[Sliver]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Lots wrong here. 70% pay is the maximum, but that's only achievable if you put in 35+ years of pensionable service or wait age 65 to retire. If you retire early or don't have enough years of service (often the case with people who sub for years or women who've gone on maternity leave during their career) you see a reduction in that number.

Well, obviously. If you don't work the minimum requirement, you don't get the maximum benefit of the pension. That's not unique to teaching or something that needs to be pointed out as a negative aspect of the profession. If I decide to stop contributing to my retirement savings or work an abbreviated career, I'll have less in retirement saving as well. That's just basic math.

Originally Posted by opendoor

And extended medical and dental coverage certainly isn't free. You're looking at another $400 or so a month for that once you hit 65.

But it is better for teachers and subsidized by the taxpayer (in the case of shortfall). If it wasn't good value for the money, they would opt out. But none do. Because you can't get something better in the private sector. That is, they pay less than the monetary value of the benefit.

Originally Posted by opendoor

And it's not like that's free money. Teachers have 13-14% of their gross salary deducted to fund the pension every year.

Again, the fact that teachers have to save for retirement isn't something unique to teaching. We all have to save for retirement. You don't need to point out that they are contributing to their pension. Of course they are!

Where they are in a relatively unique position (along with other public-sector employees, I'd imagine), is if the stock market tanks, the taxpayers will backfill the underfunded portion. They're paying into something and getting a guaranteed return regardless of how poorly their investments may do. If the stock market tanks and my investments evaporate when I'm 75, I'm screwed as are most other people. Teachers will just keep getting the exact same cheque auto deposited into their account regardless of what is happening in the world around them. Why do you want to spin any of these perks into something negative? They're fantastic and should be pointed out as such.

Originally Posted by Sainters7

Haha geez, what is with you and teachers man? I like ya but I really don't get the hate. That's like me saying no-one in O&G has ever seriously prepped for a big meeting before. Wat?

Hate? I think it's the best profession in Canada. I tell any young person to consider it as a career if it would be a good fit for their personality. At 38 years old, I look around at my friends and the ones with the best gig in life are the teachers. Very good pay. Worry free retirement and retirement planning. Great benefits. Recession proof. Never need to worry about layoffs. Unreal benefits. Absolutely, positively incredible and unrivaled holiday time both in quantity and quality. By quality I mean two things:

1. Best times of year off (summer, x-mas, etc.)

1. It's uninterrupted. Most professionals that are relied upon in a company may need to be disturbed while on vacation and always have work waiting for them when they return and need to work like mad to get ahead enough to be able to take time off. Teachers have none of that so their vacation time comes with a lot of peace of mind that others don't have.

Originally Posted by Sainters7

I'd say the average teacher, especially a newer one with no lesson plans to rely on, especially in a subject like SS and the need to be current, will spend around 4-5hrs when they get home, prepping for a couple different classes the next day, and marking. Plus probably on average around another hour emailing back and forth with helicopter parents. It's way more work than it probably appears to the average high school kid who knows everything about everything.

You're wrong. Teachers don't spend 4-5 hours preparing lesson plans. It's absurd to even think that. Do they have to put in extra hours beyond 5.5 hours of teaching in a day? Of course they do. But that's not unique to teaching. There is the requirement for extra hours in every professional job ever.

Originally Posted by GGG

Now that this thread is sufficiently derailed there is something that always bugged me about this prep time problem.

If so much time is spent on prep why isn't there pre-planned lessons that you just download from the internet. Why does every teacher try to re-invent the wheel when they start. If I were a school board I would have an archive of go-bys and pre-made plans that were developed over time to hand to every teacher for every subject.

It seems like poor management to have every teacher spend so many hours preparing lesson plans. And just from a quality standpoint you would rather have the best ones be used in the future rather than the average ones. You also want continuous improvement rather than each teacher facing the same problems over and over again.

People really want to downplay how great a job teaching is on CP, and I don't understand why. GGG, teachers do use pre-made lesson plans. They don't reinvent the wheel for every class, every time. Ignore this nonsense and talk to a real teacher that will give you honest answers. I hang out with a few regularly. They know they have the best gig ever. They laugh at all of us all summer long for having to work (good naturedly). And at Christmas. And at 3:17 when they're on their way home and all of us have another hour or two to go in our days. And they're looking forward to retiring earlier than most people with wonderful pensions.

I really hope my kids get into teaching. If there's a job with better benefits out there, I haven't seen it yet.