Consolidating Some Thoughts about Teaching

I want to start off by saying that I truly and utterly LOVE my job.  However, nothing is without its flaws.  Some of this, I’m sure you have seen before; some you may have not.  But I want to make some things clear.  

What do we as teachers actually do?

As teachers, we put in hours each day planning lessons. No, that does not mean “just tossing some stuff together and handing out worksheets.” That means finding sources, critically examining what we want our students to get out of what we are doing, and making it meaningful to them. It means writing specific, detailed plans and notes. It means trying to make difficult information easy for students to grasp. To you, this might seem easy.  However, the truth is that it takes literal hours. While it does get easier after the first few years, it never takes less time.  Different classes require different kinds of activities and explanations.  Even if you are teaching the same class twice, you might need to do so in two completely different ways. After all of that prep, we arrive at school.  Our school starts at 8, so we are expected to be there by 7:30, although we are technically only paid for the time from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM.  However, many teachers come early to help students or give them time to retake quizzes or have professional meetings, such as with their own team of teachers who all teach the same subject. Teachers use that time to make copies for their classes, often waiting in lines because there are so few copiers in the building and heaven help you if one isn’t working!  

With copies having been made, students helped, and meetings had, we then spend 7 hours teaching.  Remember, this is not, “Do the worksheet.” This is active stuff, carefully prepared so that students actually get something out of it.  It’s discussions and debates, assisting each student if they are doing individual work, or executing an activity that will help your whole class understand the Future Tense.  We are supposed to have 1.5 hours of “planning time” per day.  However, this time is often taken up with meetings, or other administrative demands, such as data logging, IEP paperwork, answering emails, phone calls, or other duties, such that most of us are honestly lucky to get time to use the restroom.  

At the end of the day, do you think we just leave?  Nope!  We spend hours after school providing extra help to students, giving them time to retake assessments, and being there as club sponsors, something for which we do not get paid.  Yet, we do it.  Because all of this time supporting our students is worth the lasting relationships we build with them.  It’s why we go to their athletic events and their concerts.  It’s why we make sure we arrive early and stay late.  We LOVE our students and we love what we do.  

What does our salary get us?

I’m going to be honest. No one has ever taught for the money.  With that said, however, it is nigh impossible to live in Fairfax County on the salary of an 8-year teacher with a Master’s Degree, especially if you are single. Does that look like a lot of money?  It’s ok to say yes. But start looking around.  Rent will literally eat half your paycheck.  You can choose to live farther away, but it isn’t necessarily cheaper, and then you pay for gas. It doesn’t even out.  There is not a way to make it work easily.  Many, but not all, other surrounding counties have higher pay scales, which make it remotely viable for their teachers to live in them. Many teachers I know have had to take out personal loans so that they can make it and most of the ones I know live paycheck to paycheck, making it impossible for them to save money.  

As teachers, we are expected to “Dress Professionally.”  I want to unpack this for a minute.  Clothes cost money.  Good, nice, “professional” clothes cost even more money, especially for female teachers.  Female teachers especially have lots of eyes peering at them and how they dress.  There are many more requirements made by society on what they can and can’t wear.  This needs to be taken into account. I am not asking in any way that female teachers be paid more.  That’s ridiculous.  However, I am asking that the costs of food and housing and clothing and gas and child care/pet care be factored into these decisions. I also ask that people THINK for just a second about what we say about teachers. "They only work for 9 months and get the summers off." Did you ever think that we only get paid for 9 months too?

My mom is a lawyer.  She made what I make now when she was just starting out.  Ok, I’ll be fair.  She had to go to school for longer. And pass a really hard exam.  But wait...the requirements to become a teacher, are also quite stringent. And it is state-mandated that we do continuing education at our own expense.  “But doctors save lives.”  So do teachers.  We listen, we help, we coach. I have had several students tell me with and without tears but always sincerely that they would not have made it through high school without me. We are literally educating our country’s future.  Yeah yeah, you’ve heard it.  But I’m asking you to stop for a second and actually think about it. What does that actually mean?

Why the “well why don’t you….”s don't work.

“Just get a roommate”

This one simply isn't always an option. It also doesn’t necessarily cut costs.  More people need more space.  More space is more expensive.  

“Get another job”

Teaching is NOT a part time job.  We can’t plan effectively or get anything done that we need to do with another job.  One simply cannot be a truly effective teacher with another job, even one on weekends.  We are human too.  We have families.  We need time for ourselves, so that we can recharge and be good teachers.  It is downright unfair to ask this of us.  

Oh and Families….

I’m not even going to get started on what it means to be a parent and a teacher  I have had so many people try to tell me how we should be saving money for college or even feeding our families. Simply put, if the other parent gets laid off, our salaries are not livable.  If you are a single mom, you are in even more dire straits.  But we’ll save that for another time.

I do not write this to complain.  I write to inform.  I really do want people to think critically about what they say to teachers or how they support teachers.  We don’t want your “thoughts,” “prayers,” or “blessings.”  We need funds and supplies to make our work possible.  If you want educated students, perhaps paying a bit more for a meal to support education in the county might not be too much to ask.  With that said, it would behoove the county to truly put their money where their mouth is.  I will close this with a quote from one of my own students, a Sophomore at the time they wrote this.  Reflecting on education in our County and our Country, they said, “"You (the county) preach that the educations and futures of the students are at the heart of your ideals. Then how are you considering cutting jobs in the schools which will most directly affect the teachers and their families, whose children are probably going to school at the school you just cut their guardian from, but the colleagues as well, who have lost a set of hands and eyes with which to double check projects and work. You talk about cutting electives, throwing around the future of the things most students drag themselves out of the house in the morning simply to come to school to play an instrument or to cook or to practice medicine or to learn how to use computers more efficiently. You toss it around as if it is some toy with which you have become bored. But you don't realize that this is what keeps the system alive. Electives teachers far outnumber most other teachers in the school. Do you know why? Because math, history, science, and English are not the only facets of the world in which we live. Cutting electives will not make things better. Not wasting money on superfluous things like new couches for a rec center and instead using it to bolster the education system will actually solve the problems we have, instead of just putting them off for another generation to handle."