups I had to work with and collect data that I had to present in meetings! I was a teacher without teacher pay and admin continually told us they needed more from us. I was exhausted and broke.....I had to leave.
I'm a vendor for a small school district here in California and through the years I've gotten to know the staff at the main office. What was surprising is not how many administrators there are but how many administrative assistants who were making 6 figure and close-to 6 figure salaries. This is NOT a high income area, mind you, this a low-income, mostly immigrant community. The thought of what it takes to maintain a payroll for the entire non-teaching staff in this building is staggering.
Texas has passed many laws that free teachers from paperwork, protect your planning time, give us rights to request students be removed when they are violent but districts force teachers to fight the legal battle... Lots of districts still work in bad faith despite the laws in place.. sad situation
I’m a second year teacher in Florida and I make less than $34,000 a year. My mentor who has 13 years of experience and a masters doesn’t make $40,000. The other teacher in my subject area at school works a second job at a pizza place in town with our high schoolers.
QUIT ASAP! That is awful. You already see the end of the story and you stay?! Come on who are you kidding? Why would you put up with that? It’s like an abusive relationship.
The reason I chose my career is the same reason I won’t quit it: I’m an idealist. I believe it will change and I can make it change. Will I be a teacher forever? Probably not. Once you climb the latter in education and become a college professor or assistant principal you’re entering the highest paid positions in our society. Also, I live in a rural community so the cost of living is MUCH less than a town with say 50,000 people. Yes, it sucks if you have an entire family to feed on one paycheck but most teachers aren’t in it for the money.
Teachers are expected to do soooooo much and are not paid for their efforts. Many bring their work home to keep up with demand and still struggle. And the students come in with so many issues not having to do with school and are expected to sit and learn for eight hours. We need to support and pay our educators what they deserve!!
It's definitely the high debt those teacher come with after college. The pay isn't enough for them to pay their debts while also trying to live their lives. They can't buy homes, cars, or have children. Now that I recall those years in High School I could see their stress but didn't connect it with low pay.
Why should Football players get paid more than teachers? It's ridiculous. Football players are not helping the nation they're just playing a game, but teachers have a huge impact on students lives!
Professional football players make money for their bosses (the team owners) in the production of products (tickets, television shows, and merchandise). If the money any player earns for their boss is greater than their salary (and pro football makes billions), it's a good business deal. Teachers are payed by the taxpayers (most of whom have no idea what is going on in their schools nor how much it costs). Thus, they don't demand effective schools and they don't get them.
Supply and demand. You should go back to school and learn basic micro and macro economics. That will answer that incredibly ignorant question you just posed.
It's funny you people never talk about the TV executives, sportscasters/commentators, team/stadium owners, coaches, staff, etc. All of whom make millions. Whenever this comes up, it's only the players who get too much. So transparent
>Why should Football players get paid more than teachers? because football players create more revenue. nobody buys sneakers because a teacher endorses them.
I am a teacher, and it is absolutely true about meetings. We now have at least two a week for various purposes. We have one every Tuesday for Professional Development, even though this takes away from the time we need to plan lessons. We have meetings on Wednesday and have to review data and fill out forms. Sometimes it is helpful to my teaching, but more often not. I had a meeting about a student on Thursday morning so was pulled out of class. This kind of stuff happens all the time, and yet our workload increases every year. It is literally an impossible job at this point because there is not enough time to fit in everything we're supposed to teach. However, it is a wonderful job when you can make it work. That is the stress of it. You have to constantly make it work, and it's just so difficult. We need more money, smaller class sizes, more planning time, and more support for kids.
The starting salary for NYC teachers is $60k. Where I went to high school in the Chicago suburbs, it was $65k minimum and I believe over a quarter were making $90k+
Matt Sezer You’re generalizing. I’m a retired teacher and live in Chicagoland. Not all teachers teach in wealthy school districts and make a great salary.
I made $46k after 6 years in a rural district in North Texas. If I had gone to a nearby larger district I would have been making over $50k. I honestly didn’t want the hassles of working for a larger district.
It’s amazing when tax period is refused a simple $36 a year more other taxes to have better pay for teachers and better situations for their children. I always vote yes even for the programs for the elderly when it only cost me 30 For $40. Not a big deal. What it cost to go out to dinner to get a pizza. Not anywhere near what it cost to get a ticket to a sports game or professional sports game. People don’t put it in perspective
This is one of the big reasons why I am trying to get out of education. Along with increasing disrespect from students and me making less than a garbage man I'm getting out of it. Going to try Nurse Anesthesia
Saw this bit of wisdom somewhere recently: Aside from K-12 teaching, name another profession you usually need a Master's degree to enter, but no matter how many years you work in it you are assumed to be utterly unqualified to say anything about it.
Had I been that teacher who ran for office and a state Senator called me a liar to my face, I would not have reacted in as restrained a manner as this lady did. I would have had a few choice words for him and term limits would have been two of them.
I’m a teacher in Texas going on my 6th year now teaching 6th grade social studies, one thing this video fails to mention (though it makes a lot of valid points) is that when your curriculum is decided by the State you have to teach around their bias. I was told by my admin not to discuss politics or do debate of any kind in a world history class! I’ve had parents inform me that I have no business teaching their student about other religions (again it’s a world history class religion has an official metric fuckload to do with history and how cultures change and work). I’ve had parents and admin tell me that my subject is pointless because it’s boring and no one wants to learn it despite having students literally run to my class and tell me they love history and that they are researching things at home because we couldn’t cover it in depth enough in class. These are 12 year olds choosing to do their own learning because they know we can’t give them what they need. The other thing is that school shootings are so common that districts in Texas at least now have dedicated response teams specifically designed to deal with the aftermath of them. I had to sit through an all day training that taught us where and how to meet up after one and we were told things like “ in an event like this just assume that you won’t be able to go home for at least 4-6 hours after the event because you’re going to help handle the parents, surviving students and press. We recommend having a bag ready in your room with water and snacks and other comfort items just in case.” And “ if you decide to confront the shooter, fully commit to whatever you’re going to do and the idea that you probably won’t survive but your kids will, and that’s what we as educators are about.” We had a fire drill last week and I had kids talking about how they hate these drills because they’re scared a shooter will pull the fire alarm to get everyone to come out of class so they can have more targets. The thing is our kids know we care and are trying, they also know the system is failing them.
I missed the drill this year due to a health emergency, but knowing that my school did a complete active shooter drill with police, fire, and SWAT is crazy to me, knowing every single child filed out of the building to practice holding their arms over their chest in a hug in case of an active shooter is heart breaking. I wanted to be a police officer at age 18 but my family discouraged me because of the danger. Now I work in education and my mother now texts me that schools are becoming just as dangerous and how she fears for me. It breaks my heart to see the evolution of the education system and it's increasing failings. I've thought about leaving multiple times, but I just can't do it yet..
Lindsay Holder, it sounds like your district workshop developers have not been properly trained. Heroes do exist, but insensitive trainers are more abundant. Research the statistics; despite the media reports, the risk of an intruder is quite low. Has your district made sure the doors are secure and easy to lock? Do your students have a safe corner or other space to use during a drill? I've explained these things to my elementary students here in Florida, so that the information will prevent unwarranted anxiety. They take lock-down drills seriously, they move quickly and quietly to the designated space, and some of them consider the practice interesting, even suggesting we have extra drills.
One of the consequences of the obsession over standardized tests is that it has completely robbed teachers of any classroom autonomy. Teachers are told what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it. And every year more "programs" get added by the district that teachers are expected to implement, which is basically a way of getting teachers to do more work but for the same pay. And each year it gets worse & worse. You can only squeeze so much blood from a stone. At some point something's gotta give.
I am a teacher and I endorse your statement
@Lydia Green Good luck! Hope they do well!
