I Am Not A Babysitter

I am just getting my teaching credential, and it was hard for me psychologically to even get this far based on the negative perceptions about teachers and my parents telling me, "You should have just gone to a local school if you want to WASTE your education doing that." My sister encouraged me to go to law school, to earn more respect. Sometimes, I can see it in the look of surprise after having an intelligent conversation with a stranger, and telling them my chosen profession. Why is it such a big surprise? Every teacher I have met is intelligent and passionate about her work, and works long hours to ensure her students get the best. I cannot help but compare it to the amount of respect I got from people for being an editorial assistant in a fashion magazine, a career of little consequence to society. I, too, would never want to anything but an educator. Thank you, Heather Robinson, for the eloquent manner in which you expressed this idea. =)

I teach high school sciences (physics, anatomy, biology 1 and 2, chemistry, and integrated sceicne) at a rural school in Missouri. Two of these courses I teach for dual credit. I spend a lot of my time rigging up equipment and trying to find shortcuts and least expensive routes to teach my students. If I had the supplies I need to teach the students, I wouldn't mind the lower salary that I receive. Yes, I have a master's degree in biology and have been located in this community for over 30 years since I married into a farm family. My facilities are grossly inadequate but I "manage." Administrators come and go as do school board members and rarely, if ever, have I heard "thanks" for doing all you can with the situation we have here. Or, better yet, we would like to give you a stipend or other compensation for the extra time you put in to do all of these "extras" so the kids can have some lab experience before they go out into the college world. If AIG receives a bailout, why not "bailout" he teachers across America who are preparing the students who will be the leaders in years to come. Maybe, just maybe, we could change America one student at a time. Maybe it would lower the crime rate. Maybe the economy would change on its own. Maybe the CEO's should go back to kindergarten and start over and learn to share.

This article came across my email one day after my father said to me, "Why are you wasting your college education on being a teacher?" Needless to say, thank you for the validation that we're just as capable and contributing as any other career professional.

As a school administrator, my perspective if that this lady wrote about the overall misperception that teachers are less-than capable or intelligent than professionals in other careers. She's written about the huge assumptions people make about teaching, and provided examples of the extra work that goes along with many typical weeks in the classroom. Stop taking each word so literally; big picture, people. I have to be honest, too, it wasn't until I became a school principal that I felt I received respect from professionals in other fields....Sad, but true, and it validates what this article and so many of my own building teachers say.

Excellent article. Unfortunately and sadly, I've read the same thing over and over again from the time I started teaching in 1968 and forward! Isn't it a shame that things are still the same???

Kudos to those who stick to it because they love it and care about the children ...but shame on those who do not understand how far we have come and how little we have gained!!

PS, I agree with Obamaalltheway...the teachers cutting out at 3 o'clock (and not taking home any work, on any day) are normally the ones that give us reputations for being simplistic and in the profession for holidays and July off. We all know teachers who refuse to do any work outside of school hours and dare I say we've also seen the results of their lessons in lower student performance. This ain't no Leave it to Beaver generation in 2008, people. It takes more than just showing up with cookie-cutter lessons and splitting at the last bell every afternoon.

Haus, if you just worry about paying the bills and could care less about respect, get another job. You're clearly in the wrong profession.

I teach in urban LA and am the single parent of twin, four year old girls. I drop my daughters off at daycare around 7, am at work by 7:30, pick the girls up around 5, do dinner and the home routine with them, and then tend to any needed grading or lesson planning once I put them to sleep. If there is an after school event that I need to tend to I take the girls with me. Teachers are often pressured/asked to attend after school events, meetings, games, etc. In schools like ours, teachers may be the only people in the stands supporting the kids. It's not like that every night, but the extra hours are required to really put my best foot forward. And I'm a ten year teacher - not a newbie so it's not a matter of working inefficiently. It's a tough routine, but both roles, parent and teacher are highly rewarding. I could easily find another job that pays me more, requires fewer hours, and delivers more professional respect for me. BUT, I'm doing what I love and don't hate going into work each day like many of my friends working in corporate jobs. And I don't feel frustrated at the end of the day like some of those same people. It's true that you can be a strictly 8-3 teacher and only work within those hours, but most educators would agree that those teachers aren't contributing their best. And if there's any job that requires our best it's education. Would you want your banker cutting corners with your accounts to get out of the office by a certain time? Would you want your doctor slipping out of the office when your charts are still to be reviewed? This article didn't say a thing about higher pay (By the way, Haus, if you're working just to pay the bills - get a different job, we don't need your kind in education), just that teachers aren't less capable or talented than other professionals and the low pay doesn't deter the most dedicated.

Exactly, Haus totally missed the point. One of the earlier comments made good use of what the writer says: it's somehow deemed a less 'smart' job, less challenging, and less demanding than jobs in other professions. If your friends or family are questioning your 'waste' of talents on a 'low skill' job like teaching, they need to follow you around school for a day. Walk a mile in our shoes before you judge our 'intelligence'.

