88 posted this in the gun control thread, and I didn't want to derail that lively discussion, but this is a subject that I've become all too familiar with over the past year or so.88 wrote:You are kidding, right? My wife is a teacher. Her benefits are worth at least $20K per year alone. And her salary after five years exceeded $40K. Not particularly bad for 182 work days per year.MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan wrote:The saddest part is, at 40k/year he'd still be making more than the teachers he's ostensibly protecting.
In direct response to 88's post, no I was not kidding, and I really hope you were joking with your response, especially that 182 workdays part. Maybe the teaching profession is drastically different up there in Ohio, but here in Arizona, teachers have to grade papers, plan lessons and attend a seemingly endless parade of meetings, committees, parent-teacher conferences, training sessions, webinars (god, I hate that word) and, my personal favorite, "team-building exercises."
I know this because I was a teacher. I started in August, and I lasted a whopping two months. I was putting in probably 14-18 hours a day, six days a week. In an effort to preserve my sanity, I forced myself to just take Saturdays to relax and try to enjoy some college football (although the Buffs kind of fucked up that plan), but even on those Saturdays, I still had this tremendous feeling of guilt that I should be doing some teaching-related stuff in order to not fall further behind. The other six days, I was doing teaching/school-related shit from the time my alarm went off at 5:20 a.m. until the time I went to bed around 10 or 11. Then I'd go to bed and fucking dream about the shit.
My salary was $35,500 (I got the extra $500 for having a masters degree. Heh.) It took me all of six weeks to realize that it wasn't worth it. I don't doubt that the job gets easier after a couple years and that the pay gradually increases, but the fact remains that about 50% of teachers quit within their first two years of starting the job. Considering I hated it after only a month and a half, I wasn't willing to sacrifice two full years of my life on what essentially amounts to a coin flip that it might eventually become tolerable, manageable even.
I've never had a job bring me to tears before, but I had a full-on breakdown just two weeks into my teaching "career" (not in front of the kids, thankfully). I was just sitting alone in my room at home after another grueling day, trying to figure out how I was ever going to get caught up with everything, and I just flat-out lost it. Sat there and cried like a girl for about 45 minutes. I eventually composed myself and decided to suck it up and keep plowing ahead, but things continued to get harder. It seemed like every time I checked one item off of one of my to-do lists, I would add two or three more. I was genuinely starting to fear for my sanity, so I put in my notice. Told them I'd stay as long as they needed to find a suitable replacement, but I wanted my life back.
So yeah, needless to say, I have an even greater respect for teachers after this experience. It's not like I thought teachers were underworked and overpaid heading into it, but I admit that I did kind of fall for 88's little 182 workdays fallacy. From the outside, it seems like an almost cushy schedule - Monday through Friday, every holiday off, a week in the spring, a week in the fall, two weeks for Christmas and two months in the summer. As it turns out, those aren't days off from work, just days off from teaching. And unfortunately, teaching only comprises about 30-40% of a teacher's actual workload.
Anyway, I could write a whole lot more (and I might actually try to pitch an article on it at some point), but I've probably given you fucksticks plenty of ammo already. So what are your thoughts on teaching? Anybody else actually tried it? How did it work out for you?