@Lydia Green they have added a new program for us to use that the kids have to do a series amount of minutes per week called edmentum...it has mini lessons, practice, and all sorts of other things geared toward the level of each individual student. Sound great to y'all? Not me. I just graduated and I think with all this AI and technology it will be withing ten years before we are obsolete. Probably wont even get my damn student loans paid off
Absolutely! All my interventions I had to do with my students centered around what area the scored low in. Forget that some of my kids never master some skills to answer.
Personally, I don't want teachers to have autonomy around curriculum. I went to a private elementary school where as you described it, "Teachers are told what to teach, when to teach, and how to teach it." When I arrived at public school in 5th grade, I was two grade levels ahead. Consistency in curriculum is SUPER helpful for students. However in my opinion as a former teacher, all the PROGRAMS you mentioned are what kills the profession. Administrative work is an absolute scourge.
Administrators - too many of them and they all make 6 figures or more. The corruption is at the top.
Tricia Roy THANK YOU!
No, they don’t “all” make six figures or more, I don’t know any who make that much. Many administers are just as overworked as teachers. It is a top down issue though, starting with politicians.
Tricia Roy So true... Even here in rural Texas where the cost of living and inflation is not as high as other states- There’s no real justification for the 6 figure salaries that the higher ups make all while budgets have never been tighter... It’s a shame-
I’ve been teaching for a long time. I teach at a university now. Admin pay is often twice as much as teacher pay or more. Go look it up. It’s all public record.
Exactly! Funds need to go directly to the teachers and their classrooms first.
Teachers are trained, certified professionals just like accountants and engineers. They hold college degrees plus teaching credentials and many have advanced degrees. Most have completed extensive coursework in learning theory and educational practice and are required to continue their education throughout their careers. They deserve to be fairly compensated and treated as the professionals they are.
Karen you are definitely Not a teacher but thanks for dreaming.
Karen Feldman so true that teachers are highly educated however the teacher’s union is the biggest obstacle they have, it causes teachers to act like and be viewed as blue collar workers. With advanced degrees and being intelligent people, teachers have more opportunities than most people in the country, to have their own business, etc.
Judi Mcmahon Well, I am a teacher and everything Karen Feldman said is true. It’s time to wake up. I’ve been a teacher for 20 years. Working on the dissertation now. That will be three degrees in addition to all the licensing rigamorole and professional development. Every year we are told that we won’t have a pay increase that meets inflation because of some reason. Meanwhile, the administrators live quite well. There is graft, but it is not in the classroom.
Tricia Roy omg you noticed this too! I’m a student and our principal makes well over 6 figures with a raise and bonuses every year while some of the best teachers make less than $40,000
@@lmumma1 the only problem is that they need to unionize. Not the existence of the union, the need for it to exist.
My husband left teaching because how he was treated everyday. There is NO SUPPORT
That is right. No support. They use you up and throw you away.
@Nicholas Limon You mean by the students, fellow teachers or staff? Or all of the above?
The teachers I knew wouldn't talk about any educational issues! Only chit-chat!
I went to a elementary outdoor school function in an upper middle class neighborhood very few parents volunteered most were seen on the golf course or tennis courts. im a grandparent my wife and I volunteered sad to see what has happened to our community , our cities and our country . More attention is paid to gay causes, illegal causes, and criminal causes than our children . My sisters were teachers one loved it the other was scared of her students and quit .
What career field did he go to?
I left teaching (18 years!) because of the poor treatment not because of the pay. It’s a battle EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not worth it.
Well and there is the true sadness because if we need anything we need education it is obvious we are under educated
that is why I left!
😣 darn. I'm looking into becoming a teacher but things like this have always kept me away.
Yep, I agree!
@@Vinegarissweet Don't do it.
I have no idea how teachers do it. Almost every teacher I talk to says they love teaching but the paperwork and discipline issues are getting to be too much. Let these highly trained, well educated people do what they are trained & educated to do! Administrators and politicians need to get out of the way.
Aimee- Excessive educational requirements and overbearing administrators have ruined public education. Let teachers teach. Thanks Democrats. They destroy everything they put their money grubbing paws on.
I read this and out loud I said “ugh the paperwork.” Lol
You have to do paperwork for EVERYTHING. I do it and that’s why my class is “fun” but I get to the school an hour early and on MWF, I don’t leave till 6pm- that’s a 12 hour day right there, so that my class can be “fun.” I don’t blame other teachers for not doing that. The things they expect us to get done during the school day while also not being able to sit down because we need to be active teachers is astounding.
Like many things in capitalism, this is about money. Pay teachers what a masters degree is worth, period. Unfortunately, money equals respect in a capitalist system, so consistently low wages for teachers are a huge part of the disrespectful messaging of our society. Then we wonder why there is disrespectful behavior coming from students and parents. If excessive paperwork is a problem (and it is) hire administrative assistants and more teacher's aides. Would any high powered tech company ask their executives to work without an administrative assistant? If discipline is the problem, hire more deans. Not necessarily school resource officers; those are cops. People with an understanding of child psychology and cognitive psychology are needed as part of the classroom team to say, "Mary, come with me because you are not letting your teacher teach right now. Let's talk, you fix your behavior, and then you can come back to your class." When this happens smoothly without interrupting the lesson, the change in tone is huge. For too long, certain states have been starving their public schools. Enough is enough.
The biggest issue I have as a teacher is that we are constantly being told how to do our job by non- professionals. Every day we have people that know nothing about education making decisions for us and our profession just like the senator in this story (who probably hasn't stepped inside a classroom in over 30 years.) What's worse is that the public knows we're being treated and paid unfairly yet does NOTHING to change it simply because it's not happening to them. No one would ever tell a doctor how to do their job but EVERYONE is quick to tell an teacher that they're not doing their job correctly.
Preach
Amen
Jaclyn B - My sister and best friend said the same thing. They had to follow the State Forced Syllabus to the very minute everyday. They were music teachers and extremely talented, but without any ability to use those talents they both quit within 2 years. My sister is a Professor at a Community College now, so the public school obviously lost an extremely talented teacher, All because of people outside the classroom
Absolutely. Would I like to be paid more? Of course. But mostly, I'd like to be treated like a trained and experienced (20 years in education) professional who is capable of doing my job without administrators and politicians who are not in my classroom and don't know my students dictating my every move.
Teaching is subjective that's the problem, all good teachers bring something different to the table but get criticized for the weaknesses
Common sense would say; "Why would anyone in their right mind want to work as a teacher in a public school? Forget the pay...think of it as a job that is now considered dangerous.
pegleg09able yeah. They train us to handle open wounds and active shooters. I feel like I’m getting ready for an attack which might actually happen.
@@KristyShey You are so right!
We had a cabinet behind our desk that contained a safe that stayed locked...( except during an "emergency")! It contained equipment used for first aid (tourniquet material etc) and a type of spray. The spray was used to deter a shooter, but NOT pepper spray. It held blue dye inside to mark shooter or intruder. We had to have lock down drills twice every six weeks. It stressed the kids out...not to mention the faculty.
It’s so hard to explain, but like the woman in the clip, if we can make it work, we stay because we LOVE teaching and we LOVE the students. It’s like staying in an abusive relationship. Dumb I know, but teaching fills my emotional bucket and kids are so fun to be around. They make me a better person.
@@kristendrew8983You are awesome!!
Yep! We were told what everyday classroom items that could be used as a weapon against an active shooter.
That "average' teacher salary is grossly exaggerated. Someone is fudging the numbers in order to dupe more people into going into the teaching profession. I started in teaching in California in 2006 at 40,000. I stayed in the system ten years and had worked up to $60,000 but only by moving to the Silicon Valley area, where rents were out of control. By living in that area I was far above average. I then moved to another state, because California is corrupt, and no, I do not vote for those same policies in my new home. But in my new state, I was offered three teaching jobs at 26,000 per year, 28,000 and 33,000. I taught for two more years until I could transition out. I was willing to try to work at the 33,000 per year job. But I easily found a job earning 10,000 per year more and now I literally work from 9-5 instead of 7:30-4:30 or 5:00 like I did as a teacher. And I am not asked to chaperone dances or sporting events because no parents are willing to do it. And I get a full hour lunch break, and two 15 minute breaks each day. I had a number of students tell me I was the best math teacher they ever had, but after serving 4 years in the military and 12+ years in education, I have done my part. I wish I could have stayed on and retired as a teacher but its not even just the low pay, its the corruption in the system. I took a lot of flak from administrators trying to pressure me to lower my standards and pass a failing student. I don't want to be in that place anymore when its clear most parents don't care. Young people should stay out of teaching; the system is not going to improve until it gets bad enough to grab the public's attention.
