Originally Posted by WinnipegFan
As a teacher I have faced many of the discussions that are coming up in this thread. I agree with many of the criticisms we face and I agree that the ATA is acting in a political fashion right now. I have never seen such a bombardment of ATA commercials on TV in my life. I also started a thread on this forum stating that I, for one, and many of my colleagues do not want more money. In fact I will come forward and say we are very well compensated for the work we do. Is it challenging, yes, is it more challenging than any other job, no. I do fall in the camp of teachers who have had a number of professions throughout my life and to that end I can put it into perspective. I have worked in factories, managed restaurants, been a bartender, worked construction, written standard manuals with engineers, worked in chemical labs, made sandwiches, and even at one point I pumped gas as a teen. When I started teaching it was the first time in my life I ever had one job and the transition was interesting.
I found myself surrounded by people who, as many of you have stated, never left the education system. At times this is frustrating as many of them live in a bit of an ideological cloud that lacks reality. The current trend in education is to try and reflect this reality in our practice and it is, in my opinion, a positive trend. However, when this comes at the cost of academic soundness it is a challenge.
I don't want to derail this into a discussion in regards to education pedagogy so I will stick to the do teachers "work hard" thread title. Yes we work hard, but not as hard as when I hauled cement on a work site. Is it tiring to manage children, yep, but not as tiring as when I had to run a restaurant. Are class sizes too large, absolutely, and this should be the ATAs only goal in this negotiation.
If you want to drill down into any profession you will find they all are facing challenges. I am married to a stock trader/banker and I could not last one day in her job. As far as I can tell the trading desk is a foreign battle field where I would literally be fodder. However, could she do my job, probably not she'd have a line up of kids crying in the office in mere minutes. To compare the two in any way is a waste of time. Is she better compensated than I am, absolutely, but she earns every penny. Does she also think my job is hard, sure, because she could never have the patience to teach little Jimmy over and over how 2+2 = 4 until he gets it.
The key, I think, is we both LOVE what we do. I knew what I was getting into and she knew what she was getting into. So comparing how hard each of us works versus the other is redundant. We do need to focus on how the education dollars we currently have are being spent. We need to evaluate those who make the big decisions in education and hold them accountable. Targeting the front line teachers is pointless, we have little power or say over what is happening. It is the same as yelling at your meter reader about your high utility bill while he really is just doing the best he can to run to the increased number of houses he has to get to in order to meet his quota.
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