And all the unpaid overtime they have to do grading/creating assignments and such.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Actually, everyone i know got better jobs going into trades then the people who went into university. Also, my mom went to university to become a nurse when she was young, but then quit to raise a family, and now that she wants to become a nurse again, she has to take schooling all over again. So, really school is not useful for anything in the future.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/opinion/01eggers.html?scp=2&sq=eggers&st=cse

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I believe that GOOD teachers should be paid larger salaries. It's not fair to the students that just because of a teachers union that mediocre teachers can't just be fired. Tip to anyone aspiring to be a teacher: Work at a private school. You'll have to work harder, but you'll also most likely get paid more.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Private school teachers suprisingly make much less. Since the school is private, it is not maintained by any local, state, or federal funds. All the money recieved in tuition, goes into the school.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yes, but they have incentives in the form of a less stressful work environment, exemption from standardized testing, and better resources. Pros and cons.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I agree with you completely, but when rent is due, rent is due.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Private school teachers might as well get paid in gum. They get paid very little (and then spend much class time complaining about how much more public school teachers are paid even though their test scores are lower, etc...)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

how does knowing the geography of russia help with ANYTHING in the real world?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Teachers should be paid more but bureaucrats who don't do anything shouldn't be paid very much at all. And teachers shouldn't be given tenure, if they screw up they should still be able to be punished.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Considering the public education I've received, they get paid plenty. I would go for incentive based pay. If you're a good teacher, you get paid more. If you're a bad teacher, you get fired. But no no no, the liberals won't allow that, because teachers are sacred.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well I think we need a better way to evaluate what makes a "good" and "bad" teacher. Standardized testing is stressful and not the best measure of teaching (in my opinion), and it forces many teachers who have potential to give it up. (This is what happened to my older brother)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I don't see another method that could work. If a teacher feels overly stressed by standardized testing, I fear they might not be the best teacher. I can't speak for all states, but in Texas, the standardized test is the easiest thing I've ever taken. I took 3 of them last week on separate days, and I finished them all before lunch (we're given all the time we need.)

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Standardized tests are easy as shit, but I would consider myself a fairly intelligent person. And I learned to read and do math really early on because my parents taught me and I went to public school in an upper class community with lots of taxes, i.e. a good school. A lot of worse inner-city schools have high turnovers for their jobs, because of the high-stress environments and bad pay. The teachers therefore are young and unexperienced. All teachers are better the more years they teach and the more they work on their lesson plans. Established and older teachers will go to better districts. What happened with my brother is that his first year of teaching he had a stand-out class that tested really well, and his classes after that could not score as high, even though his teaching improved. It was just by chance. Because of the school's policies though, he couldn't get a raise because his testing wasn't improving. So he left teaching.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You can't evaluate a teacher based on student performance.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Similarly to how you can't evaluate a car company's value based on their cars.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My point exactly!

by Anonymous 12 years ago

"but no no no, the liberals won't allow that" Speaking of generalizations, since you Conservatives are homophobic, we'll call it even Steven.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

(TeaBagger.): Ah, the joys of trolling. Unfortunately, you're an idiot. The mistake you made is confusing policy with personal attacks. I would not say it is a generalization to say Conservatives are against gay marriage, but to call them homophobic is completely different.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

No it isn't.... A generalization can be made with most statements on virtually any subject. To say that all Consevqtives are homophobic, that they hate/fear gays, is a generalization. Ahh idiocy... Assuming random things to be trolling..

by Anonymous 12 years ago

(TeaBagger.): Right. But to equate a common principle held in liberalism to a personal and baseless attack shows a great degree of stupidity.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

To be against homosexuality because it goes outside of normal and "moral reasons" isn't a conservative principle? Because being against something "out of the norm" isn't Conservative principle? Holy shit, you aren't just an idiot; you're a dumbass. Oh and "spending money on teachers" isn't just straight-up liberal priniciple. Especially if it comes to classic Liberals.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

(TeaBagger.): Once again, you display your arrogant stupidity. There is a difference in opposing gay marriage, and being "homophobic", which is to fear gays. America does not typically use the "classical Liberal" definition of liberal, so that is not who I am referring to. Why don't you get a real account if you are going to debate people?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I came here to say exactly what you said. My old Spanish II teacher who made us do bookwork while she checked her email every day should not be paid more and she certainly should not be paid the same as the other Spanish II teacher who actually teaches class in an informative and entertaining way.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Exactly. Pay the good teachers more, and fire the bad teachers, instead of making teachers invincible.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I mean they do have summers off...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

There's always summer-school.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You don't need to teach summer school if you're a teacher, and if you do you get payed extra

by Anonymous 12 years ago

They spend the first part of summer grading finals, and the rest of it creating lesson plans for the upcoming year.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Both my parents are teachers, and I can tell you they definitely have a lot of time off.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My teachers don't motivate me. I motivate myself. I'm not excited about writing essays; I do it to get the grade. I think that teachers should be paid more, but only if they're doing a good job.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Plus, elementary school teachers are pretty much free babysitters. Think about it; parents who work full time hire nannies/babysitters... until they start school. Then they have someone watching AND teaching their child for most of the day.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I bet this was written by a teacher...

by Anonymous 12 years ago

They have summer off, breaks off, and weekends off and get off at 4(ish)... People say they don't get paid enough but it is equal to someone who works all year all day and gets paid a little more... Plus they are protected by their union. The only problem is the layoffs, not the pay

by Anonymous 12 years ago

They only have to work 180 days a year. Weekends, breaks, and summers off. Not to mention healthcare benefits. My mom is a teacher, even though she doesn't get paid much, she has a really good schedule.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

So if I ace a test about World War II, and then go on to be CEO of a major banking firm, I should thank my history teacher for it?

by Anonymous 12 years ago