When speaking with other educators the issue of salary invariably is discussed. Teachers in Florida do not make much money. I have a Masters degree and with ten years experience I make around $42,000 having started at $36,000. If you do the math you might think that I have received an impressive raise in salary. The $3,000 increase was due to achieving my Masters degree; the rest is ten years of seniority.
So what is the other topic teachers discuss? Respect. Teachers basically want to be allowed to teach. We can’t afford to live. But why won’t anyone allow us to teach? With all the pressure and micro-managing teachers are under they rarely really have the ability to do what they were trained and really want to do, which is teach. Teachers end up being scared robo-educators lacking creativity due to the rigidness that is forced upon them.
This teacher just smiles when she hears an administrator remind their subordinate teachers they too were teachers just before they are going to act like administrators. In my safe insides I know why they are no longer teachers and have chosen the path of administration instead. It’s harder to be a teacher than it is to be an administrator and the pay is just so much better.
If only the politicians knew how much more they would get from teachers if they would only respect them a little more.
No comments:
Post a Comment