Your experience is the same as mine. Teacher pay in Oregon is awful, and I agree with your assessment tgatvsomeone is lying about pay to get new teacher's. An MS Education ran upwards of $30,000, TEN years ago. Thankfully, I had an MS Physics, which I didn't have to pay for, and they took that. But, I had to leave. Pay was stupid, demands ridiculous, and the only real teaching I did was when I had tutoring sessions for my students after school and weekends...
Thank you for your service. From one teacher and also soldier to another I know your struggle. I salute you brother.
BLS data: the median elementary teacher salary is $57.9k and median high school/secondary teacher salary is $60.3k.
the median household income is $59k
The salary is much lower than 60k or 45k!!
I heard the same experience from my education teacher. Im thinking to change major while its still early.
Teaching should be a highly paid profession.
Blitznstitch2 I agree with you! Teachers do a lot and they deserve to be compensated for it
Thank you!! I am a first year teacher and I am at school from 6:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. and come home and work another four. It's a thankless job, except for the kids... you know they love you and you want the best for them so you survive on three hours a night of sleep EVERY night
Amen!!
We’d actually get more people who are incredibly skilled wanting to be teachers and willing to do the work if the compensation was better.
There was a charter school another news story covered that pay their teachers high wages. The problem was the teacher would quit halfway through the school because of the amount of worked required.
In many countries, teaching is considered a prestigious profession that is highly paid.
Certainly not in Namibia,Africa. Have the same problems over here. High expectations, increase of work load, understaffed and a lack of respect in general. My 'normal' class size is 34 to 36 learners.....
Yes in European countries
@@surlespasdondine Teachers are paid less in the UK than the USA. Most of the Western world, teachers are undervalued.
@@jaydel3 wow then I'm sorry for UK teachers!😢
In Thailand teaching is "respected", not prestigious. The pay is abysmal. Work environment is Hellish (38 celsius classroom temps + an average of 44 students per class). Admin types who have never taught telling you how to do your job or forcing you to do mindless paperwork all for the sake of someone at the top of the pyramid to look good and get promoted. Lastly...You have No voice; your ideas, input, and greivances are unwanted and looked down upon with extreme disdain.
I quit after 10 years and homeschool my kids. I enjoyed teaching, but I wanted my children to be educated and not schooled in an institution. The testing was my biggest complaint.
The Stead at Home Mom I'm leaning towards homeschooling myself
Kayla Coffey that’s wonderful! There are so many resources out there!
Here's another issue with all this- and all due respect to these wonderful people who really mean well and genuinely care about their students-
However, for many, self education is there for the taking with the internet- in our county, specifically, our taxes are so high, I believe it's @ $19,000 per student per year that we pay here and then what do we get? Indoctrinated kids who may have had high test scores and a great transcript but in the real world can't hold a conversation or think their way out of a paper bag.
I'm sorry, for those who really can't be homeschooled then there should be resources where they can learn reading, writing, and arithmetic. But many families can facilitate this- and we wouldn't have to pay these enormous amounts of tax dollars for something we could do better ourselves. Minus all the pointless bells and whistles and immorality as a bonus.
Same.
At the very least, public school teachers should have their student loans forgiven after 5 years. People say, "Thank you for your service" to the US military. They need to be saying that to public school teachers for sure!!!
why 5 years? does this apply equally to all teachers? if teacher x attends a private or out of state school and pays 5x the tuition and living costs as teacher z who stayed in state, why should the taxpayers be expected to forgive them both when they got basically the same skills and degree? what about students who use their loans to pay for spring break or weed, should they be forgiven too?
99% of loan forgiveness applicants are denied, and that's after 10 years.
The tricks and traps set up are evil and wrong.
And as far as picking apart what taxpayers should and should not pay back to teachers loans... that is the same attitude that has stripped teachers of their dignity and respect! Disgusting. Debt is debt and 10 years of service as a teacher erases anyone's right to say we're still not worth it.
Well said. I'm in the military, and so often hear "thank you for your service", which I, in turn, say, and let's thank teachers and police officers, too!
@@cerebralcaustic I said what I said. lol A teacher who attended an excellent private school is even MORE qualified to teach and could easily be hired at a private school. If they choose to teach at public school then YES their loans should be forgiven.
And why 5 years? A teaching degree takes 5 years to get and thus, 5 years to work off.
Let teachers attend public universities free of charge, but insist on swapping out those cop pensions for 401k's.
I was a student teacher, I loved my students. We would laugh while learning geometry, I would sit with groups listening to them debating over different methods to solve a problem, I would hear their stories and relate to them with my own experiences. It was so damn rewarding. But I had to stop a month before the school year ended due to horrible burnout....I had so many lesson plans to write, create activities, listen to critique from my supervisor, etc... I was and still am so exhausted, there were so many responsibilities required from the school, parents, the math department, students, and my supervisor. I value teachers 1000x more now than ever before.
So sad Nano, the teaching experiences you described... I knew what was coming next. So sad. There is no time in America's classrooms for discussion, discovery, sharing, debating. Administrators ask " where is that concept in your objective?", if it isn't written specifically in the objective you don't talk about it! You are better off darlin' whatever you decided to do.
Same! I tried a teacher prep program in Sacramento. I had 27 credits the first semester....only 6 of which were student teaching. I also had 43 kids in my classroom. Isn't that nuts? Crazy! I also had kids ages 17,15, and 9 in the house. After one semester I quit....and felt like I had PTSD for awhile. I'm pretty tough ....but the long nights with little sleep got to me. No thanks! So sad....I would have been a great teacher. Teachers are human....superheroes.
@@virginiaoflaherty2983 Well there is time, just a matter of planning. It was primarily the speed of the set curriculum that really forced my hand (and the rest of the department) to get through many topics quickly given the time frame, which had to include the timing for the random fire drills, lockdown drills, student announcements, SAT/ACT pre tests, student activities fair (which took a massive chunk out of ONE class..ugh), etc..
"You can read this because of teachers" - I think that says it all!
Not necessarily true. I had to teach both my sons to read because the curriculum used at school was ineffectual. Luckily, MY teachers did teach me to read. There are wonderful teachers and horrible teachers.
I question you. I was taught to read by the look-see-memorize method. Students were punished if caught sounding out a word. It was conflict between parents and school. I was extremely stressed over this as a child. Adventually, I cought on, but it wasnt easy. Today, I still experience anxiety when I see a new word. I need to hide it and wait for another person to pronounce it before I will say it and memorize that pronouncement. I've tried to teach myself phonics, but it doesnt go well. This has caused me a lifetime of anger, frustration, lack of self confidence and held me back in my career. I'm brain damage, thanks to teachers. Why didnt you stand up and say this is the wrong way to teach reading? But, you didnt. Oh btw, the powers to be are bring this method back. Future teachers are being taught this in college now to teach this way. You will just do as you are told, never asking the survivors of this method how its gone for them. It's wrong.
Eat your words, teacher.
Not true at all. I was taught to read before I even attended school. My mother, father and grandfather taught me to read and none of them finished high school themselves. They instilled a love for reading and learning and I went on to earn three college degrees and became a teacher. Phonetics is the natural, normal way to learn how to read. the look-see-memorize method is not only an inefficient way to learn to read, it is destructive!
I think I was taught to read by my mother but I get the point you're making.
