What I think a lot of people are also ignoring is the fact that teachers is a profession made up of primarily women, and while I don't have the percentages in front of me, I would estimate that they are 75%+ of all teachers are women. I think most everyone would agree that in our society the traditional household responsibilities of cleaning, childcare, and cooking still fall in large part to the female heads of household. So the teacher not only has a large amount of labours associated with their job but also unpaid labour that isn't accounted for using these surveys.
Teachers have a very stressful job, one which is more political than most professions, and has a great deal of responsibilities. There are benefits, they are paid well, they do have good vacation times, and pension plans as noted in this thread. I think that people do need to realize that education isn't cheap, and for a well educated population (beneficial to the economy) there is an investment required.
To say that one job is difficult doesn't necessarily need to disparage another.
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