I am a retired teacher who now homeschools.
I have taught along side teachers who were amazing. They came early, stayed late, inspired, instructed, and illuminated.
I have taught along side teachers who were horrible. They came late, left early, yelled, bullied, or just ignored their students.
I have had administrations which were empowering, enjoyable, and excpeted results.
I have had an administrator who came up and Touched My Calf to see if I was "bare legged" or wearing stockings. (I was at a public school with a "no bare leg" policy. We were to wear trousers or stockings and skirts/dresses.) In other words, I have taught under some horrible administrators.
There are some teachers who need to be fired.
There are some teachers who deserve to be cannonized and made Patron Saints of Education.
There are administrations which deserve respect and awe.
There are administrations which foster frustration, failure, and fear.
As for myself, I spent hundreds of dollars out of pocket each year to add the Extras to my class I felt my kids deserved, but for which there was no budget. I came early, stayed late, tutored kids, wrote recommendations, called parents daily, coached, and poured out my heart and soul into my kids every year.
My students have gone on to do amazing things and I hear from them regularly. It always brings a smile to my face and deep joy to know that my life's work had such meaning and importance. I spoke yesterday to a young man I taught in middle school who is now applying to Medical School. He asked me to write one of his recommendations, since he was passionate about medicine even from that young age.
I have a Master's degree and worked at least 60 hours every single week during school, taught summer school, coached, and still made less money, by far, than my husband who has a bachelor's degree in the same field.
He became an engineer while I became a Math and Science teacher.
Frankly, most of the best and brightest, especially in tech areas, are no longer entering the profession of teaching.
I understand the need and/or desire to fire teachers who are just doing less than the minimum and picking up a paycheck. I also understand the need for paying the good teachers a wage that matches their skills, education level, experience, and results.
I made the same amount of money as the teacher next to me whose students did worksheets until the cows came home and whose students regularly scored lower, by fifteen or more points, than my student on the end of course exams, which were department wide exams.
In the end, this is a complicated issue not likely to resolve itself with blanket recriminations, personal attacks, whining, or complaining. . . . . on either side.
Hannarthy, please read this post again. It's written by someone who actually understands education.
I want to know what fantasyland you're living in, because I want a job there!
I don't make anywhere near $70,000 a year. I also don't get holidays "off." I get paid for 187 days of contracted work. I don't get a lunch break, because I am required to sit with my students during lunch. I do get a 30 minute planning period, but that is used to call parents, make copies, do paperwork, go to the restroom, etc.
Since I'm on salary, I don't get paid one penny for any extra time over eight hours that I put in each day. I can also guarantee you that there were many years when I did not get a pay raise due to lacking of funding. (And no, I didn't start my teaching career making $36,000 a year. I wish!)
All the teacher-bashers are in Fantasy Land! We had a shortage of teachers here for years, and now we certainly don't have an over-supply; that speaks to the desirability of the job and the pay. I could say a number of things similar to your statements:
I started at
less than 20K, and I have not had a payraise every year; we have a salary freeze in place right now.
Now I'm a little over 40K, but that's after almost two decades in the classroom. As you can see, I'm I'm
far from the national average of 52K.
This year we didn't get a bonus that we'd earned because of the economy; this is money were promised, and no one ever said a word about it being contingent on anything except our performance. We were also put into a weird furlough-day-but-you-can't-take-it position. I promise you that when Bev Purdue runs for governer again (if she's fool enough to try), the NC teachers will stand against her. She's even admitted already that she shouldn't have done everything she did. Too little, too late, Bev.
I am required to be at school 7:00 - 2:30 (plus time at home preparing for lessons, grading, etc.). Although I never come even a minute early in the morning, about half the time I am at school 'til 3:30-4:00; most younger teachers -- those who don't have a supply of ready-to-go-lessons like I do -- spend much more time working past 2:30.
Yes, we have good pensions, but our insurance deductibles have doubled in the past few years, and our premiums have more than doubled.
I am not paid for summer vacation.
Most weeks I have 26 minutes per day for lunch; one week out of six weeks I get no lunch (though I am allowed to eat standing up in the cafeteria while supervising stuents).
I am required to tutor students after school without pay.
I am required to spend a certain amount of time sponsoring clubs, chaperoning social events and sporting events without pay.
I spend quite a bit of money on items for my classroom, and every year we end up chipping in for things like kids who can't afford clothing for graduation.
I like my job and don't want any other job, but I do think I'm under-paid for the amount of time and effort I put in. Without a doubt, though, the single thing
I dislike most about it is people who feel the need to put down teachers -- even though their facts are inevitably wrong.
). If you planned well enough, you could use a minute or two to run to the bathroom if a teammate was willing to watch your kids! At another school I taught at, we did not have enough room in the cafeteria, so half of the teachers had to eat lunch with their students in their classrooms after picking up their food from the cafeteria. 
People take home work, work on weekends, all the time in many different jobs, and not all are high paying. Example, law is a field people often think is well-paying. Outside top firms in NY and other big cities, and for graduates of less than top schools, it is often not that great.