@@belindagarza3958 Teachers are people. Some really care about education and there are those that don't.
I’m a teacher entering my 5th year in dc public schools and I’m already considering leaving the profession. Even though in dc the salary is pretty high but the demands are ridiculous.
What is the average salary for a teacher there?
Which demands? Just curious
I’m a student teacher in D. C. And I know what you mean. It’s the fourth week of school and my corresponding teacher keeps on getting slammed with new testing she needs to do.
Same here in NYC
Same.. Just started my 3rd year, but I am not sure I will be back next year. Starting to explore what other options might be out there.
I grew up in a very small town in the California desert. I graduated from high school over forty years ago. My teachers were excellent. I don't know how they fared economically, but I do know this: they were EXTREMELY RESPECTED by everyone and thus very effective at their craft. Today, I don't think you could pay me enough to teach in my hometown. It's such a shame.
I retired for that exact reason and now volunteer in a classroom on my own time reading with children which I love 💗 Teachers are only human and can only take so much stress. My last year I suffered PTSD from all the pressures and mandates that were falling on me as a teacher and thankfully my husband and I saved like crazy which gave me the way out of being responsible for a classroom so I Retired! We are not being treated well in schools and sometimes are being bullied by coworkers and parents😔
I wish I could give this video a million likes. I’m married to a teacher and know this story all too well.
Seeing that teacher cry was truly heartbreaking.
As a student I never understood why parents, administrators and the government are so terrible to teachers. Even as a high schoolers a decade ago, I saw how parents saw school as a cheap babysitting service and would have the gall to demand their class skipping kid get an A or demand personal texts for updates. All the while i knew half my teachers had second jobs and didnt deserve the treatment they had. I would gladly pay higher taxes if it was a guaranteed that they'd go to the school district and to the teachers and not some weird and lying town/city/nation "yeah yeah we got money" flex.
How about paying for your children's education?
Bev private schools are hardly any better.
@@apricot3998 I was referring to homeschooling but curious as to why you think private schools wouldn't be better?
Cheap babysitting service, I’ve notice that also ppl have kids so the teachers can raise them
I'm not one of those teachers whose 1st job was teaching, I worked retail "full-part time" for over a decade before entering the classroom. The thing ppl don't understand that I wish they did about the weekends, holidays, and summers off thing is that it's nigh impossible to leave work at work. Even if it were possible to have my 'to-do' list done for school, the mental baggage is relentless. I can't leave it at school b/c teaching comes from the heart and I take that home. Teaching is a lifestyle choice. At many jobs you can "hide" for a bit..smoke break, check facebook in the bathroom, "look busy", disappear into your own thoughts for a minute, zone out...that doesn't happen at school. You are ALWAYS "on" from the minute you get there.
Amen. 100% true and this is why I burn out. I love the actual teaching part, I just can’t handle the part of it being constantly on my mind. You’re never done and finally it wears you down. It’s so intense. People that have never taught just don’t get it.
zaram131 my own students tell me I’m so patient and that they could never be teachers... they see what we put up with and what we do. I’m so glad I have really wonderful students for the most part. And yes. They sometimes keep me up at night, worrying about something that happened to them at home or problematic students. It’s mentally draining oftentimes.
Yes agree 100%!!!
Yes. My daughter was a 1st grade teacher. I told her I could not do it. She was busy with kids every moment she was there. The kids are very demanding. She was totally stressed by the time she got home. She quit after the birth of her second child. Now she babysits a child at home and homeschools her 5 year old. She is still busy all day, but much happier.
And not only are teachers always on, they are also always under surveillance. The two other adult parties in the form of administrators and parents will always take the word of the students over the wisdom of the teacher. Teachers have zero job security, zero protection on the job, and no workers' rights at that. If a teacher is lucky, they will get to use the bathroom, eat their lunch, sit down, and have even one minute to themselves throughout the course of a school day. By the way, I worked retail also (for two years at the end of college). Because the business was a small hole-in-the-wall establishment, my supervisor and I were the only two employees. Often times, I was working whole eight-hour day shifts entirely on my own. It was brutal. I sometimes had to tell customers that I needed to close the store for half-an-hour to take my lunch break per the law of employees working no more than 4.5 hours at one time without being granted a 30-minute paid lunch break. Can't do that with teaching though! If somebody needs you, you have to be there for them even if you are famished and your bladder needs to be emptied.
I taught for one year in rural Missouri during the 2010-2011 school year and my starting salary was just under 27K a year. I looked around at my colleagues that had been teaching 20 even 30 plus years with one, sometimes two graduate degrees and they were only making around 35K to 40K a year. Most of them worked second jobs just to support their families. Our art teacher had to buy her own supplies for her classes, in fact all of us had to work around the lack of funding in one form or another. My 10th grade World History books were from the 1980's and still had the USSR in them! That one year was enough for me, and I heeded the advice of all the veteran educators around me and got out after one year to make a better future for myself. I wasn't the only one to leave education out of my 2010 graduating class, hardly any of my college classmates remain in the profession for the reasons mentioned above and many more.
It's sad that there is such a lack of respect and funding invested into our national education system. As a nation we will be reaping the negatives of these ill thought out decisions for years to come.
If you can read this, thank a teacher. 💖👏👏👏👏👏
not necessarily before public schools people learned to read at home.
I mean, my mom actually taught me how to read before I started school. She’s also a teacher, so technically I am thanking one lol. Many parents are involved in their children’s education, it’s not just teachers. I still appreciate teachers tho
Lol my mom taught me to read in Kindergarten back when they didn’t start teaching till 1st grade.
The Stead at Home Mom yeah both of my kids knew how to read before they started school as well
I've taught all my children how to read, if only every parent did and cared as much.
As a former teacher, I spent 90% of my time trying to motivate the 10% that did not want to be there
Thank you for your service. Some of the 10% do wake up years later and say to themselves "I had some really great teachers, but I really gave them a hard time. I wish I hadn't done that." I will never forget this student who told me that he still remembered a lesson I did on the dictionary, and that he felt that he improved his spelling because of that. The dictionary, who knew?? 😎 Stay awesome! Stay hopeful.📚📓
After my first day of teaching I put my head on the desk and said what have I got myself into. I got out and glad I did.
@@nobackhands It is such a difficult job. It would nice if our society would realize that and do a better job of supporting schools and teachers. Imagine if we paid them more, because, let's face it, that's how a capitalist economy demonstrates love and respect. Imagine if every teacher had an administrative assistant/teacher's aide so they are not consumed by paperwork. Imagine if we had a nationwide school system with uniform academic standards instead of this patchwork of low performing/low tax states versus high performing states.
I'm sure you tried your best.
This video is one of the reasons why I made my channel to help teacher grow the money they do make.
How do you justify a teacher's wages in this day and age in a world where a person can get $6,000,000-50,000,000 million contracts for throwing or shooting a ball? Unreal....🤨smh.
callie ford You can’t correlate the two. Sports are a multi billion dollar producing industry. I’m a teacher and yeah there are millions of teachers that need higher pay but those two things aren’t comparable.
You also have to consider how many people can do each of those skills. The fewer people who can do it, the higher the pay to attract them.
Private vs public sector. I think it’s profession was privatized teachers would make more.
Tf does one have to do with the other?
Alejandro Juarez but on the other hand without us...the teachers and the coaches those athletes wouldn’t be where they are. The fact of the matter is the priorities in the US are pathetic. When a priority is to pay a man 6 million to throw a damn football there is something very wrong.
I agree that our pay is too low and standardized tests are too high, but I’m surprised more teachers didn’t mention the biggest problem - out of control discipline issues, esp in cheating, and the lack of parental involvement to help correct the behavior. It’s just a lot. Sadly, I had to step away.
In short, the American family is breaking down.
My daughter left Atlanta Ga. School system to teach overseas.
They pay you well and even give you a house plus holidays! Teacher teacher here in China. A friend of mine said that America has the best education school but doesn’t know how to treat the teachers properly.
