Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
You really don't have any idea what you are talking about. There is a massive difference in workload between elementary, middle school and high school and there is no process in place to assure equal workload between teachers in any one school. I'm glad that your friends have it easy somehow, but the majority at the higher levels of education don't.
As for the 'hassle free' vacation. If you actually do the math, between after school programs, coaching, counseling, preparing classes and marking, there is an expectation by school administration that there would be 3 hours of additional work 5 days a week, which more than balances out the 'vacation' during the summer. During this vacation, there is also an expectation that the teacher will prepare a new class plan based on the yearly changes to policy and curriculum.
Because of the changes to the education system in the last 3-4 years the work that a teacher has to do outside of scheduled hours has nearly doubled for some teachers, because (partially) to unbalanced workloads within schools, increasing class sizes and unsustainable policy.
This doesn't take into consideration coded students, disabilities, English as a second language, classes blended through multiple grades, zero fail, multiple rewrites or entitled students and parents. All thrown into each class. And this get worse for new teachers, who are given the hardest classes to teach versus those with seniority, and are basically thrown into the fire.
Every year the teaching profession gets less and less desirable to work in Alberta.
No, I'm not a teacher.
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And the starting salary for teachers is what, 63K a year or something like that right? Much higher than most degrees pay straight out of University. Not to mention an outrageous pension plan and unmatched job security.
You just said that the hours balance out. I'd GLADLY 100% work 3 extra hours a day for a guaranteed 2 Weeks off during Christmas break, 1 week off during spring, 2 MONTHS off during the summer with additional time sprinkled in there and the freedom to call in a sub whenever you need too. Even if I had to do some light work during that time that is still incredible. Not only are those the most in demand and most difficult times to book off and the hardest time to deal with as a parent who normally has to work and figure out what to do with their kids, but it's also faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar more vacation time then you could ever expect in the private sector, even if you worked for the same company for +20 years.
What do you expect here? You want them to be on some pedastool removed from the volitilaty of the economy? Whats your end game here? What do you believe is fair compensation?
Also, teaching is a very different profession by nature and only completely clueless people get into teaching without knowing what they're getting in to. All of your complaints have been common knowledge to the public for years. Teachers threatened to go on strike three times in my twelve years of grade school and actually did once. 40% attrition probably has a lot to do with people thinking they love kids and realizing how wrong they were.
There are far worse jobs that pay much less with far fewer perks.