The New Media Journal | Three Good Reasons to Become a Teacher: June, July & August by Nancy Salvato

"Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain, With the barkers and the colored balloons . . .”
– Neil Young

In the July 9, 2007 Issue of National Review is a short piece on "Workaholics”. In it, the author makes the argument that Americans are preoccupied, actually obsessed, with work. He comes to this conclusion based on a number of factors. First, he points out that any increase in leisure activities over the past four decades is due to electronic appliances making our lives easier. Secondly, people living in Italy, France, Germany, the UK, Canada and Japan can take advantage of 10-28 more vacation days than the average 14 allotted to Americans. Most remarkable is that, on average, Americans, don’t even take advantage of three of their vacation days.

Reading the aforementioned article, I couldn’t help but feel that the author, Kevin Hassett, could have explored this subject much further. Although interesting in and of itself, this tidbit of information was just the jumping off place for something more central in understanding what a cross section of Americans are willing to do to maintain a particular standard of living, forge a career, or keep a roof over their heads. Something else he doesn’t explore is the idea that there are people who do enjoy working, who find it fills a need in them to be doing something useful, perhaps for the betterment of society. But his most egregious omission is something that I, an education reformer, noticed straight away. What about teachers?

If I remember correctly, teachers are expected to put in around 188 days of teaching per school year. Let’s do the math. If there are 52 weeks in a year x 5 days a week, that comes to 260 potential working days for the average Joe, minus ALL 14 vacation days, to arrive at an obligatory 246 days of work. Let’s see. . ., 246 minus 188 equals 58 days more work expected of the average person than a teacher per calendar year. If a teacher works 20 years and retires, this adds up to 1160 days or a little more than 3 years worth of more leisure time available to them than the rest of the working population.

Let’s look at this situation another way. For the average Joe, this year’s Tax Freedom Day arrived on April 30^th, the day after people stopped handing over the sum total of their paychecks to the government and instead, the total sum of their paychecks went to pay themselves. A portion of these tax dollars paid teachers in our public schools salaries that rival most salaries in the corporate world, except maybe VP and Sr. VP level employees who could be considered on par with the principals and superintendents of our public schools, and who make more money than teachers. In addition, these teachers are eligible for generous retirement benefits through TRS and provided top notch health plans –with low co-pays, prescription drug plans, and low deductibles. The average Joe is forced to contribute to Social Security, which may or may not pay out in the long run. For additional monies, some companies offer 401Ks. Neither of these options comes even close to providing the type of return that teachers are guaranteed without the anxiety of possibly losing money on their investment.

While a teacher, I worked hard and put in many extra hours on professional development, writing lesson plans, and grading papers. Now, employed in private industry, I find myself working even harder and putting in longer hours. . .this in addition to the 58 days more I’m expected on the job than my former colleagues. The difference is that if I or my present colleagues don’t meet our benchmarks, because we don’t have tenure, and because there is no guarantee that we will make enough money for the company to justify our salaries, we will most certainly find ourselves without a means to make a living. You can bet this reality keeps us on our toes. I wonder why our nation’s schools are allowed to exist outside this reality, in a world where standards and benchmarks are vague enough to allow for broad interpretation, and whether effective or ineffective, teachers draw equal wages, for which the rest of the employed pay, not to mention their students.