Mine did, too. She told me she was amazed at how much respect teachers get in other countries. She said one country, including the parents, where she worked taught their students that the order of respect was God...teachers....then parents.....because without teachers, the parents would not have the skills to work to support their children! I was shocked!!
@@AugustHawk That's exactly how it is. I am blessed beyond measure to teach in Asia. I am so in awe of the respect I have from students and parents AND ADMINISTRATION.
@nothere_2017 right 😂😂😂
Brilliant and bold young lady. It's amazing how so many of us are too fearful to make a move like that. God bless her and keep her safe
It takes a special person who is filled with love and passion for their schools and students! I went to public school and teachers were cussed out beaten by students and underpaid! One of my teachers would have to buy supplies for her students who’s parents couldn’t afford them but she had to purchase out of her own pocket! That’s not her responsibility but she loved her kids so much she didn’t care and that’s a teacher who should be given a raise! Every teacher is special and makes students education worth it!
Talk about the debt incurred to get a credential!
Joanna Bratton that’s me. Why am I required to get 24 post grad credits to keep my job and not have them pay for it or give a raise for it?
@@am5558 thank you for sharing. i had no idea.
I admire Ms. Hicks she went about it the absolute best way possible...
I love teaching. I never imagined that after 34 years of teaching I would still be living paycheck to paycheck. For the past 9 years my paycheck has been less every year due to rising insurance costs and small salary “increases” that don’t keep up with the cost of living.
Maureen Culbertson Yes- my husband has been in education 23 years and his salary is one of the 1/3 they talk about on this clip. It’s pitiful. And so very discouraging. He has 2 Master’s degrees. People saying just get another job- it isn’t that easy. He also won’t get a pension and coaches basketball to help with his salary but the amount he earns for that is peanuts. It’s horrible that a great teacher with loads of experience and 2 Master’s doesn’t earn enough to make ends meet. He also works in the summer until school starts again. No family vacations, no idea what would happen if a car breaks down, no savings for medical expenses. Something has to change!!!
Danny Kofke has written some excellent books on how he supports a family on a teacher's salary.
Maureen Culbertson oh my, so true. The teachers in my building were so excited to get a salary increase. That is until the cost of insurance exceeded the cost of the raise. My paycheck was less than the previous two years 😑
Be thankful that the taxpayer is picking up 95% of your insurance subsidy. Go ahead and retire. You've got your time in.
Our so called "increase" is getting eaten up by an increase in "Union dues"...It's so wrong on so many levels...smh
The salary in the beginning of this video is highly inflated. In KY most beginning teachers start out well under $30K per year. The future of education is online classes.
Agreed! Brick and mortar schools will be few and far in between in the near future.
It's an average salary for all teachers, not starting pay.
@@m5roberts I work as a social worker at an elementary school (26 years). I do taxes for teachers. 10 year teachers are not over $45k yet. So the quoted salary may be an average nationwide salary for teachers in schools in California or affluent areas. My point is still that the majority of the teachers in America do not make $60-$65K a year even after 10 years. Rich areas are skewing that number upward. The median household income in America for all kinds of jobs is right about $60K and that includes all the 2 income families as well. A single person making $65k would be considered above the median income in America.
Dam skippy. Thats what i do for Indonesian students
Agree. I'd be more interested in the median salary than the average.
It's really sad. Teaching is an extremely demanding profession! Teachers are under so much pressure to perform up to school district, state. and Federal standards. They have to take a lot of flack from parents and school administrators. Even at the end of the day, their work is still not done
They have to grade papers. They have afterschool conferences with parents. They have to do lesson plans. They have to teach their classes according to schedule. They don't have time to deal with special needs students; nor to give them the individualized attention that they really need. And that's why a lot of teachers today are just simply leaving the profession!
I'm watching this at 8:13 pm. I am a teacher and have been working since 7:00 am and still have about an hour more of work to do today. Teachers do not get summers off--they make up a small portion of the extra hours they work during the school year.
Same
Teachers hold the future in their hands, thus should be paid as such. Without them, our nation would fall apart and fail even more than it is!
Parents used to teach their children before this welfare education system was invented. Some still do and the kids excel in more ways than one. A teacher collapse may just wake parents up on just WHO is really responsible for their children's education!
if teachers hold the future in their hands, is there any consequence for teachers when the future turns out bad?
or do teachers only get credit if the future turns out positively?
There is no respect to the teachers. I once had control over my classroom... that quickly changed and then I was micromanaged to the point of insanity. My students appreciated me, admin took that away.
I always thought of it as my calling. I love the kids & I see great things everyday. I also hear parents blaming, complaining, and draining the schools. I also have students that disrupt the right to a public education. My school had 4 code reds in a month. One where we ran a mile to the high school & hid for 5 hours. I have 7 7th graders that are changing their gender & their issues outweigh their academics. 70% of my students are being raised by grandparents or relatives. I'd say more than half of my students label themselves bi-polar, ADHD, ODD, On the spectrum, etc. The mental health needs are blocking academics. Social media has provided them a false sense of friendships, beauty, intelligence, and emotional strength. We are in big trouble. My job has always been to be many roles to these kids. My ongoing trainings never end. But raises & benefits ended years ago. Proud to say I've worked with great people. Ashamed to say I've seen teachers be labeled as bad by out of touch parents. I have made teaching my life. But at age 49, I might've made a huge mistake. But now, what options do I have?
Online schools like K12 or Connections academy?
They'll just get teachers from the Philippines...
www.vice.com/en_us/article/vb5bga/americas-newest-outsourced-job-public-school-teachers
They did that in my old district in Maryland. It didn't solve much. The teachers were treated as poorly as the rest if us. Many were too scared to stand with us and speak up. They had trouble with transportation to get to their buildings. They had to find carpool. They were so far from their families. Then they quietly weeded out the Filipino teachers within 3-5 years. There are a few left, but not like there were. They treated American teachers badly, what makes you think they would treat teachers from another country any better?
We had one in our school. The poor man was in shock. Like a duck hit over the head. He did not expect what he got.
@@virginiaoflaherty2983 i find this funny and sad at the same time. BTW, i'm from the Philippines.
I left teaching after 11 years and was rated highly effective 9 of those 11. I just couldn't stand being poor anymore. Since leaving, I work where I'm paid more than double but don't have the passion that I have for teaching. What this episode didn't mention is the lack of support that teachers get from parents and administrators. So many students are below grade level yet admin and parents force the teachers to pass the students. There are incredibly challenging discipline problems. We need to spend money on smaller sized classrooms in neighborhood schools (not the mega thousand-plus kids per graduating class) and pay teachers commensurate with their expertise and expectations we have of them. Public education is the great equalizer. As Ben Franklin stated, "... a good school in every district--all studied and appreciated as they merit--are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty".
The stupid teaching to tests has ruined the education of our st a te.
Students still can't think
So you see it too!
Just look at Mississippi. Thier top superintendent makes 300k a year.
While the teachers make 35.
A state that spends the least amount as possible on education. Corruption
nice try, but the median teacher salary in Mississippi is $49k, with most teachers between $43k and $57k.
www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/public-school-teacher-salary/ms
the teachers are underpaid propaganda never stops...
This TYPICAL EVERYWHERE!
Admin WILL CONTINUALLY LIE about how much more they make! There is SO MUCH SKIMMING off the TOP by ADMINISTRATORS, but, they are SMART and hide it from PUBLIC VIEW in various SUPPLEMENTAL pay they ALWAYS GET. That NEVER SHOWS up on the pay scale that the public sees!
I’m teaching in New Mexico- same deal. Now we are expected to pay for our own photocopies at my district since they slashed the budget for our copy accounts to a ridiculously low amount. Congratulations for being 49th in education this year. We took your spot at 50th this year.
