The Teaching Profession

Since there is a lot of upheaval with education systems around the United States, I decided that today I would list facts about the teaching profession.

• Teachers are WAY underpaid- in our profession, there is little benefit to getting more than a Bachelor's degree.  A Master's degree doesn't pay enough to warrant the extra costs involved in attaining the higher degree.  The only reason for a PhD is to be an administrator or to teach college.  Teaching is probably the lowest paid profession that requires a 4-year degree.  Engineers START at more than a teacher with 10 years tenure.
• Teachers work more than most other professions- sure, we get "vacations" throughout the year.  However, most evenings and weekends, we are grading papers, planning lessons and enhancing our classrooms with bulletin boards, decorations, examples of projects.
• Teachers are glorified babysitters- parents send their children to school to learn.  However, with the overcrowding that goes on in classrooms, along with the extreme varying ability levels within a classroom, not a lot of teaching is going on.
• Teachers wear many hats- we have to be teacher, parent, counselor, entertainer, among others.
• Teachers are forced to "teach to the test"- in several states teachers pay increases depend on your students' success on the state test.  This is not fair because some students do not have the ability to pass the test, no matter what you do to help them.  If the students do not pass the test, it reflects badly on you as the teacher, but sometimes, it is not possible for every student to pass.  Then, you do not receive a raise, although you taught for 180 days just like all the other teachers.

These are just a few things about teachers that a lot of people don't know and/or overlook.