Haus, if teachers like these that you mention are willing to work 'for nothing' (you probably should examine your motives for being in the profession if you think we receive 'nothing') and cause us to lack respect from other professionals, then let's just turn the entire education system into a business so we can all profit and ignore the intrinsic rewards that MOST of us are working for.

I think many people reading this article are missing the point. She's not saying anything about teacher pay - she even refers to NOT asking for more pay because teachers do what they do because of the passion. She IS saying that the profession typically receives about as much respect as an hourly babysitter's job. And like the woman said, respect is free.

It saddens me to read articles like this one. I do agree with a few things she says - I am not a baby sitter, for instance. However, I wouldn't mind getting paid like a baby sitter (2 dollars an hour per child would almost double my paycheck!) I've been a teacher for 12 years and have a masters - I am too embarrassed to tell many how much I make. Also, I take offense to the "salty teacher" who says you have to take work home and do it until 8 or 9 or you aren't doing your job correctly. Does this woman have a family at all? I refuse to work all weekend when I have the most important children (my own!) who need my attention. I would tell the teacher working 70 hours a week to get a life and work smarter, not harder. I've become very efficient throughout the years and take great pride in that.
Respect doesn't pay the bills. It is teachers like these - willing to work for nothing - that keeps us from getting the respect and pay we deserve.

Absolutely on target -- thanks for writing this article. The best that a concerned community of administrators, parents, public, and policymakers can do for us is to reduce administrative routines and excessive oversight and let us do our jobs following our own professional ethic. The idea is to serve the kids, not various adult agendas. With regard to the way we are perceived, I think most adults in other professions form perceptions of teachers based largely on their own experiences as learner or as a parent...but have never learned what it is like to actual be a teacher in a modern classroom. So, naturally, we are relegated to a domain of preconceived notions. Ours wouldn't be the only profession like this -- oddly, it seems like those who serve the public are often seen as the least viable professionals. Maybe the restructuring of the economy and a focus on the equity we have in our educational resources will help defeat the notions that we are underemployed college graduates who could do better.

THANK YOU so much for writing this. I am a teacher of (gasp) 10 years now! I am constantly trying to preach this message. Thank goodness we do it for a higher calling, because if it depended on the respect or recognition we received, no one would teach.

I was completely disheartened when someone very close to me asked me why I as "The smart one in the family" didn't consider trying something more - what did he say - well, I can't recall the exact words, but the message was basically, "You're so capable, why aren't you doing something more than JUST teaching." I can't believe the professional world is so unaware of how difficult, demanding, and important our work is! I would challenge any one of them to prepare 7 presentations a day, complete with visuals, handouts, and creative activities; answer to the bosses of the personnel to whom they are presenting, and be paid very little for it.

Adam, the 'award winning teacher,' is out of touch with reality and is a disgrace to the profession.

Although I am not an educator, my 28 year old daughter is...I cannot tell you how many nights I have called her at 7, 8 or 9 p.m. to find her still at school working on one thing or another....I cannot tell you how many tears I have witnessed her shedding over a child in difficult circumstances, an idea she is trying to execute on behalf of her kids, a co-worker with whom she is trying to build a cohesive relationship, or sheer stress and exhaustion. So Adam in Tempe finds himself with a cushy gig! How lovely for him! But, he reminds me of the Navy recruiter talking about world travel and private suites on board ships to high school seniors! What he describes is NOT what I see as my daughter's reality or that of my other children's teachers! Good teachers work hard...and while any fool can see they don't do it for the money...they most certainly DO deserve compensation comensurate with their education and efforts.

Yoda,
I am sincerely disgusted at the fact that you took this much time to write such a response to this article. If you had any knowledge of teaching at the primary level, it is not as easy to reuse "tests, quizzes, and assignments"--and is that even challenging your students? I work an average of 9-12 hours a day while I have a family at home, and am completing my Master's (which is not a waste of my time, and if teachers feel that higher education is pointless they are providing a wonderful example for our future generations)--and this is because I am inefficient? I'm jealous of your wonderful salary, because I am supporting three people on $33,000 a year, paying $1000 a month for health care, so after taxes I bring home almost $1400 a month; hardly "excellent." I have never posted comments about anything I have ever read, but your ignorance has helped inspire me to say something for all of the good teachers out there. The point of this article was not to complain, but to demand respect as teachers. Obviously, this was completely lost on you, a fellow teacher. Lucas is right: PLEASE retire because you are giving the rest of us a very bad name.

I sincerely cannot believe someone with 18 years of education experience has the audacity to print such an outrageous response; let alone take the time to give us "specifics." Obviously, if you have any knowledge of teaching at the primary level, it is not as easy as using the same "tests, quizzes and assignments"--and is this challenging for your students? I spend 9-12 hours a day at school working while I have a family at home and you think that this is because I am inefficient? What kind of point are you trying to prove here? I make $33,000 a year, support myself and two other people, pay $1000 a month for health benefits...should I go on? The point of this article was NOT to complain about these issues, but to demand respect for the hard work we do--which was completely lost on you; a fellow teacher.