This is an amazingly accurate piece of journalism. We need mainstream media to bring this issue to the forefront. Teachers continue to be overworked and under paid. It's an absolute shame. The current philosophy of education in our country includes inefficient and excessive meetings, paperwork, and most importantly, avoid law suits at all costs. The excessive and inefficient amount of meetings, paperwork, and threats of lawsuits is detrimental to both teachers and students. Major changes in education are desperately needed. Let's start with common sense and teacher input. Politicians, who have never been educators, should not be developing and implementing education policies and curriculum. Stay tuned for more. I apologise for the lengthy comments.
I'm a fourth grade teacher and this video could not have been more true. Especially when the man talked about the hours.
My kid's teacher calls me late at night because that's when she has time, I mean she has her own kids too, and I'm just amazed she's still thinking about work at 9pm!
@@Preservestlandry Yea. I had to start setting limits for myself because I would the same thing and miss family/me time. Sometimes we care so much and it's easy to lose self-care. God bless her!
nice try, I worked as a custodian at an elementary school. the teachers didn't stay one minute past their obligated contract time. students went home at 3.30 pm, teachers were out the door at 3.59.59 pm. and stayed late only 2 times a year for parent teacher night.
teachers are the biggest crybabies in the USA. they all think they're victims and picked on.
@@cerebralcaustic Key word at an elementary school, not my elementary school. Just because one group of teachers did it doesn't mean all teachers do it. That's my experience I was referring to. If you don't like teachers (or crybabies as you called us), don't watch a video about us. Good day.
I’m a teacher and have been for 4 years. I’m now going back to get my masters degree in a different profession to change my career. I know many teacher are done with being under payed and leaving the profession now.
Teach online
I’m on my way to becoming a Software Engineer and not looking back.
Autobot Diva I taught online for the district and it was worse. You have no work-life balance. The pay was even lower than in a regular school, you work much longer than in a regular school, plus they don’t let you travel and teach. If you left the state, they’d fire you immediately, even though you’re still working. Not seeing students daily and being alone at home all day can also make you feel lonely after a while too.
@@Lotusblume.8
Oh i was talkn about teach foreign
I've been teaching sped for 21 years. I'm in my last year of Occupational Therapy school. I actally make good money teaching. But I cannot do that classroom anymore. I've put my time in and dont feel bad at. I'll work with sped students from a different angle.
I graduated from high school just under a decade ago and I could definitely see how grueling it can be to be a teacher. So many teachers would only pass out busy work and sit at their desk because the rest was just not worth it.
Going to a local Community College. I have had some great teachers who helped me succeed in classes. Those are the ones who deserve $80k or more because they care !
They deserve much more than 80k. 😂 It’s cute to thing you’re helping by saying that. 80k is practically poverty where I live.
And yet, many of them are in a worse plight than public school teachers because their salaries often times are about the same as public school teacher salaries. However, half of your instructors are likely adjuncts and may have to have multiple jobs to stay afloat. As someone who almost taught high school and adjunct for several years at a community college, I wouldn't recommend anyone go into education rather K-12 or higher education for teaching. It's best to either work in online education, start a business, or go into industry.
I teach at the high school level. I'm starting my 12th year and have my Master's. Including teaching, I have four jobs...four!!!! My house is only 50k, my car is paid off, I don't go to the movies, I don't go shopping (occasionally used), etc. I don't have a spouse to split the cost of living with. I'm still paying student loans, even though I lived at home during college, a VERY 'affordable' college (and I've been paying well over the minimum payment). I am able to make it fine, but if the car breaks down, I need to call a plumber, etc., there goes the little progress I had made with saving. I wouldn't say I have the three extra jobs to make ends meet, one would be enough. I have three extra jobs so that I am able to take a cheap vacation once a year, go out to eat a couple times a month, and not feel the impact as badly when I have to pay for an emergency. My raise this year is finally enough, by my standards, but only because I am teaching an overload, meaning I teach an extra class period. Our maximum class size is 32 or 33. There is know way to keep up with that many students. I'm considering leaving, but not just because of the money, but because of administration and parents. I followed my school's policy last week with an issue that arose. They didn't follow through, leaving me less powerful than the students. I had a parent show up, after my contract time, to yell at me because her son was failing. She hadn't even spoken to her son (he had been absent and chose not to do his make-up work). She kept going on and on about what I was going to do to change his grade. On top of this, I have to worry about whether or not I'm going to get shot at work. I do worry when I have to write a kid up or if they earn a bad grade about how they might retaliate.
Jenny Hammond I totally understand where you’re coming from. I retired from teaching last year. It was exhaustive beyond words.
Teach online
I think about retaliation all the time too. It’s so stressful with all the code reds and all the trainings for active shooters. And I know it won’t help at all. We’re sitting ducks in a classroom with nothing to save us in an emergency.
* Lotusblume * Yes, you’re so right. What helped me survive was my faith in Jesus. Couldn’t have made it without Him. The stress was unbelievable and the constant multitasking was exhaustive too. There were never enough hours in a day. I knew that I was in a war zone - spiritually and physically. Drugs, gangs, fights, rude behavior from parents and students, betrayal by administrators. It takes its toll on you. God bless you and keep you. One day soon Jesus is coming back for those who love Him and then corruption will finally come to an end. Read the Book of John in New Testament. It will truly bless you. ❤️🙏
M Lamber- You're retired. You can rest now. Imagine how exhausted you'd be if you'd worked year round verses the nine month work year you enjoyed as a teacher.
I teach in one of the few communities in the US where teachers are well paid and compensated. Here on Long Island, NY we are well respected and compensated and you’ll never hear me complain.
My heart bleeds for these teachers who work so hard and are deserving of a salary that at least a bachelor’s degree would earn you!
My confusion is WHY there has to be more taxes. Cut the budget in other areas of the state. I was a teacher in CA the richest state yet spends the least on education. They spend more on prisons 😂
Our priorities are messed up. Invest in our kids and teachers!
There are teachers in my family. Years in the classroom. From Preschool through High School. Public, private and charter school employees. I thought about using my degree and getting my certificate to become a teacher in my state. I love to see children learn. I just couldn't deal with the politics and the pay. Teachers are amazing. Shout out to my 6 the grade teacher. Ms. Haynes. But they are overworked, underpaid and under appreciated. I bow down to anyone who who goes into this field. It truly takes a certain type of human being to become a teacher. I applaud and Thank You.
Began my 26 year teaching career bursting with pride that I had become a teacher
❤️ 👩🏼🏫 ❤️
Left the profession embarrassed that all I became was a teacher. 😢
Amy Sutton Thank you Amy. I appreciate you. I was a teacher for 22 years. Much admiration to you.
You have nothing to be embarrassed about. What's embarrassing is the state of our education system in this country.
I hear you sister. I feel the same. No pride or satisfaction in a job well done. I feel like a fool.
I have so much respect for what teachers have to endure. I have several friends/family that are educators that are well educated with inadequate pay. They deal with unlimited meetings, paying for certifications, paperwork, disrespect, violence, horrible parents, and abusive administrations. Let's not forget, they spend their private time working off campus and spend their own funds as well. They have to navigate so many personalities and issues with the students themselves, it's crazy. It just never ends.
People tried to get me to go into teaching in college, saying that I would have the summers off. It just wasn't my thing. I went into finance instead. After seeing what's become of my teacher friends 25 years later, no thank you. I always joke with friends that given the amount of people avoiding teaching and the pressures of it. They will begin to hire anyone with a pulse to put up with this nonsense.
That’s already happening “…….hiring anyone with a pulse.” For now, it’s in the ranks of substitutes. Many don’t have any background/qualifications in education. But, it sure relieves some stress for the permanent teachers. They don’t have to cover the classroom for an absent teacher if a substitute is there. The kids don’t have to have 6 different teachers in one day.
This is what happens when government is in charge of your paycheck. A public school teacher from Miami.
Of course the "gubmint" is in charge of your paycheck. Who else is going to pay you? It's that same "gubmint" that picks up 95% of your health insurance subsidy, gives you fifteen paid holidays, unlimited sick leave, and provides you with lifetime income through a pension. So what's your point?
@@zephead843 Lol.... should I even.... please.
This always shocks me. I grew up in NJ & now live in PA. These teachers are doing great.
A way to think about it is the more you pay the teachers, the more they will strive for their students
Spoken like a true teacher.. “ We still make it work..”... As a 23 year teaching veteran, I totally agree with this news story. The profession has changed so much in the time I have been there. I love what I do.. I just wish there was more respect for this profession.
I'm an educator abroad, I recently got qualified as a teacher. However, even though I would love to, I will never teach in my home country (the US)... for these exact reasons. 1. Low pay 2. Public perception of teachers in the US 3. I have no desire to be a political puppet. Things need to change. The US needs to make teaching a realistic career and not demand that all teachers be martyrs.
You nailed with one word martyrs. That is what they want you to be, and they put that in writing.
Polarcupcheck Yes, I agree with you 100 percent.
@@mlamber7780 It is pretty unfortunate. The system strips everyone involved of their dignity. All in the name of profit. As an AP at where I taught said, it is a business. From my perspective, its the business of self preservation for a system whose only measurement is money in, money out. Sad.
Teachers are as precious as water. Without them we can never learn nor live....
The fact that teachers have to go through so much effort to get the basic resources they need to do their jobs is honestly depressing
Saw this today and yes, I moved from Oklahoma to another state that pays much higher. Teaching can be extremely stressful but that doesn't mean I should receive crappy pay.
To all the teachers I absolutely admire and respect you. We desperately need you. I wouldn’t mind paying higher taxes. That’s money well spent. God Bless you 📚😊
It takes so much dedication, passion and hard work to be a teacher, yet it's underpaid.. Almost everywhere!
Besides being a stay at home parent (no pay by the way) TEACHING should be paid the most. Waaayyy more than athletes.
It's family breakdown that is causing this. When the family breakdowns, it affects student everything. Then admin ties to fix it with new education theories, meetings, and paperwork to track student behavior and progress. overwhelming the teacher, who cannot, take the place of a loving, stable 2 parent home.
My teachers often worked 2 jobs or taught night classes at a community college. It was sad because I had such amazing teachers.
I'm a substitute teacher. yesterday I worked a half hour before school with no pay and I worked a half hour after school got out on my own time. I'm paid $90 for a full day of teaching. I do some planning and cleaning up on my own time. I taught at a school for half a day--$45 and then got a terrible review from the teacher. I left the classroom messy. I was mean (she didn't say how I was mean) I didn't follow the lesson plans. (You should have seen them full of stickies, cross out and writing over and inserts. ) I was to teach six things in one hour. There were things marked "If there's time" and there wasn't time. She said the students complained to their parents about me and they were really upset. She still didn't state what I did. I have been blacklisted from that school. All that terrible treatment and abuse for $45!
Teachers deserve so much more than what they receive
It’s America they can get a different job can’t they?
I am amazed at how little teachers are paid given the stress and discipline issues they deal with everyday. They deserve better!
Considering that teachers are highly skilled workers, they should demand more of a wage premium in rural areas. Teachers also need more faculty support staff such as psychologists and in some places security to give students all the kinds of support they need
we need to respect our teachers and pay them what they are worth!
As a teacher, at first, I would laugh to myself that I was poorer than most of my students. Now it is just a fact.
One of the BIGGEST problems in the profession in my oppinion AS A TEACHER is TEACHERS who will ACCEPT LOW PAY FOR THE GOOD OF THE KIDS. You cannot do best by the students if you cannot do best by yourself. I WALKED out of 3 interviews when they told me I was going to make in the low 30's starting. I told them flat out I am worth more than that and if that was the starting point I saw no reason to discuss anything further with them. I now have a teaching job in an urban school making over 50k.
TEACHERS cannot be afraid to walk or find a different school to teach at. So long as teachers will accept low pay, it will be offered. This issue goes deeper as professors in ed school indoctrinate ed students to believe low salaries are acceptable because WE DO IT FOR THE KIDS. That culture needs to fundamentally change. Ed schools are training teachers to be saviors at the expense of themselves.
PS I am NOT conservative and I went through ed school AFTER 8+ years of teaching college as an adjunct. I truly believe MOST the problems in modern American education can trace back to education school and how it trains teachers.
Nurses are going through the same thing
Really? Please explain.
I left teaching 13 years because we'd had a baby and the cost of childcare was going to take my entire monthly paycheck. Why pay someone else to raise my baby? I miss teaching, but I will never go back- I am not the type to shut up and do what I am told, I thought that trait would make me an excellent teacher, but in reality it just made my life in the school harder because of administration and policy.
Exactly!
I wouldn’t recommend going into to education to anyone these days. I became a music teacher and I regret that decision some days.
malibu64 I’m with you on that one!
Some days I feel like I’ve wasted the last 27 years of my life teaching music to kids who, for the most part, don’t care.
@@canterlevi just keep your passion. It is just the society!
Wine Crimes Food and Time Thank you for the kind words. I have a passion for music but not for society!!
There are two issues here, pay and workload. What I saw happening was my workload gradually doubled to a point where I was doing the job of two people for the same pay, another way that school districts and school boards keep costs down. I typically spent an additional 15 hours a week doing paperwork and prep for students as well as meeting time. You don’t really make a living wage until you have been in teaching for 10 years and it really depends on the school district. Smaller districts pay quite a bit less than the larger ones. I loved my job as a public school speech therapist but retired earlier than I planned because the workload just became impossible. Ironically COVID hit 6 months later. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be now for teachers to have to deal with that on top of everything else. One last thing, mental health issues have become common place and I’m talking moderate to severe mental issues. We need universal health care so that kids get the help they need before they end up in the criminal justice system. As a taxpayer I would much rather support schools than prisons.
Good points.
This is heart breaking. I come from a family of teachers and after I graduated college I seriously considered teaching in the public schools where I was raised, I even started teaching adults Spanish at a private company. As my sister left the country to teach abroad I quickly realized that we here in the states do not value teachers anywhere close to where they deserve to be. Long story short I stopped teaching and dropped my aspirations after hearing many many nightmare stories. It shouldn’t be this way. Dealing with parents and politicians, the list of problems comes from so many angles that we’ve lost sight of what’s truly the most important thing here, America’s future. We’re robbing these kids and hard working adults from their pursuit to knowledge and happiness by being entangled in the endless web of greed and entitlement.
Teachers are involved in the development of our most valuable and precious resource ...our children. They should be paid to reflect the enormous value to society they provide.
Interesting how not a single, “teacher” talked about their IAs who all make less than half what a teacher makes.
IAs who change 12 year old SPED student diapers and are hit, kicked, spat on and punched by the students they serve.
Your average IA makes $11 an hour.
Thank you!!!! The exact reason I’m leaving at the end of the school year. Administration don’t care about the teachers, and they definitely could care less about their non-certificated staff.
Thank you soooooooooooo much for your comment! I was an IA for 6 years and when I started this school year, my first check was $497 and I was only being paid twice a month. We got a 1% "raise" that I didn't even see on my check because our benefits went up. I already had a second job and would have needed a third had I not QUIT after Labor Day. I'm now full time at what was my second job and I make more there every week than what I was making in the school system on the 1st and 16th. I miss my students so much, especially since I've literally watched a lot of them grow up, but I refuse to sleep on the sidewalk because I'm underpaid. My co teacher was amazing and always made sure I had everything I needed, but the amount of work that I had to do, was insane. I had small groups I had to work with and collect data that I had to present in meetings! I was a teacher without teacher pay and admin continually told us they needed more from us. I was exhausted and broke.....I had to leave.
Teachers are unsung heroes, especially in America.
My heart hurts. This is why a lot of public educators send their own kids to private schools. No kid left behind has destroyed public education.
Yup.
I'm a vendor for a small school district here in California and through the years I've gotten to know the staff at the main office. What was surprising is not how many administrators there are but how many administrative assistants who were making 6 figure and close-to 6 figure salaries. This is NOT a high income area, mind you, this a low-income, mostly immigrant community. The thought of what it takes to maintain a payroll for the entire non-teaching staff in this building is staggering.
Texas has passed many laws that free teachers from paperwork, protect your planning time, give us rights to request students be removed when they are violent but districts force teachers to fight the legal battle... Lots of districts still work in bad faith despite the laws in place.. sad situation
True here in the UK as well! My friend is a college lecturer and works from 8am till 8 or 9pm 5 days a week!!
I’m a second year teacher in Florida and I make less than $34,000 a year. My mentor who has 13 years of experience and a masters doesn’t make $40,000. The other teacher in my subject area at school works a second job at a pizza place in town with our high schoolers.
Wow.
QUIT ASAP! That is awful. You already see the end of the story and you stay?! Come on who are you kidding? Why would you put up with that? It’s like an abusive relationship.
Damn, you may need a new career.
The reason I chose my career is the same reason I won’t quit it: I’m an idealist. I believe it will change and I can make it change. Will I be a teacher forever? Probably not. Once you climb the latter in education and become a college professor or assistant principal you’re entering the highest paid positions in our society. Also, I live in a rural community so the cost of living is MUCH less than a town with say 50,000 people. Yes, it sucks if you have an entire family to feed on one paycheck but most teachers aren’t in it for the money.
Teachers are expected to do soooooo much and are not paid for their efforts. Many bring their work home to keep up with demand and still struggle. And the students come in with so many issues not having to do with school and are expected to sit and learn for eight hours. We need to support and pay our educators what they deserve!!
It's definitely the high debt those teacher come with after college. The pay isn't enough for them to pay their debts while also trying to live their lives. They can't buy homes, cars, or have children. Now that I recall those years in High School I could see their stress but didn't connect it with low pay.
I've had the same experiences during the short time I taught. It's a sad state for education and I can't see it changing any time in the near future.
Why should Football players get paid more than teachers? It's ridiculous. Football players are not helping the nation they're just playing a game, but teachers have a huge impact on students lives!
Professional football players make money for their bosses (the team owners) in the production of products (tickets, television shows, and merchandise). If the money any player earns for their boss is greater than their salary (and pro football makes billions), it's a good business deal.
Teachers are payed by the taxpayers (most of whom have no idea what is going on in their schools nor how much it costs). Thus, they don't demand effective schools and they don't get them.
Supply and demand. You should go back to school and learn basic micro and macro economics. That will answer that incredibly ignorant question you just posed.
@@smks8er thank you one is making anyone become a teacher go back to school and become something with better pay
It's funny you people never talk about the TV executives, sportscasters/commentators, team/stadium owners, coaches, staff, etc. All of whom make millions. Whenever this comes up, it's only the players who get too much. So transparent
>Why should Football players get paid more than teachers?
because football players create more revenue. nobody buys sneakers because a teacher endorses them.
I am a teacher, and it is absolutely true about meetings. We now have at least two a week for various purposes. We have one every Tuesday for Professional Development, even though this takes away from the time we need to plan lessons. We have meetings on Wednesday and have to review data and fill out forms. Sometimes it is helpful to my teaching, but more often not. I had a meeting about a student on Thursday morning so was pulled out of class. This kind of stuff happens all the time, and yet our workload increases every year. It is literally an impossible job at this point because there is not enough time to fit in everything we're supposed to teach. However, it is a wonderful job when you can make it work. That is the stress of it. You have to constantly make it work, and it's just so difficult. We need more money, smaller class sizes, more planning time, and more support for kids.
Best comment. All 4 of your suggestions are critical to the problems.
Only teachers making $60K have been teachers for years. And I'm a teacher and I make $36K
The starting salary for NYC teachers is $60k. Where I went to high school in the Chicago suburbs, it was $65k minimum and I believe over a quarter were making $90k+
Matt Sezer You’re generalizing. I’m a retired teacher and live in Chicagoland. Not all teachers teach in wealthy school districts and make a great salary.
36k? Sshhyyyytttt im gone 🏁. Teach in brazil
I made $46k after 6 years in a rural district in North Texas. If I had gone to a nearby larger district I would have been making over $50k. I honestly didn’t want the hassles of working for a larger district.
@@nparksntx
Must be especially cheap colleges there to make such low pay. Let me look for my son & then he can get a good job in another city
It’s amazing when tax period is refused a simple $36 a year more other taxes to have better pay for teachers and better situations for their children. I always vote yes even for the programs for the elderly when it only cost me 30 For $40. Not a big deal. What it cost to go out to dinner to get a pizza. Not anywhere near what it cost to get a ticket to a sports game or professional sports game. People don’t put it in perspective
This is one of the big reasons why I am trying to get out of education. Along with increasing disrespect from students and me making less than a garbage man I'm getting out of it. Going to try Nurse Anesthesia
Saw this bit of wisdom somewhere recently: Aside from K-12 teaching, name another profession you usually need a Master's degree to enter, but no matter how many years you work in it you are assumed to be utterly unqualified to say anything about it.
Exactly!
The American dream is dead
Had I been that teacher who ran for office and a state Senator called me a liar to my face, I would not have reacted in as restrained a manner as this lady did. I would have had a few choice words for him and term limits would have been two of them.
I’m a teacher in Texas going on my 6th year now teaching 6th grade social studies, one thing this video fails to mention (though it makes a lot of valid points) is that when your curriculum is decided by the State you have to teach around their bias. I was told by my admin not to discuss politics or do debate of any kind in a world history class! I’ve had parents inform me that I have no business teaching their student about other religions (again it’s a world history class religion has an official metric fuckload to do with history and how cultures change and work). I’ve had parents and admin tell me that my subject is pointless because it’s boring and no one wants to learn it despite having students literally run to my class and tell me they love history and that they are researching things at home because we couldn’t cover it in depth enough in class. These are 12 year olds choosing to do their own learning because they know we can’t give them what they need.
The other thing is that school shootings are so common that districts in Texas at least now have dedicated response teams specifically designed to deal with the aftermath of them. I had to sit through an all day training that taught us where and how to meet up after one and we were told things like “ in an event like this just assume that you won’t be able to go home for at least 4-6 hours after the event because you’re going to help handle the parents, surviving students and press. We recommend having a bag ready in your room with water and snacks and other comfort items just in case.” And “ if you decide to confront the shooter, fully commit to whatever you’re going to do and the idea that you probably won’t survive but your kids will, and that’s what we as educators are about.”
We had a fire drill last week and I had kids talking about how they hate these drills because they’re scared a shooter will pull the fire alarm to get everyone to come out of class so they can have more targets.
The thing is our kids know we care and are trying, they also know the system is failing them.
I missed the drill this year due to a health emergency, but knowing that my school did a complete active shooter drill with police, fire, and SWAT is crazy to me, knowing every single child filed out of the building to practice holding their arms over their chest in a hug in case of an active shooter is heart breaking. I wanted to be a police officer at age 18 but my family discouraged me because of the danger. Now I work in education and my mother now texts me that schools are becoming just as dangerous and how she fears for me. It breaks my heart to see the evolution of the education system and it's increasing failings. I've thought about leaving multiple times, but I just can't do it yet..
Lindsay Holder, it sounds like your district workshop developers have not been properly trained. Heroes do exist, but insensitive trainers are more abundant. Research the statistics; despite the media reports, the risk of an intruder is quite low. Has your district made sure the doors are secure and easy to lock? Do your students have a safe corner or other space to use during a drill? I've explained these things to my elementary students here in Florida, so that the information will prevent unwarranted anxiety. They take lock-down drills seriously, they move quickly and quietly to the designated space, and some of them consider the practice interesting, even suggesting we have extra drills.
I am sorry for you. Texas! Sad!
😳
wow this is so emotional for me to watch- i'm just a childcare parapro but its crazy how teachers are underpaid.